Replacing motherboard on prebuilt PC, do I need to buy windows 8?

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HITMAN2K47

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Jun 14, 2014
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So my prebuilt pc has an MSI H61M-P31/W8 motherboard and I want to upgrade to a Gigabyte Z87-HD3 will I need to buy windows 8 and fresh install it or can I just re-activate it on the new motherboard, I'm using the same HDD.
 
Solution
USAFRet
The licensing agreement with a prebuilt does not allow for use on a 'different PC'. ' New motherboard = 'Different PC
Exception might be in the case of a motherboard fail and replacement. But changing just because you want a new one, no.

If you had bought Win 8 and installed it yourself, no problem. Preinstalled from the factory is a different issue.
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HEXiT

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Mar 13, 2011
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you can just reactivate it but you may have to call microsoft to do so, you will need to talk to them rather than just verifying the code and tell them its needed because of a motherboard upgrade.
i had to do this back with xp. i spoke to them 1s and after that they allowed multiple more activations of my xp as i upgraded more and more.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Mar 16, 2013
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The licensing agreement with a prebuilt does not allow for use on a 'different PC'. ' New motherboard = 'Different PC
Exception might be in the case of a motherboard fail and replacement. But changing just because you want a new one, no.

If you had bought Win 8 and installed it yourself, no problem. Preinstalled from the factory is a different issue.
 
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Solution
USAFRet

USAFRet

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The licensing for Win 8 is completely different than it was with XP, or even Win 7.
 
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HITMAN2K47

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Jun 14, 2014
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Ok, thanks for the answer if I buy windows 8 and re-install it to my HDD will it get rid of the files on it?

 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Yes. A clean install will do that.
So save anything critical elsewhere and offline. Which you should do during any major hardware change, like swapping a motherboard.
 
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HITMAN2K47

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Jun 14, 2014
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It was pre-installed
 
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6R1M01R3

6R1M01R3

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May 25, 2014
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Oh, indeed. OS licenses work differently for prebuilt systems.
 
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