Simple upgrade turns into nightmare

My grandparent's computer got a little warm (cpu @80C) and became unstable even after the dust was removed, so I thought I'd upgrade to a phenom 550BE. The first off, the mobo didn't flash right and is now dead. So I ordered a new board, which means new ram too. Because of the hardware changes, windows XP needs reactivated, but it won't connect to the servers and the phone # is disconnected. I have been all over Microsoft's website and came up with nothing. Also, the bios loading time is slow, especially the usb controller. I have a slightly different model board by Asus and it doesn't take near that long.

To make a long story short, what advise does anyone have for:

A. How to reactivate windows (XP OEM version)
B. Speed up boot times

Phenom II 550BE
Asus M4A88T-V EVO/USB3
Kingston 4GB DDR3 1333

You DL new Mobo drivers? And by phone? Ack, gonna be a long long day, buy thanks for taking care of the folks.

Mebbe the classic, if it works, don't touch it scenario.

Maybe a cheapo Dell would work, sell the new parts at a minor loss.

WillD10 said:

became unstable even after the dust was removed, so I thought I'd upgrade to a phenom 550BE. The first off, the mobo didn't flash right and is now dead.

Click to expand...

Looks like bad caps may have struck again!

I would go here: http://badcaps.net

And see if it's worth reviving.

Welcome to the Forum! http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=491697
Can you access the internet?
If not, did you install the drivers that came with the motherboard?
Did you re-install the os or just change out the mb/ram with the os on the hdd?
I'm not quite understanding how the phone # to microsoft's activation is disconnected.. It's the 800 number right? Or are they not supporting XP anymore?

I recently had to reactivate my windows xp and it worked...

Sorry if I wasn't clear enough. I built the original comp a few years ago, and left the stock heat sink on a phenom 9850. It collected dust, pushing idle temps to 80C. The mobo (Asus M3A78) is OK. I got the bios to reload after doing some research, and no it does not have blown capacitors, and yes I have seen them before. I do have doubts about the voltage regulators. They are small and have no heat sink, and a couple have some discolored edges, but the board still functions. At least I'm putting a lower draw processor in, but they might be the cause of the stability issues.

About the Activation problem, I think it should go away when I put the old board back in. I connected a new board, processor, and ram to the original HDD without reloading Windows. I installed all the correct drivers, including the NIC and got online, but the activation software could not find the server and the 888 # was disconnected. The only online support I could find was a Microsoft forum. I did hear in the past year that XP support will be phased out.

I will have to visit them again this week to do some more playing, but any functioning leftover parts combined with my stash of junk will build me a new desktop.