Changing motherboard.....Need to reinstall windows??

[bingaloman]

Hello, I am changing my motherboard and I have read everywhere that mainly, you have to reinstall windows? I don't understand why you have to do this, can't you just take your old motherboard out and put the new one in, connect everything back and it should work normally?

the motherboard I have now is
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128504&Tpk=ga-78lmt-s2p
which is a Micro ATX

And the one I am changing it to is this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130637&Tpk=msi%20970a
which is a regular ATX motherboard

So is a reinstall necessary? If so why?

And I've also read that instead of reinstalling you can just call Microsoft for a new key?

 

[monsta]

Yes windows must be reinstalled to work on the new motherboard or it wont work , the reason why is beacuse different motherboards use different drivers due to the difference in their hardware. Changing a Motherboard is like a complete overhaul of your system as it manages all of the components.
If the incorrect windows drivers are loaded at start up in the Windows boot procedure then it will not boot up.
Microsoft will not offer you a new key to save you from reinstalation.

 

[akxpckwb]

You reinstall windows to avoid any errors. Since the new motherboard is different from the older one (I'm talking about chipset and other technologies here not the size) it will work in a slightly different way so the same configurations could or could not work in both motherboards.
Besides you can format and install windows on a decent system in like 2 hours maybe less