Upgraded Motherboard Do I need to reinstall windows

Solid-Sn8ke

Reputable
Feb 24, 2014
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4,510
So I just got a new motherboard since my pc was randomly rebooting by itself due to not enough power to the CPU through the old one. I upgraded to an ASUS 990fx pro 2.0 or something like that from an MSI 760gm-ps23 FX, but after I install the new motherboard, do I need to reinstall windows 8.1? I finally found the cyberpower windows 8.1 recovery media disk which states that the software on the disk was "preinstalled on your hard drive at the factory and may only be used for backup and recovery of your CyberPower, Inc. computer system.." and also says "for use with a licensed Cyberpower PC." So if I do need to reinstall windows 8.1 after upgrading the motherboard, can I use this disk? If I need to reauthenticate windows I dont know what to do cause I dont have that key anymore so is there a way to recover that too? The way the disk puts it, it sounds as if I would have to buy windows again. So someone please help, I haven't been able to use my PC for like 3 damn months because of this.
 
Solution
Windows key is tied to the motherboard. New motherboard....new windows. Only way around this I know of is if you have purchased retail windows version you can deactivate/reactivate on new/altered pc, by phone with microsoft. If windows already came on a store bought pc it's a problem.
Windows key is tied to the motherboard. New motherboard....new windows. Only way around this I know of is if you have purchased retail windows version you can deactivate/reactivate on new/altered pc, by phone with microsoft. If windows already came on a store bought pc it's a problem.
 
Solution