Windows 10: Unable to activate after changing motherboard

Following a crash - burning out both mobo and psu - I installed a new ASUS A320M mobo with A8 cpu and 8G RAM, and a 256G M2 drive.Windows 10 pro installed without a hitch - but would not maintain a connection to the ethernet. SO I installed the chipset drivers from the ASUS website - and the mouse and keyboard kept freezing. I stuck on a wifi dongle and proceeded to activate windows - which concluded successfully.However the mouse and keyboard response was so bad I had to do a restore - which broke the activation.Now no way will it activate from the linked microsoft accou

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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.

 

Unable to activate windows 10 after changing motherboard

Hi William,

Thanks for replying so fast to my issue.

I followed the steps from the troubleshooter, and I reach the page where it asks me "Select this device from below". The problem is that my new device (a Gigabyte motherboard) doesn't show up on the list, only my previous motherboard (MSI).

When go to Sign in to your Microsoft account my new device is listed, as is my old one, but I don't seem to be able to make the new device pop into the list to transfer the license.

Do I have to select my old MSI motherboard from the list, and then press "activate"?

FYI: My license key is one that was upgraded from windows 8.1. I do have a product/license key of that version, but it is not accepted when I try to change my product key. It finishes in an error code 0xc004f050

 

Unable to reactivate Windows after changing Motherboard

Hi,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.



I understand that after changing the Motherboard you are unable to activate Windows. I’ll help you with the issue.



However, please let us know:

• What is the error message you receive when you try to activate Windows?
  
• Did Windows 10 come preinstalled on your computer?
  
• Were you using a Microsoft account to login to the computer?
  

Ideally, if Windows 10 comes preinstalled on the computer, the Product key is embedded in the Motherboard. In case Windows is reinstalled on the computer, it should get activated automatically. However, if any hardware changes (such as Motherboard
or hard drive) is done on the computer, Windows will not be able to identify the license.



You may want to refer the troubleshooting steps mentioned in the article

Reactivating Windows 10 after a hardware change.



If you are receiving an error code, you may want to check the troubleshooting steps as per the error code mentioned in the article

Get help with Windows activation errors.



If you still face issues, do not worry, you can get in touch with our Activation team and they will help you with the issue. Please refer the article

Global Customer Service phone numbers to get the Customer support number as per your country.



Regards,

Nikhar Khare

Microsoft Community - Moderator