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Possible to replace motherboard & CPU without re-installing windows?

Tags:
  • Windows
  • Windows 7
  • CPUs
  • Motherboards
Last response: in Windows 7
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a b V Motherboard
August 5, 2014 10:20:06 AM

Good day all.

I'm going to upgrade my PC soon. A new Motherboard and CPU have been bought and are gonna be shipped to me soon. I will be using all the other stuff from my old PC except those two new parts. They will be put in a new case (not that it matters lol). I would prefer to simply take out my hard drive with windows as is, and connect it to the new motherboard and CPU and simply start the system up.

This is my current hardware:
CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 710
Motherboard: Asus M4A78T-E
Chipset: AMD 790GX / SB 750
GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD6850
Lots of other irrelevant stuff

New hardware will be:
CPU: AMD FX-8320
Motherboard: Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0
Chipset: AMD 990FX / SB950
GPU: Same as above.
Lots of other irrelevant stuff

Can I swap my motherboard and CPU as described above without having to re-install windows and without running into major problems? I have a retail version of Windows 7 Pro 64-bit.
If it's not possible, which precautions should I take? I definitely do not want to install a clean version of windows since I have over 500GB of software installed. I don't want to re-install all that all over again xD

More about : replace motherboard cpu installing windows

a b $ Windows 7
August 5, 2014 10:22:37 AM

Windows 7 may load with basic drivers, but you'll be better placed to backup your important files and do a clean install as it will be more effort than it's worth getting your Windows install running smoothly
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a b à CPUs
a b V Motherboard
August 5, 2014 10:29:42 AM

its against Windows 7 EAULA swapping hardware.cause Windows 7 is attached to hardware and caNNot be changed!!!!
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a b à CPUs
a b V Motherboard
August 5, 2014 10:43:45 AM

AMD to AMD usually works fine.
Before swapping, uninstall all AMD drivers and then do the swap.
Also might be worth booting in to safe mode first after swap.
Always back up your data though.
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a b V Motherboard
August 5, 2014 2:20:42 PM

Uninstalling all AMD drivers... You mean going through device manager and manually uninstalling all chipset drivers?
What will safe mode do exactly?

Thanks.
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August 27, 2014 3:13:30 AM

If you have OEM you won't be able to upgrade, if you have retail you should.
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a c 376 $ Windows 7
a b à CPUs
a b V Motherboard
August 27, 2014 5:51:39 AM

kapitalistas said:
its against Windows 7 EAULA swapping hardware.cause Windows 7 is attached to hardware and caNNot be changed!!!!


This is only true for the OEM versions. And even then Microsoft has been known to re-register and OEM license if a system crashed and the motherboard had to be replaced. The Retail version is OK to reinstall as long as it's only installed on one system at a time.
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a b V Motherboard
August 27, 2014 5:38:37 PM

Thanks guys. It worked... But... The computer was abnormally slow, so I ended up re-installing windows anyway.
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