Windows 10: Cannot Activate after Motherboard swap.

Hello I bought a PC with a fresh install of Windows 10 Home. I set up PC and activated/linked Windows 10 to my Microsoft account. A few moths later I upgraded my Motherboard and I wanted to make sure Windows 10 was activated on new MOBO to avoid any issues, problem is the " I changed Hardware" link is just completely missing from Windows. When I check activation status it shows Windows is activated through Microsoft account but I cannot run new hardware troubleshoot or get my product key.Do I need to re install my old mobo and do something first? What about when I decide to upgrade to a better

:)

 

Windows 10 not activated after motherboard swap

Hi,

I've ran into interesting problem after swapping out my computer's motherboard. The old motherboard contained a windows 8.1 pro key in the bios and the computer was upgraded to window 10 pro. After I swapped out the motherboard, the old one was fried, and
put the new one in, I can't activate windows anymore.

The new motherboard contains a new windows 8.1 key but is there a way to activate it? Or do i simply have to reinstall windows 10?

Best regards.

 

Windows activation after motherboard swap

I called Microsoft support to help with activating windows after I changed my motherboard. I have a digital licence that I received when upgrading from Windows 7 years ago. This had survived a previous motherboard swap a few years ago with no issue.
Support told me there was nothing they could do and told me to call 18009365700 which just says all lines busy. All they did was ask for my name. Tell me to run the troubleshooter and then told me I was SOL unless I could dig up my windows 7 key from the
original purchase. I think where I messed up was I went on my MS account and removed my "old" pc thinking I needed to before it would activate on the new motherboard. So it's not listed when I run the troubleshooter. Am I, in fact, SOL now? Really don't
want to shell out for a product I already own.

 

Re-Activation of windows after 2 motherboard swaps.

Situation:

I am not very tech savvy and impatient. So last Saturday my computer shut down due to overheating. A friend of mine (whom I called) said that I would need thermal pasta for it to work or so. So I clipped the fan off and yanked the whole thing off the motherboard
… and broke something. a few of those little things that look like hats on the motherboard.

So my friend quickly swapped the motherboard with one of his old ones along with a different processor because mine did not fit into the place. Upon rebooting windows complained that it was not activated .. so I quickly went there and re-activated it with
my license key on my CD (which is a windows 7 version - I am running windows 10 free update)

The re-activation worked flawlessly. .. the new hardware ran, windows did not complain and everything was OK.

However, today is Monday .. and I quickly went to a store and got me a motherboard that would fit my processor and we installed everything.

Everything works perfectly fine, and I got the pasta on it and the temperature is not 90 degrees anymore. But windows complains AGAIN about not being activated. My friend told me I would just need to reactivate it because the motherboard was .. again ..
changed.

So I went the exact same steps again .. but windows tells me that I do not have a license ?!? .. just 2 days ago it worked perfectly fine.

My friend suggests that there might be a limit on hardware changes? I have no idea. It also tells me that It cannot find a network to verify, but internet works perfectly fine!