If the only thing that you are going to do is change out the 
motherboard, then it is entirely possible that you will not have to get 
a new copy of Windows.  You might not even have to reactivate.  You just 
give it a try and see what happens.  I am sure that I swapped out a mb 
on my wife's computer.  I don't recall if I had to reactivate or not, 
but it was not a big deal.

The "word" is that MS has a point count for all the major components of 
a computer.  If you change one, then it is so many points.  Don't know 
how many points a motherboard is compared to the MS criteria, but  I 
think that if - after swapping the mb - you talk to a MS rep and explain 
that you had a custom built with an inadequate motherboard that you 
swapped out, the rep should approve the "new" system.  If you swapped 
out mb, cpu, and memory, it might be another story, since that is really 
a new computer for all practical purposes.  (If you had the full retail 
version, you should be able to swap out everything, but you might have 
to convince a MS rep that it is not a second installation.)  From the 
stories that I have observed from PCBUILD posters, MS seems pretty 
reasonable in this regard.

I hope that this clarifies the matter and the concerns that you 
expressed in your first post.

Dean Kukral


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ron Harris" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2007 6:51 PM
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] New MOBO Installation


I apologize for the lack of information. It is a custom built PC, right
now I have a biostar 945P-A7A V8.X MOBO. Also its an OEM version of 
Windows XP
Home(Got it from Newegg). Since I only have 1 IDE slot and 1 PCI
Express x 16 Slot this is the main reason for wanting an upgrade so I
can run 2 graphics cards and more than 2 drives, which my case can
easily hold since I have a full sized Apevia X-Navigator. Also I
overclock my P4 3.4ghz chip to the MOBO's near max potential of 3.8ghz
which doesn't leave much to toy with.



Date:    Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:45:35 -0600
From:    "Dean K. Kukral" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: New MOBO Installation

Ron, you  haven't told us much.  You haven't told us what version of
Windows you are using, which is very important.  Nor, anything about
 the computer.

<snip>

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ron Harris" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, December 26, 2007 7:25 PM
Subject: [PCBUILD] New MOBO Installation


Hello I've been recently looking to upgrade my motherboard to something

a little more up beat, with a new MOBO I know I'll have to reinstall
windows but do I have to buy a new copy or will my old one work? I've
heard of calling Microsoft and they issue a new one from some people
 but
that doesn't seem logical to me on their part.

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