Will i have to re-install Windows 8 after a motherboard and cpu swap?

[DarkDubzs]

So i have been wanting to upgrade my mobo and cpu for a while now and i need to get this question answered, there seems to be no solid yes or no, but atleast i can get some guidance i guess. Currently i am on the same hardware that i built my computer with, full specs in signature below. I am going to upgrade from my current MSI FM2-A75MA-E35 FM2 mobo to an ASRock 990FX Extreme4 AM3+ board. I am also going to swap my current AMD A10 6800k APU to a shiny new, faster, overall better AMD FX 8350. I obviously am using Windows 8 and most everyone has said that with Windows 8, after a mobo swap, nothing really happens, you do not have to re-install windows. I definitely cannot lose my programs and data, it would take me weeks to re download and re install all the 300GB worth of games and programs i have, not to mention getting everything back to the way it is now. The fact that this computer is shared and is now perfect for them, legacy friendly :lol:, doesnt take any pressure off me.
So what are the chances after the mobo and cpu swap, i will have to re install windows and lose all my data/programs/games? What would be likely to happen in your opinion and based off experiences? What about just having to re activate windows? I would connect and be booting off the same and only internal hard drive i am using now. I will also be backing up and creating a system image, both saved to an external HDD, just in case for the worst scenario of losing data.
Any help and feedback is very hugely appreciated! Thanks!

 

[major photon]

On the topic of Windows activation, my understanding is that Windows makes a hash file based on the id of specific components (CPU s/n, MB, HDD, CD/DVD) and if any of those components changes, when Windows does a check of the activation it will determine if the new hash file is different enough from the original that the OS is no longer activated.

So minor hardware changes are silently accepted and the activation remains, but a major hardware change like a new MB produces a hash file that's different enough to require reactivation. A changed CPU s/n alone is probably considered a small enough change that there's no reactivation required.

I do believe you are correct. I had always assumed the motherboard and the CPU either one would be enough alone to trigger reactivation, but you learn something new every day in the computer world. I am pretty sure the motherboard would trigger reactivation given there are so much hardware integrated into the motherboard these days.

 

[DarkDubzs]

On the topic of Windows activation, my understanding is that Windows makes a hash file based on the id of specific components (CPU s/n, MB, HDD, CD/DVD) and if any of those components changes, when Windows does a check of the activation it will determine if the new hash file is different enough from the original that the OS is no longer activated.

So minor hardware changes are silently accepted and the activation remains, but a major hardware change like a new MB produces a hash file that's different enough to require reactivation. A changed CPU s/n alone is probably considered a small enough change that there's no reactivation required.

That may be true, but i know for sure that mismatching drivers for different CPU's (cpu swap) is the reason people usually are forced to re-install their OS, whether it be Windows, Mac (rare hardware swaps here), or Linux, its because the mismatched drivers dont allow the system to boot.

 

[gartss]

Did not work for me.

Having two identical machines with Win8 Pro 32-Bit (called "important" and "unimportant" for now).
"important"'s mainboard burned and has been replaced with the mobo of "unimportant", cpus remain in their respective socket (swapped together with mobo).

Machine starts, but wants a new key because "this computer has already been activated".
Long story put short: exchanging motherboard *and* CPU in one single task will break activation.

Did not try what happens if i would keep the CPU.

 

[VAKZ23]

Sorry for reviving the thread but I have the same issue (I guess in week time), I will be buying a Z97 (Maximus VII Hero) board in replacement on my busted Z87 (MSI G43), Will this be a problem, I really dont want to reinstall my windows (currently on 8.1 pro), will this also work on different chipset when swapping to another board. TIA

 

[grimmersb]

Can I buy your old A10 processor?

ASVD74@dsl.pipex.com

 

[speednfs]

Just going soon from Asrock 990fx extreme 3 and athlon II 640 to Asrock z97 anniversary and pentium haswell g3258, hopes this will go well...

 

[DarkDubzs]

Can I buy your old A10 processor?

ASVD74@dsl.pipex.com

Sorry, for the time being, my current pc will remain the same as a family computer. Im building myself a new gaming rig, which once I get the parts and build, I think will look great and will be so awesome for all the power coming from such a small box.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/8GpqrH

 

[mjslakeridge]

On the topic of Windows activation, my understanding is that Windows makes a hash file based on the id of specific components (CPU s/n, MB, HDD, CD/DVD) and if any of those components changes, when Windows does a check of the activation it will determine if the new hash file is different enough from the original that the OS is no longer activated.

So minor hardware changes are silently accepted and the activation remains, but a major hardware change like a new MB produces a hash file that's different enough to require reactivation. A changed CPU s/n alone is probably considered a small enough change that there's no reactivation required.

I can confirm what dmiller79 reported about hardware changes. I installed a new hard drive and did a restore drive image using Acronis True Image. Windows 8 required me to reauthorize by calling the toll free # and getting the new code to enter. Worked fine. When swapping out a D:\ drive, (not where the operating system resides), I did not have to reauthorize Windows.

 

[killerswit2013]

On the topic of Windows activation, my understanding is that Windows makes a hash file based on the id of specific components (CPU s/n, MB, HDD, CD/DVD) and if any of those components changes, when Windows does a check of the activation it will determine if the new hash file is different enough from the original that the OS is no longer activated.


So minor hardware changes are silently accepted and the activation remains, but a major hardware change like a new MB produces a hash file that's different enough to require reactivation. A changed CPU s/n alone is probably considered a small enough change that there's no reactivation required.

