OEM W7 and replaced mobo

Hello. Never even had a chance to get PC online and register and found out my asus mobo was faulty. I did installed OEM W7, however. What consequences, if any, do I know face as a result of swapping out mobo's? (activation wise?) I do plan on wiping the HDD drive and reinstalling windows, unless somebody with experience here recommends "not" to do this. The last thing I want to do, is get this thing up and running, fully loaded with all drivers, programs and the such and then have operating issues because I didn't reformat drive, due to the mobo exchange. Also not sure how MS knows that I changed this device, due to the fact that I was never even online. There is nothing dishonest going on here. Plz advise.

cluberti said:

Technically the OEM license is tied to the machine it is first installed/activated on, and would need to be replaced if the system were changed (and at least according to Microsoft's servers, replacing the motherboard constitutes a new system). However, since you are the owner of the system and this is not royalty OEM (in which case they would have dealt with this via token activation already), you will simply have to call Microsoft to re-activate if it does not do so online, and you will be able to use that license again on the same machine (well, minus the motherboard difference, of course ).

ok, thx for the outline. uh, so would you then (just to be safe) just go ahead and redo the HDD, or simply install new mobo and hit the switch? I really don't mind redoing drive/windows installation, if it will alleviate any possible operating errors.

cluberti said:

I'm not a big fan of hardware switching, but if you're data's all backed up safely you won't hurt anything by trying it if you're already ready to reinstall. If it works, you save time - if it doesn't, you have to reinstall and you've lost a few minutes. Win-win for me.

brand new system. minutes after running, ck'd ram and only 1 stick working. was a defective dimm slot. i really have nothing on the hdd that took time to install. i just didn't want to wipe the drive, before talking with someone (you) and further risk an activation problem. i just wanna do the right thing.

I swapped my MB and used all the original drives with OS and data. It's the same MB with just a revision (Sandy Bridge/SATA problem replacement). I set the new MB in Config mode and set the necessary BIOS options and settings I had before then went through the normal shutdown and re-power. Windows booted then starting installing all the necessary drivers on it's own. I had to re-enter my key but it registered just fine. And, I'm still Certified. You shouldn't have to re-install Windows.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention--Mine is the OEM version too.

carwiz said:

I swapped my MB and used all the original drives with OS and data. It's the same MB with just a revision (Sandy Bridge/SATA problem replacement). I set the new MB in Config mode and set the necessary BIOS options and settings I had before then went through the normal shutdown and re-power. Windows booted then starting installing all the necessary drivers on it's own. I had to re-enter my key but it registered just fine. And, I'm still Certified. You shouldn't have to re-install Windows.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention--Mine is the OEM version too.

cool, i'll give it a whirl...when i get the return from newegg and will report back. thx

Even if your hardware changes do trigger an activation request that needs a telephone call to Microsoft's activation reps, a confirmation that you're only using the software on one machine and you've swapped out a hard drive will be enough for them to give you a new activation ID.