changing mother board and proccessor

  • Thread starter Thread starter Buddy Lunceford
  • Start date Start date
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Buddy Lunceford

I'm having problems with my system, can I upgrade to a
better mother board and proccessor and still be able to
activate?
thanks,
bud
 
Buddy Lunceford said:
I'm having problems with my system, can I upgrade to a
better mother board and proccessor and still be able to
activate?
thanks,
bud
Click to expand...


AFAIU, yes, but you'll have to put in a call to the 'activation center'
explaining this is due to an upgrade of motherboard and cpu.

george
 
Buddy Lunceford said:
I'm having problems with my system, can I upgrade to a
better mother board and proccessor and still be able to
activate?
thanks,
bud
Click to expand...


When I upgraded my motherboard, CPU and AGP graphics card all in one hit, a
message came up that went something like - "we have noticed you have made
major hardware changes to your system, click here to re-activate Windows
XP". Put simply, your MB and CPU upgrade will not be a hassle.
 
Hi Buddy,

If you have a retail version of WindowsXP, then you will be able to
reactivate on the new hardware. If you have an OEM version (whether that be
a stand-alone disk bought with a piece of hardware, or a preinstalled
system), then the change will be seen as a new system, and OEM versions are
generally permanently tied to the original. In most cases, you will not be
able to reactivate an OEM version on new hardware.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
Buddy said:
I'm having problems with my system, can I upgrade to a
better mother board and proccessor and still be able to
activate?
thanks,
bud
Click to expand...



The answer mostly depends upon what type of license and installation CD
you have for WinXP.

If you have a retail license, you'll have no trouble. If you have an
OEM license with a non-branded, generic OEM CD, you should also have no
problem. If, however, you have an OEM license with a branded,
BIOS-locked CD or a "Recovery" CD, you may well not be able to even
install or repair the OS, much less successfully activate the it.

Normally, and assuming a retail license (many OEM installations
and licenses are not transferable to a new motherboard - check yours
before starting), unless the new motherboard is virtually identical
(same chipset, same IDE controllers, same BIOS version, etc.) to the
one on which the WinXP installation was originally performed, you'll
need to perform a repair (a.k.a. in-place upgrade) installation, at
the very least:

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q315341

The "why" is quite simple, really, and has nothing to do with
licensing issues, per se; it's a purely technical matter, at this
point. You've pulled the proverbial hardware rug out from under the
OS. (If you don't like -- or get -- the rug analogy, think of it as
picking up a Cape Cod style home and then setting it down onto a Ranch
style foundation. It just isn't going to fit.) WinXP, like Win2K
before it, is not nearly as "promiscuous" as Win9x when it comes to
accepting any old hardware configuration you throw at it. On
installation it "tailors" itself to the specific hardware found. This
is one of the reasons that the entire WinNT/2K/XP OS family is so much
more stable than the Win9x group.

As always when undertaking such a significant change, back up any
important data before starting.

This will also probably require re-activation, unless you have a
Volume Licensed version of WinXP Pro installed. If it's been more
than 120 days since you last activated that specific Product Key,
you'll most likely be able to activate via the Internet without
problem. If it's been less, you might have to make a 5 minute phone
call.



--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH
 
Rick:

The latest hair-splitting on the oem/motherboard replacement issue from
Microsoft is that a faulty motherboard can be replaced and still activated
because that's a repair, but if it's an upgrade or a replacement just for
the fun of it, that doesn't qualify.

That takes care of activation.

The problem of a bios-locked oem cd not running on the new motherboard is a
whole other issue, should a repair install be required.
 
The latest hair-splitting on the oem/motherboard replacement issue from
Microsoft is that a faulty motherboard can be replaced and still activated
because that's a repair,
Click to expand...

Yes, as long as it's a replacement of the same board. It's not considered a
repair if you replace it with a different make/model. This is actually fine
under activation, you can replace any component with another of the same
one. As in, you can replace a AMD 2700XP chip with another AMD 2700XP chip
without adding to the count, but if you replace it with an AMD Duron, then
that will trigger one of the points counted towards needing reactivation.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
That's not what was said at a recent seminar. If it's being replaced because
the old one is dead or defective, it doesn't matter if it's not the same
one, as far as activation, although it may make a difference if it's a
customized oem cd.
 
-----Original Message-----
I'm having problems with my system, can I upgrade to a
better mother board and proccessor and still be able to
activate?
thanks,
bud
.
Hey guys, thanhs for the informative responses! I do
Click to expand...
have retail full version XP Home cd. I have 2 120gig
drives and inten to reformat the slave and use it for a
reinstall. That should get around the "pulling the rug"
thing. I liked that analogy.
thanks again,
bud
 
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