Windows 10: Motherboard Change - Win10 Activation

Hello!


I have a small issue with activating Windows 10 Home Edition. I had an ASUS prebuild desktop (M32BF) that I fried the motherboard of (long story) so I had to replace it. The GPU, CPU, SSD, RAM (+1 new one), HDD are all the same. I tried the troubleshooter, selected the "significant hardware change" option and even grabbed the old product key and entered it with no dice. I believe it had Windows 8.1 (?) before I upgraded for free to Windows 10.


Any help would be appreciated,

thank you!

:)

 

Win10 motherboard change activation saga


I recently changed the motherboard and CPU in my primary system. It was running Win10 Pro X64, upgraded from Win8.1 . That was an upgrade from Win 8, which was an upgrade from Win7, which was... you get the idea. The ancestral OS was retail. The most recent license I had purchased was the Win8 upgrade, from January of 2013.

The old MB was an Intel X99 one. The new, AMD x470. After Win10 detected the change and installed some different drivers, it ran normally. It didn't activate online. However, when I changed the key to the Win8 upgrade one, it activated OK.

The motherboard turned out to be defective. The RAM slots A1 and A2 weren't working properly. So, I returned it, and replaced it with a different X470 MB.

That swap went fine also. However, nothing I could do would permit it to activate online.

I called MS activation support. After they led me through a number of steps (all of which I'd tried previously), I was referred to another level of support. I went through that a couple of times. The first time, the support person suggested that I re-install Windows 8 and upgrade that to 10. I managed to avoid screaming obscenities at the man, but it was a near thing. On the second try, I got a tech who asked to be allowed to remotely log into to the system. I agreed. He tried a number of things, none of which worked.

He finally took a screen capture of the invoice for the new MB, which I purchased online a few days ago. His boss permitted him the generate a new Win10 key for me. That worked. I don't know whether the key is equivalent to a full retail license, but I hadn't expect to be given any sort of new key.

The short version: if you swap motherboards, and have a Win10 installation with retail origins (not OEM), I expect that Microsoft will support re-activating Windows on the new hardware. If you have to deal with humans, you may encounter some who offer nonsense solutions. Persevere, and you may eventually find a support person who is both considerate and competent. (Thanks, Kamalesh.)

 

Activate Windows 10 after motherboard change

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

I built the PC myself and it is\was a retail Windows 8 Pro license upgraded to 10.

The guide listed that I should be able to transfer the license, and following the steps given when selecting "I recently changed hardware" in the activation process it does not list my previous device to select from.

My Microsoft account is logged in on both my old and new motherboard, and my old motherboard is unable to boot at all to deactivate or retrieve any keys.

If my license is indeed available for transfer, how can I proceed from here?

Thanks.

 

Win10 motherboard change activation saga

If you read my (too long) post, you'd have seen that I was able to use the most recently purchased license key (Win8 upgrade, from January of 2013) to activate after a MB change. All that "SLUI 3" does is bring up a license key change window, which can be gotten through settings. (I have nothing against using a command line, though.) Call that MB2. The problem was that when I found that MB2 was defective, I replaced it with MB3 a couple of weeks later. MB3 used the same chipset as MB2, but wasn't an identical model. I couldn't re-activate on MB3 using the Win8 key. I went through the troubleshooter, ending up with the "hardware change" option. No go. The software generously suggested that I go to the Windows Store and purchase a new Win10 license.

That was why I contacted MS, and wasted a fairish bit of time before I found someone who knew what he was about.