Question what errors should i expect to run into if i install non OEM windows on a computer which previously had a OEM installation?

[Knurk]

Long story short i bought a new "demo" pc, which had some problems. Would get bluescreens often aswell as bluescreen while trying to format or boot from usb. Tried formating ssd in another pc, generalized it then transfered it to my new pc. Windows is still not booting and this is just one of many things i've tried. However im pretty sure the issue is OEM windows tied to the motherboard. So before i go buying a new motherboard, what errors should i expect to run into if i install non OEM windows on a computer which previously had a OEM installation?
Dont have my pc here to but MEMORY_MANAGEMENT is one of the many BSOD's i get while trying to boot.

 

[britechguy]

You should be able to install any edition of Windows 10 you like on any machine that already had Windows 10.

You will be prompted during that clean install to give the product key, and if you specify one that would change the edition (upgrade it, typically) you will get a completely new installation of that edition of Windows 10.

OEM versus Retail has a lot more to do with whether or not you can reinstall that Windows 10 on another machine or not than anything else.

 

[USAFRet]

Installing a new OS would have zero issues on that PC, or any other PC.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

none issues as mentioned above

 

[gn842a]

For whatever reason I bought a discount $20 Win 10 and the key didn't work. I contacted them (through their chat) and got another key. Which worked. That's the only issue I know of.

 

[britechguy]

However im pretty sure the issue is OEM windows tied to the motherboard.

Just wanted to comment on this: Any Windows 10 digital license is tied directly to the motherboard (serial number or some voodoo that Microsoft does to create a one-to-one key in their license database) on which it was originally installed and activated.

That's why you can do completely clean installs to your heart's content after having done it the first time, with the necessary key provided, and never have to provide that key again.

Also, as an aside to gn842a's observation I don't get the impression that the OP is talking about using a grey market license, but has actually purchased one from MS or some third-party vendor that sells "fresh" (I can't think of a better term) keys.

The central point here is that if you do a completely clean install, with a legitimate key (which you only need if it's the first install - not a reinstall), there should be no issues whatsoever regardless of what OS, including a different edition of Windows 10, had been installed on the machine prior.

 

[Knurk]

Well then something else must be horribly wrong. I even tried linux(ubuntu) which i got to boot, however it ran incredibly slow and was pretty much unusable. So i dont get it. The pc worked fine before i decided to format it. Games and all ran as they were sopposed to except of course the BSOD's i'd get. So what do you think? Memory issue? Motherboard? Ssd?

 

[britechguy]

Well, it could be any of those things.

It's going to be the horrible tedium that is the process of elimination. I'd try pulling memory first, using only a single stick at at time, and seeing if/when the machine barfs. I'd move on to the drive if you have another you can substitute, even if it's a regular HDD, for testing purposes.

It could be the motherboard, but that would be the least likely culprit to try to chase down first, in my opinion.

Others may differ and I'll be curious to see what others have to say.