Reinstalling Windows (OEM version) after Motherboard & CPU upgrade

Allyn Hill · Aug 9, 2015

My Acer Aspire 5542 recently gave up the ghost and the motherboard moved onto the next world. To save money, I've gone with rebuilding the laptop with an upgrade or two. With that in mind... Can anyone tell me if I'm going to be able to boot back into Windows without issue, or if I'll need to install a few drivers to get it running again. My Windows version is an OEM, not retail.

I've upgraded from a standard 5542 motherboard to a 5542G board...
From Model #: MB.PHA01.001
To Model #: MB.PQH01.001

I also took the liberty of upgrading my CPU...
From AMD Athlon II M300 (S1G3 fit)
To AMD Turion II M620 (S1G3 fit)

I plan on changing out the CD drive for a SSD drive, but want to make sure I can get it running again before doing so.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

mbarnes86 · Aug 9, 2015

Hi

Your best bet is connect HDD to another PC and backup any important data

Then try booting from it it and see what happens

It maybe that the models are close enough for windows to think that is still a acer aspire motherboard and carry on working

If you are unlucky you can ask microsofts activation support to re activate windows because of a dead motherboard with a almost identical replacement

If you are unlucky you may have to buy a new copy of windows

Acer XP would probably work on any Acer but from vista onward it was tied to the motherboard model

Re drivers it depends on if the new board has same network, sound , video etc
Wireless cards are often in a mini PCI or mini PCI-e slot so probably transferred to new board

Regards
Mike Barnes

Allyn Hill · Aug 9, 2015

mbarnes86 :

Hi Mike, and thanks for your input.

The only physical difference I can see between the two motherboards is that the new one I will be installing has a dedicated graphics chip on it, and I've had to get a different heatsink/cooling fan to work with the additional chip. I checked Acers website after making my post & found that the '5542' and '5542G' model are not separate, but both fall under the '5542' series.

Hopefully what you say is right - but yes, backing up my data appears to be a must just in case.

Thanks again

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Reinstalling Windows (OEM version) after Motherboard & CPU upgrade

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