Windows 10: Windows 10 activation after hardware change not working

Hello,I recently bought an SSD. I installed Windows 10 Pro with a digital license and I made sure my account was linked as mentioned by Microsoft. On my fresh installation I logged in to my account and went for "troubleshoot" under update & security -> activation. I chose "I changed hardware on this device recently" and selected the Desktop to activate shown by the troubleshooter. I get the error "Unable to activate windows" and an error code 0x87e10bc6.I dug about this error code. I found a potential fix provided by Microsoft by running a "network adapter" troubleshooting. I did th

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Windows 10 Hardware change

Technically it should not activate if its a upgrade from an OEM license. But if you follow the phone automated number sequence hopefully it will work.

Windows 10 is tied to your hardware and you cannot upgrade a motherboard on an OEM license. (but it works with the phone activation) you can only replace the board with an identical board.

 

windows activation—hardware changed siginficantly

From time to time on my thoroughbred PC, I get a Windows activation message that says my hardware changed siginificantly and I have to re-activate Windows. My hardware hasn't changed any more than a network card (went from a wireless g card to onboard lan to a wired network card), and the install is legit. Why is it doing this, and how can I stop it?

 

Unable to activate Windows after hardware change

Hi,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

Usually the error code 0xC004F213 comes when there is a hardware change done on the computer (like Motherboard or Hard drive). The Windows license is associated with the device hardware. If there is any significant hardware changes, such as replacing
motherboard or hard drive, Windows won’t be able to recognize the license.

I suggest you to try the troubleshooting steps from the article
Reactivating Windows 10 after a hardware change and see if Windows gets activated.

If you are using an OEM computer that came with Windows 7, and the motherboard has not been changed, then you can follow the steps to retrieve the product key that came with your OEM computer. To retrieve the product key follow the steps mentioned
below:

1. Type Command prompt in the search bar, that is on the taskbar.
   
2. Right click on Command prompt icon and select Run as administrator.
   
3. Type the command and press on Enter: wmic path SoftwareLicensingService get OA3xOriginalProductKey
   
4. You will find the product key.
   

Hope it helps.

Please reply with the status of the issue, we will be glad to help you further.

Nikhar Khare

Microsoft Community - Moderator