Motherboard replacement problems

[Jerry Beard]

I have done several types of replacements and upgrades over the years, but never a motherboard. 2 of the 4 memory slots on my son's xps 8300 quit working properly(but I got his memory back up to 8 gig with 2 - 4gb chips,) anyway I purchased a OEM xps 8300 motherboard to replace it(forgot to get thermal paste, but getting some before I swap them) Am I correct in assuming that this should be a simple ,unhook and rehookup proceedure (including the cpu and heat sink swap also).

 

[martinch]

If it's the same motherboard model, then yes it should be a straightforward switch, with one possible hiccup: Windows may want to re-activate (I believe OEM Windows 8 is tied to the motherboard, with the product key possibly being stored in the UEFI).

 

[Jerry Beard]

If it's the same motherboard model, then yes it should be a straightforward switch, with one possible hiccup: Windows may want to re-activate (I believe OEM Windows 8 is tied to the motherboard, with the product key possibly being stored in the UEFI).

its windows 7 (he signed up for the upgrade to 10, but hasn't done that yet)