I agree. I once did a upgrade from i3 2120 to i7 3770. only some tweaking in the bios i had to do. no activation was asked by windows 8.1.
Anyways i will be upgrading my current motherboard Asus P8B75-M LE to Intel DZ77GA-70K day after tomorrow. I will post the results.

 

[romularius]

So i have been wanting to upgrade my mobo and cpu for a while now and i need to get this question answered, there seems to be no solid yes or no, but atleast i can get some guidance i guess. Currently i am on the same hardware that i built my computer with, full specs in signature below. I am going to upgrade from my current MSI FM2-A75MA-E35 FM2 mobo to an ASRock 990FX Extreme4 AM3+ board. I am also going to swap my current AMD A10 6800k APU to a shiny new, faster, overall better AMD FX 8350. I obviously am using Windows 8 and most everyone has said that with Windows 8, after a mobo swap, nothing really happens, you do not have to re-install windows. I definitely cannot lose my programs and data, it would take me weeks to re download and re install all the 300GB worth of games and programs i have, not to mention getting everything back to the way it is now. The fact that this computer is shared and is now perfect for them, legacy friendly :lol:, doesnt take any pressure off me.
So what are the chances after the mobo and cpu swap, i will have to re install windows and lose all my data/programs/games? What would be likely to happen in your opinion and based off experiences? What about just having to re activate windows? I would connect and be booting off the same and only internal hard drive i am using now. I will also be backing up and creating a system image, both saved to an external HDD, just in case for the worst scenario of losing data.
Any help and feedback is very hugely appreciated! Thanks!

It is entirely possible! I switched from an MSI 970A-G45 to a gigabyte GA78MLT-USB3 (because the pci-e slot was bunk) without reinstalling windows 8. The only problem afterward was getting rid of all the utilities I had previously used from the MSI board, but it wasn't an actual issue, more of an annoyance and something I should have taken care of before hand. Although, they were both am3+ boards, so switching from fm2 to am3+ may not work the same way.

 

[jayrox]

I have just installed a new motherboard using the same cpu, it booted up after restarting itself 4 times, was working fine for about 6 hours then windows told me it was not activated and I was using the same key on more than one computer, phoned the free phone number and got the new 48 digit activation code and it is working fine once again, I am using windows 8.1 upgraded from windows 7.

 

[Barneydog91]

Hi, I recommend you simply run sysprep.exe in the C:\Windows\System32\Sysprep folder with generalize checked and pick the OOBE option and shut down after sysprep. Use another operating system or Windows PE and the DISM command line tool to capture the windows image as a .wim file, name it install.wim, and replace the original install.wim from a windows iso file (The original install.wim should be in the sources folder in the iso). Then do a normal windows install; you will get to keep your programs, games, and users, but all the hardware will be reconfigured to your new cpu and motherboard.

 

[Barneydog91]

On the topic of Windows activation, my understanding is that Windows makes a hash file based on the id of specific components (CPU s/n, MB, HDD, CD/DVD) and if any of those components changes, when Windows does a check of the activation it will determine if the new hash file is different enough from the original that the OS is no longer activated.


So minor hardware changes are silently accepted and the activation remains, but a major hardware change like a new MB produces a hash file that's different enough to require reactivation. A changed CPU s/n alone is probably considered a small enough change that there's no reactivation required.

I agree. I once did a upgrade from i3 2120 to i7 3770. only some tweaking in the bios i had to do. no activation was asked by windows 8.1.
Anyways i will be upgrading my current motherboard Asus P8B75-M LE to Intel DZ77GA-70K day after tomorrow. I will post the results.

I would like to know what bios changes you made.

 

[MachineCarl]

Hi guys, i'm thinking about the same idea as DarkDubzs, but it changes a little bit. I'm gonna to tell you my story:

About a year ago, I bought a built computer (an Acer Aspire MC605), whose specs are:
-Intel Core i5 3550p
-Stock Kingston 8gb RAM
-Mobo: Custom Acer built with Intel H61 and socket 1155 (H2)
-WD Caviar Blue 1TB HDD
-Graphics Card: Stock Nvidia GT 620 with 2gb GDDR3.
-200w stock PSU.
-Windows 8 (actually upgraded to Windows 8.1)

I've been gradually upgrading this computer (This summer I bought a 800w PSU and a AMD Radeon r9 270 with 2gb GDDR5) because i'm a 3D animator and a PC gamer. The fact is i'm thinking about upgrading the CPU in the future without changing the motherboard. I've been searching and I saw that the i7-3770k had the exactly the same socket as my mobo (1155 (H2)), but I have some questions:
-Will the motherboard recognize well that processor, in spite having the same socket?
-Will I have to reinstall windows? (Notice that my Windows License is OEM, i didn't had a disk with the OS when I bought the computer)
-Would you recommend to change my motherboard? (optional question)

The fact is, I have a pendrive where I can boot the sistem and access to computer recovery and options, and some recovery disks, I would like to do this upgrade because i'm starting with longer animations and i'm afraid that my i5 is starting to get short in perfomance, also i'm working with 2 screens, and sometimes the system colapse with fast moves. What do you think? Is it a good idea?

 

[hamiltus]

I am considering a similar thing as DarkDubzs except for a couple of small differences.

My CPU would be unchanged. An Intel Core i5 3570K
The Motherboards would be both of the same socket (Z77) and same brand. Going from a Gigabyte Z77-DS3H to a Gigabyte Z77X-D3H.
Reason being the addition of SLI support which my current board lacks.
So any chances that Win8.1 will accept the hardware change if the chipset is the same ? Only real difference I can see between them is the audio codec which should be fairly easy to switch the drivers. Right ?