How to change mobo and not to deactivate windows 7?

[Jellypickaxe]

Hi, its christmas and I have just got my new shiny FX 8350 to replace my aging i3 540, new Asus M5A97 evo r2.0 mobo and led fans. My question is how do I swap the motherboards around without deactivating windows 7 home premium 64Bit? Also can you give me a step by step guide to changing boards? And how do I prep my system for the change of hardware? I.e what drivers do I need to delete and new ones to download etc. I'm currently using a Gigabyte H55M-UD2H. What do I do for my graphics drivers, audio etc.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

You can't change the motherboard without deactivating the license. You will at a minimum have to perform a repair installation and reactivation.

 

[Jellypickaxe]

You can't change the motherboard without deactivating the license. You will at a minimum have to perform a repair installation and reactivation.

So is that basically change the board and boot, but then insert the windows disc and basically do it like when I installed the OS first time around?

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Once you change the motherboard your existing installation will most definitely not be bootable. Boot the installation DVD and perform the repair from there.

 

[Jellypickaxe]

Once you change the motherboard your existing installation will most definitely not be bootable. Boot the installation DVD and perform the repair from there.

It won't be bootable as I'm going from intel to AMD, and gigabyte to asus so the components aren't going to be the same. Should I delete the old drivers? And then download the ones for the new ones or will they already be on the motherboard? As its come with one disc but that's a support disc. I have my copy of windows 7 its only been used on one mobo before.

Thanks.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Is your copy of Windows OEM or retail? If OEM you cannot change the motherboard and transfer the license as it is tied to the first motherboard it sees.

As to the rest. Download all of the drivers for your new motherboard from the manufacturer (the disc that comes with it is outdated the moment it's mastered).

The reality is:
New motherboard = clean installation, if you want the fewest issues.

 

[Jellypickaxe]

Is your copy of Windows OEM or retail? If OEM you cannot change the motherboard and transfer the license as it is tied to the first motherboard it sees.

As to the rest. Download all of the drivers for your new motherboard from the manufacturer (the disc that comes with it is outdated the moment it's mastered).

The reality is:
New motherboard = clean installation, if you want the fewest issues.

It's retail. So before I change download my new drivers, and then when I boot put my disk in and see what happens? And see if it accepts the new hardware. I think it's retail at least as I installed the OS myself.
Thanks.

 

[Jellypickaxe]

Is your copy of Windows OEM or retail? If OEM you cannot change the motherboard and transfer the license as it is tied to the first motherboard it sees.

As to the rest. Download all of the drivers for your new motherboard from the manufacturer (the disc that comes with it is outdated the moment it's mastered).

The reality is:
New motherboard = clean installation, if you want the fewest issues.

I've changed mobo but it now says my board can't detect the memory. Even with Memok.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

I've changed mobo but itnow says my board can't detect the memory. Even with Memok.

What, specifically is "it"?
No one here can see your system, you need to provide detail or we're only guessing here.

 

[spooky2th]

You could have done a sysprep on the hdd. Then switched the MB.

To do this, go to C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep\sysprep.exe, check 'generalize', select 'OOBE' on drop down menu, and 'Shut down'.

When your new PC boots off of your old HDD, you'll get the 'out of box experience' screen, asking you to create new user account. Just call it anything and after that's done, you can log off and switch to your main user account.

Once you're logged in with your main account, you can safely proceed with deleting the newly made account in Control Panel > User Accounts applet

To clarify what sysprep does, it basicly gets rid of all platform specific data such as drivers and configuration files.

You will need to install all the new MB drivers, etc. Set up the BIOS too.

 

[Jellypickaxe]

I've changed mobo but itnow says my board can't detect the memory. Even with Memok.

What, specifically is "it"?
No one here can see your system, you need to provide detail or we're only guessing here.

Oh sorry, my copy of windows. I

 

[Jellypickaxe]

You could have done a sysprep on the hdd. Then switched the MB.

To do this, go to C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep\sysprep.exe, check 'generalize', select 'OOBE' on drop down menu, and 'Shut down'.

When your new PC boots off of your old HDD, you'll get the 'out of box experience' screen, asking you to create new user account. Just call it anything and after that's done, you can log off and switch to your main user account.

Once you're logged in with your main account, you can safely proceed with deleting the newly made account in Control Panel > User Accounts applet

To clarify what sysprep does, it basicly gets rid of all platform specific data such as drivers and configuration files.

You will need to install all the new MB drivers, etc. Set up the BIOS too.

Ahh would that prevent the issue I'm having now where my new Asus m5a97 evo r2.0 can't detect my RAM and thus has no display.

 

[spooky2th]

It would probably have prevented a lot of problems you're having now. Can you boot into bios at all?

 

[Jellypickaxe]

It would probably have prevented a lot of problems you're having now. Can you boot into bios at all?

No display at all no idea whats happening. But before I changed I installed all the drivers from the disc and then the ones from the website, so it should work?

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Motherboard not detecting memory or POSTing is not a Windows issue. First thing is to double, then triple check all connectors and reseat all RAM.

 

[spooky2th]

What memory are you using? And is the 4 or 8-pin CPU power connector plugged in?

 

[Jellypickaxe]

It would probably have prevented a lot of problems you're having now. Can you boot into bios at all?

Yes now I can boot into bios and I have display and it recognises my RAM only it says it can't boot into windows because of a system error, it can't fix it. And I can't reinstall windows because of the way my HDD is formatted or something.

 

[spooky2th]

If you can boot into BIOS, set it up and try to correct the system error.

 

[Jellypickaxe]

I have fixed all the issues now, thanks for all the help.