I recently replaced the MB on a computer for a friend. One or more of the
CPU voltage regulators appear to have died on it. It was an HP, maybe about
a year old. I had to change the case too because the new MB wasn't an exact
fit for the case (mainly just the rear I/O panel was different). I reused
all other components (CPU, memory, PS, drives). Because the new MB had a
significantly different chipset combination than the original, Windows XP
had to find and install a lot of new devices. Fortunately, XP does a pretty
good job of handling this these days and that all went without a hitch.
However because it did end up changing a significant number of major
components (IDE controller, USB controller, network controller, video
controller) simply because these are all built-in to the MB, it had to be
re-activated.

This was not as easy as I had hoped. The online activation would not work,
it claimed that the copy of windows was not valid although it had obviously
been activated and was working fine before the original MB quit. So I called
the activation support number. At first you have to go through an automated
voice prompted system which takes a few minutes to read the numbers and get
the automated response, only to be told (like the online tool said) that the
code was not valid. Then you can get re-directed to a real person. The
person at the other end also could not verify the code that the license
activation tool gave, so she had me use a different option to enter the
product key from the Windows sticker that was on the old case, this gave a
new activation code which did appear to be valid. However as she was reading
off the activation numbers, we got disconnected so I had to start over. I
was finally able to re-activate it.

If there are a lot of onboard peripherals to a MB, then it is possible that
a MB swap will trigger re-activation, unfortunately the process may be a
little frustrating at times, you just have to stick with it.

Russ Poffenberger
[log in to unmask] 

-----Original Message-----
From: Personal Computer Hardware discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Dean K. Kukral
Sent: Saturday, December 29, 2007 8:22 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] New MOBO Installation


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

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