Win 7 will not start or reinstall after motherboard change

Hello Les, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Is activation your only issue at this point?

It's not activating since you changed the motherboard, CPU, and RAM. It thinks you have installed it on a new computer with it still installed and activated on the old computer (motherboard etc...).

If you have a retail copy of Windows 7, then you should be able to do a phone activation, wait for the operator (if need be), and let them know that you changed out the motherboard, CPU, and RAM.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Thanks, it is the retail version, the 3 upgrades Home Premium edition. Will I lose one of the activations, as I'd only used two of the three.

The other thing is that there is the previous Win7 installation on the HD, which will have all the data and so forth, will I be able to merge them back again? I also stipped the computer out, wondering if there was a problem with the GPU and so forth - will I have to do this every time I install a new component?

Les,

No, you will not lose one of the activations if you use the same number and do a phone activation. :)

The Windows.old folder should contain all of your files from the old installation that you could just copy back. However, you will need to reinstall all drivers and programs again.

No, you will not have to activate like this again everytime you change a minor component. This only happens when you change major items like your motherboard that would have it think that it may be a different computer.

Good luck. I hope it goes smoothly. :)

No, now I am getting a BootMGR message, and when I put the windows disc in it the goes to some MAC Addr Boot agent trying to establish a link

Client MAC ADDR - ( a load of numbers) no boot filename received error. When I try to reinstall win 7 using the disc it tells me I can't, I have to remove the disc and restart

Now it's giving me a 'media test failure, check cable' - changed the cable to no avail

I've checked and the HD is now burnt out. I have lost all my data from the previous install due to all the mucking around - what do I do now?

It's a special windows upgrade package that lets you install on three PC's at home, trouble is I've done two of them and one of those PC's has had the motherboard die, and the HD with windows on it followed suit. I don't want one of my installations to be used up repairing my failed PC

dustywoodworker said:

Brink said:

Les,

No, you will not lose one of the activations if you use the same number and do a phone activation. :)

The Windows.old folder should contain all of your files from the old installation that you could just copy back. However, you will need to reinstall all drivers and programs again.

No, you will not have to activate like this again everytime you change a minor component. This only happens when you change major items like your motherboard that would have it think that it may be a different computer.

Where do I read about there being only three activations? Is this something I would have caught if I had I read the EULA carefully.

Microsoft came out with a Family Pack version of Windows 7 that came with a volume product key number that would allow you to activate on up to 3 separate computers at once. :)