Motherboard replacement

[snow-ice-mn]

I am working on a friends computer, a dell E521. It does not post or offer any beeps. I checked out the power supply, everything is good including the grey signal wire(4.82 VDC). I can find a replacement board online. I usually build new computers from scratch, when I did an upgrade to one of my computers with a newer board, I had to reinstall the OS. I would like to use the same model board on this one to avoid dealing with reinstalling the OS. If I do get the same board, can I just drop in a new board ? Thanks for your help, again

[Midknyte]

If you get the same board, you should be able to pop it in without a reinstall.

[snow-ice-mn]

Thanks for confirming. I got a long number off the MB, CN-OCT103-70821-6A5-E1PZ. I searched the internet and found what is called compatible MB's. I see that OCT103, HK980 and UW457 are called compatible. Dell's website calls out UW457 and after 1 hour on the phone, the second rep I talked to confirmed UW457 by using the service tag. Do you think a compatible MB ( OCT103, HK980 and UW457) will still be a drop in? Or do I need to to find the UW457? Thanks again.

[Midknyte]

As long as they are the same chipset, it's usually ok. I don't work for Dell, so I don't know what the differences between the models are. However, Dell is known for changing the configurations of their systems while using the same case.

[Steve R Jones]

Order the mobo by the PC Model number

Then the pressure to preform falls on Dell.