motherboard swap msi to asus

[philnar2142]

So i just recently ordered a new asus motherboard and i currently have an msi motherboard. My question is when i install the new mothboard ive check my components to make sure they are compatible but all the videos i can find only show the installaion of the mobo they dont tell me if my hardware will recognize that its a new mobo and will up date to the drivers i need. Im just alittle confused about this part and want to make sure that when i get it all put together and plug my ssd in and boot up that i wont have issues. please help.

 

[Ecky]

If they both have the same controllers on them (e.g. SATA controller, USB controllers), there won't be any drivers to install, and most of them are pretty standard. HOWEVER, you will need to buy a new copy of Windows, as your installation and key are tied to the first motherboard they're used on. It will boot, but it won't be activated anymore. You might call Microsoft and beg them to activate and associate them with your new board, but they may or may not.

 

[Math Geek]

i'd expect to have issues. too many drivers and such for it all to run perfectly.

you can uninstall the mobo drivers before doing the swap and hope that helps. might work but i can't guarantee it.

 

[Karadjgne]

Tall order, that. I did the opposite, moved from Asus to msi. The biggest issue you'll face is the motherboard drivers. Before you swap, go through the device manager and delete all the MSI drivers for things like lan, Bluetooth, USB etc leave everything labeled Intel. If you have control center or live update, they gotta go too. Anything like Renesas or Realtek. Go through the registry and (after making a backup copy) dump anything related to what you just deleted, so msi software etc. This is time consuming to say the least. What you'll be left with is a pretty much msi free copy of Windows. Then swap the boards and install the Asus software +updates from the website. The faster alternative is a clean copy of Windows, which I'm not a fan of because it's just as time consuming and you have to start all over with some things which is a pain. But it is safer/easier for the beginner. You will have to go through windows verifications for things like user passwords on 10 or that stupid windows enjoyment thing on 7

And no, Asus likes Marvell controllers and msi likes Renesas controllers although both use Intel on a few ports.

 

[philnar2142]

i'd expect to have issues. too many drivers and such for it all to run perfectly.

you can uninstall the mobo drivers before doing the swap and hope that helps. might work but i can't guarantee it.

so since im a beginner it would probably be easier to whip my sdd and start over? and the whole windows thing is that true. if i were to just completely whip it is my product key no longer good because ill have a new motherboard?

 

[Ecky]

Your product key is tied to your motherboard, so whenever you install Windows on that motherboard, it will automatically activate, and your key cannot be used on another board.

 

[Tradesman1]

Make sure Win is up to date. Make backups of all your data files, then go ahead and attempt to simply install the the drive. Win will look at the new hardware and attempt to load default drivers for the new mobo and any others it thinks it needs (and is pretty good at it 😉 ). If it can complete the transition (on Intel a good 90+ % of the time) then load the latest drivers from the new mobos web site (the ones that come on the disk will probably be out of date already, run a good registry cleaner (Wise has a good free version), and Win will tell you to reactivate, tehy approve it better than 95% of the time. Can then go in and if you want remove the MSI related drivers and utilities

 

[Karadjgne]

Windows may or may not be tied to the motherboard. Depends on the version. If it's x86 OEM or x64 OEM then it is. If it's the full x86/x64 it's not, it's tied to the user. Most don't buy the full user licensed version because it does cost more and they don't have any use for the added x86 since that's 32bit which has a 4Gb ram cap.

 

[Tradesman1]

Even if the MSI mobo is from a prebuilt using their OEM , MS has been pretty lenient about reactivation the last few years

 

[Karadjgne]

Yeah, Microsoft might have its quirks, but when it comes to customer support for stuff like reactivation of Windows due to motherboards being replaced they've been great. Let's just hope the anniversary update fixes more quirks than it creates...

 

[Tradesman1]

We can hope, I still haven't moved most of my clients to 10, those on the gaming side want to jump more than productivity users

 

[Karadjgne]

I moved to 10 pro yesterday (last day of free upgrade) from 7 pro. Yeah, it's an uphill battle. Can't get 1/2 my programs to work the same as they always did. UAC needs to work or some programs won't, UAC needs to go so other programs will. Almost reverted until I found 1 little blurb about Snap! affecting movement of screens between monitors. Frustrating to say the least. Not impressed with 10 so far. Find a little program called WinAero, its a game changer.

I can understand productivity users reluctance, my wife has 4 programs she uses every day that will not work at all on 10,so she's still on 7 pro. It's nice that MS is being so good about keeping ppl running with key upgrafes/replacements etc, just moody they keep fixing things that aren't broke and not fixing things that are

 

[Tradesman1]

Agree, I was playing with the 10 beta before the public beta release and all through it, have it on one rig for troubleshooting, but still not thrilled

 

[Karadjgne]

Almost makes one wonder if MS is being so good about keys, just to help prevent ppl from transitioning to Linux instead. Guess we'll find out August 2nd with the update.

 

[Tradesman1]

I'm about half expecting them to extend the free update yet again

 

[Math Geek]

anniversary update coming out soon is supposed to tie your win 10 to your MS account and not the hardware like it was in the past.

claim is it makes changing even a mobo much easier to reactivate. it's active on the insider builds for a while now but i have had a reason to test it out as i have not changed any hardware recently. hopefully this will allow for moving a license to a new build much easier than it is now. seems like once you have a valid copy, you "may" be able to use it for the long haul. we'll see how that pans out as time goes by

 

[Tradesman1]

It might also mean they are wanting to get everybody to pay for the OS on a monthly basis as they have been doing with Office - which would have you paying for it forever 😉 A thought of many on this grandiose plan of MSs to basically give it away to everybody for 'free'.

 

[Math Geek]

i have felt they were headed to a subscription model for a long time now. that's how enterprise is working now. i don't really care for it but a couple bucks a month makes a lot of money for MS in the big picture. from their perspective they have sold a key to someone for $100 and then provided updates and support on that for well over 10 years. overall, they would be breaking even or even losing money on that deal. a couple bucks a month pays for that never ending cycle of updates and support for the software.

again not a fan of the idea as a consumer but from a business perspective, i can see the appeal.

 

[Karadjgne]

Linux sounding better and better.....

 

[Tradesman1]

They are now claiming 350 million users on Win10, at a couple bucks a month that's $700 million a month (Win10 alone) - they have appr 120,000 employees, so Win10 alone would pay each employee appr $3,000 a month all by itself, they ought to be able to support/maintain it on that 😉