Problem Upgrade

Fatal exception errors are codes that are returned by a program in the following cases:

Access to an illegal instruction has been encountered.

Invalid data or code has been accessed.

The privilege level of an operation is invalid.

So yes, I'd say that it is common to reload the operating system after replacing the motherboard. It's not always the case, but I've seen it more than not. The reason is that the motherboard contains scores of devices for which drivers and files are needed to properly operate. When replacing hardware, Windows will "detect" that new device and attempt to find the drivers for it. With a motherboard, the new devices are so numerous that Windows simply dies.

Regards,

Maxwell

The way Windows deals with hardware, I prefer to do a clean install of the OS whenever posable.

You can reduce the problems and inprove the chances of sucess however.

Before you remove the old MB, do 2 things to clean up the system.
1. In add/remove programs, remove any listed software that is hardware specific.
2. In device manager, remove all hardware.
Then shut down the system and perform the upgrade.

Drastic, yes. But, Windows will not attempt to install drivers for hardware that isn't there. As a benefit, you will get a cleaner install of the drivers for the new hardware.

A BSOD usually happens when Windows gets lost, and can't find it's way back.

Removeing old hardware from device manager before installing new, is a good general practice.