Reinstalling OEM Windows 10 with new hardware question.

[toshiroakechi]

Weird situation, I am building a new pc for my roomate, he picked out and bought everything and to save money he said he got a OEM version of windows 10. Now the motherboard he ordered was broken, as was the two replacements. We could get the graphics to work long enough through a gpu to install everything like he wanted, but now we dont trust the motherboard maker to send a working motherboard, so we wanted to wipe the hdd and get a new motherboard to avoid any driver issues or anything else but he got an OEM version of windows 10. Im wondering if I can still format the hdd and get a new board or will I have to keep trying till i get a working board?

 

[USAFRet]

Weird situation, I am building a new pc for my roomate, he picked out and bought everything and to save money he said he got a OEM version of windows 10. Now the motherboard he ordered was broken, as was the two replacements. We could get the graphics to work long enough through a gpu to install everything like he wanted, but now we dont trust the motherboard maker to send a working motherboard, so we wanted to wipe the hdd and get a new motherboard to avoid any driver issues or anything else but he got an OEM version of windows 10. Im wondering if I can still format the hdd and get a new board or will I have to keep trying till i get a working board?

Was this Win 10 ever actually activated?

3 motherboards in a row, bad?
Where are you buying these?
What boards are they?

For a broken motherboard, MS is very good about authorizing the replacement.

 

[toshiroakechi]

Weird situation, I am building a new pc for my roomate, he picked out and bought everything and to save money he said he got a OEM version of windows 10. Now the motherboard he ordered was broken, as was the two replacements. We could get the graphics to work long enough through a gpu to install everything like he wanted, but now we dont trust the motherboard maker to send a working motherboard, so we wanted to wipe the hdd and get a new motherboard to avoid any driver issues or anything else but he got an OEM version of windows 10. Im wondering if I can still format the hdd and get a new board or will I have to keep trying till i get a working board?

Was this Win 10 ever actually activated?

3 motherboards in a row, bad?
Where are you buying these?
What boards are they?

For a broken motherboard, MS is very good about authorizing the replacement.

Not sure, installed off a disk, used the product key and went online with it, assume it was activated =/

yeah they all had broken hdmi ports and would freeze up, same problem with all 3, that was the stand out problems with them, i never tested to see what else could have been broken. Got them from amazon and kept getting them to replace it. Gigabyte gaming AB350-Gaming

 

[mazboy]

If you want to "wipe" the HDD to get a virgin surface, use DBAN (https://dban.org/). It's free and you can boot it from a USB thumb drive even if there is no OS installed. Here's how to use it: http://www.techfleece.com/2013/08/22/how-to-securely-wipe-your-hard-drive-using-dban/

You'll need a program like rufus.exe (http://rufus.akeo.ie/) to get the .iso you download onto a USB stick. It's easy: https://www.wikihow.com/Use-Rufus

 

[USAFRet]

yeah they all had broken hdmi ports and would freeze up, same problem with all 3, that was the stand out problems with them, i never tested to see what else could have been broken. Got them from amazon and kept getting them to replace it. Gigabyte gaming AB350-Gaming

You do know that you can't use the HDMI port on that motherboard, right?
The Ryzen CPU line does not (yet) do any video.
It requires a dedicated GPU. You must plug the monitor into the GPU, not the motherboard.

 

[toshiroakechi]

yeah they all had broken hdmi ports and would freeze up, same problem with all 3, that was the stand out problems with them, i never tested to see what else could have been broken. Got them from amazon and kept getting them to replace it. Gigabyte gaming AB350-Gaming

You do know that you can't use the HDMI port on that motherboard, right?
The Ryzen CPU line does not (yet) do any video.
It requires a dedicated GPU. You must plug the monitor into the GPU, not the motherboard.

I will admit I did not know that....any advice on the freezing?

 

[USAFRet]

yeah they all had broken hdmi ports and would freeze up, same problem with all 3, that was the stand out problems with them, i never tested to see what else could have been broken. Got them from amazon and kept getting them to replace it. Gigabyte gaming AB350-Gaming

You do know that you can't use the HDMI port on that motherboard, right?
The Ryzen CPU line does not (yet) do any video.
It requires a dedicated GPU. You must plug the monitor into the GPU, not the motherboard.

I will admit I did not know that....any advice on the freezing?

So you don't have a GPU?
Or if you do, you connected the monitor to the motherboard?

I'm struggling to figure how you actually got anything to appear on the screen.
Details, please.

 

[toshiroakechi]

yeah they all had broken hdmi ports and would freeze up, same problem with all 3, that was the stand out problems with them, i never tested to see what else could have been broken. Got them from amazon and kept getting them to replace it. Gigabyte gaming AB350-Gaming

You do know that you can't use the HDMI port on that motherboard, right?
The Ryzen CPU line does not (yet) do any video.
It requires a dedicated GPU. You must plug the monitor into the GPU, not the motherboard.

I will admit I did not know that....any advice on the freezing?

So you don't have a GPU?
Or if you do, you connected the monitor to the motherboard?

I'm struggling to figure how you actually got anything to appear on the screen.
Details, please.

I have a gtx970 plugged in now and it does display. I havent tested it with the 3rd board yet but on the last two boards when i tried to use web browsing software or use other kinds of programs like steam the entire thing froze shortly after using them. I'm just gona be testing it for tonight I guess in hopes it all works. Thanks for the info about the Ryzen, I didnt know that. Always build Intel up till now.

 

[USAFRet]

I have a gtx970 plugged in now and it does display. I havent tested it with the 3rd board yet but on the last two boards when i tried to use web browsing software or use other kinds of programs like steam the entire thing froze shortly after using them. I'm just gona be testing it for tonight I guess in hopes it all works. Thanks for the info about the Ryzen, I didnt know that. Always build Intel up till now.

So what led you to think the HDMI port on the motherboard was bad?

 

[Darkbreeze]

The fact that it didn't work. And it didn't work because as you said, there are no Ryzen CPUs yet with integrated graphics. Those ports were put on the board so that they WOULD be capable of using the Raven Ridge APUS, or whatever they are calling them, once they come out.

So you are spot on about why the HDMI ports don't "work". Funny thing is that nobody from Amazon tech support knew to tell them that and just kept replacing them. Of course, that's really not surprising. Bunch of phone monkeys is all they are.


As to the GTX 970 problems, update the motherboard BIOS FIRST. Do that right now. Go to the product page for that motherboard, download the latest bios version and install it. Ryzen motherboards have WELL KNOWN issues with graphics card and memory module compatibility with early bios versions.

Next, after you do that, do this.

*Graphics card CLEAN install tutorial using the DDU*


That would be my advice and I'll let USAFRet handle the rest from here on out.