New to this trying to upgrade motherboard without reinstalling windows

I would. I tried not to reload after purchasing my mobo, and it was really buggy. After the reload it worked like it should.

In general you can not do a motherboard transplant without re installing Windows. You will never get it stable even if you could get it to run at all. Your best bet would be a complete re-format and install. What sort of problem were you having with your product key? I have re installed a lot over the years and have only had to call it in once and even then it only took maybe five minutes to get the conformation code and it was done.

u can let the windows try and adapt it probably will, just remove the old drivers first

i was getting rid of the dell hardware in my computer. i got a cheap 50 dollar board and slapped it in there. i used an upgrade disc to take the dell windows 7 pro off and put the home premium on there. no problems there. then when i did a fresh install the product key wouldn't work. i had to install xp then upgrade to 7 and still call microsoft to have them activate it for me which they did when i told them what was going on but they sounded reluctant. i just dont want to go spend the money on a decent board and cpu only to not be able to use them because i have to reinstall windows.

Also i have no idea where the drivers would be located on my system to delete

right click my computer , properties , device manager and remove the lan , audio drivers , that or use the drivers CD to uninstall them