Windows 10: Can't reactivate my Windows 10 Pro after a hardware change.

I have a version of Windows 10 that was an upgrade from an earlier version of Windows. So I have a digital license, not a product key. I upgraded my computer (new motherboard, etc.) but same hard drive & same Windows 10 version.


When I look to the Activation section I see this:

Windows reported that no product key was found on your device.

Error code: 0xC004F213


I followed the instructions here:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-ph/help/20530


I went to settings -> update & security -> Activation -> Troubleshooting. It shows my list of devices, including the computer I need. I select it & then it says:


Unable to activate Windows

We can’t reactivate Windows on this device. Try again later.


I called into the technical support & they say I need to downgrade to my older Windows 7 version & then upgrade again to Windows 10 as I need a product key. But the website help pages say I should be able to use my digital license linked to my Microsoft account.


Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks!

:)

 

Windows 10 reactivation on hardware changes

Hi Florea,

It is possible that Windows won't be able to identify your computer correctly that is why the operating system is not activated. To address your issue, we suggest that you follow the steps in this
article on how to reactivate your Windows 10 after a hardware change.

Let us know if you need further assistance.

 

Windows 10 pro won't activate after a hardware change.

Hi legs0fsteel,

You might want to check these suggested steps in Reactivating Windows 10 after a hardware change.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-ph/help/20530/...

Please let me know if this helped you solve your current issue.

Thanks and regards,

 

Motherboard change unable to reactivate Windows 10 Pro -


I have searched this topic and everything seems to be almost a year old. This is a homebuilt machine circa 2015. It started with an ASUS FM2+ motherboard with an AMD A5600K processor. It was Windows 7 Pro, upgraded to Windows 8.1 Pro then to Windows 10 Pro.
Saturday the motherboard died. An exact replacement could not be located so a Gigabyte card was installed. No changes to the hard drives. Booted the machine and Windows automatically started and then did a "revert" then installed the latest updates. C Drive was in the red so I deleted all of the old install files using Windows Clean-up. Went to reactivate, checked the significant hardware change and entered my MS account information - The computer (none of my computers) were listed and now it is telling me that I have to spend $200 to buy a copy of Windows 10 Pro.
Have not yet called Customer Support as the computer is at home and I work during the day -
I do have a disk image or two that may be a year old -

Suggestions - should I just shell out the $200 and move on

TIA