repair win7 after change motherboard

[Esteve Valentí]

Hello.

Is it possible to repair win7 after change the motherboard ?
I will try to use the installed the win7 and not format the hd and
reinstall.

Is it possible?

Thank you !

 

[Ed Cryer]

Hello.

Is it possible to repair win7 after change the motherboard ?
I will try to use the installed the win7 and not format the hd and
reinstall.

Is it possible?

Thank you !

I've just had a new motherboard on my new Win7 machine, and it's
perfect; no sign of any change at all. Brought it home, plugged
everything back in and it's as if nothing had happened.

Ed

 

[John]

I've just had a new motherboard on my new Win7 machine, and it's
perfect; no sign of any change at all. Brought it home, plugged
everything back in and it's as if nothing had happened.

Ed

Ed, does your new motherboard have the same chipset as the one you
replaced? This may be why you didn't see any issues.

 

[Ed Cryer]

Ed, does your new motherboard have the same chipset as the one you
replaced? This may be why you didn't see any issues.

I suppose so. Only a few months old and still under manufacturer's
guarantee.
I took it back to the shop, expecting something like a blown fuse, and
the mainboard has been replaced!

Ed

 

[GTS-NJ]

If the CPU and chipset are the same or very similar you will probably be
able to boot and then update device drivers. Otherwise Win 7 will probably
crash on startup. In that case a clean install will be needed.
Unfortunately, the in place repair installation method used with XP is not
possible in Vista and Windows 7.
The only way around this that I know of is an expensive product from Acronis
called Universal Restore.
http://www.acronis.com/backup-recovery/advanced-server/universal-restore.html

 

[Forte]

Hello.

Is it possible to repair win7 after change the motherboard ?
I will try to use the installed the win7 and not format the hd and
reinstall.

Is it possible?

Thank you !

It'll work, but don't attache all devices at once.
A month ago I did the same changing mo/bo
Asus for Giga and it worked OK.

 

[Alex Clayton]

Hello.

Is it possible to repair win7 after change the motherboard ?
I will try to use the installed the win7 and not format the hd and
reinstall.

Is it possible?

Thank you !

I take it you have a retail copy of Win-7? If so of course you just
reinstall it.
If the Computer had an OEM copy then you are most likely in for some
trouble.

 

[Percival P. Cassidy]

I originally installed Win7Pro to a machine with an old AMD dual-core
processor but was still in my 30-day countdown period when a lightning
strike took out the machine. I bought a new motherboard of the same make
but totally different in every other respect and installed a quad-core
CPU, then connected the original hd with the Win7Pro installation. The
resolution was horrible and many of the devices were not recognized, but
Windows found all (or maybe almost all -- I no longer remember clearly)
the necessary drivers on the Internet. I then went ahead and activated
it without a problem.

Perce

 

[Alex Clayton]

And what trouble would that be? If you have a generic OEM version of Win
7, you are permitted to upgrade hardware. You may not move it to another
computer but upgrading hardware on a computer is not moving it to another
computer.

What you say you are "permitted" to do, and what happens in the real world
are two very different things. I know there are links to parts of MS's site
that claim this is OK to do, or at least I have been told they do, but I
know from first hand experience that it does not work that way. I paid
another $100.00 to "fix" one machine when Acer put a new MB in it with the
same license. Acer refused to use the muscle I am sure they have with MS to
"fix" it and I got tired of the run around so I just paid. I was told I
could sue MS in small claims court or spend untold hours on the phone
haranguing different customer service reps and they would have given me a
new key to make the old license work.
Since I have limited time or patience for this kind of thing I elected to
just pay the $100.00 for a new key and not buy another Acer product.

 

[Alex Clayton]

I suspect the muscle involved with those two belongs MS, not Acer.

Both are large corporations, and both "need" each other. Both of course
could basically care less about one customer here or there since they are of
course looking at the bottom line.
Since Acer caused the trouble I have no doubt they could have easily
"fixed it" they chose to just string me along waiting for either the
warranty to run out or for me to throw in the towel and leave them alone. I
am sure the people there who refused to help could care less that I will not
be likely to buy another one of their products.
As for MS, they have such a huge market share that they too don't have to
care. I am not willing to pay what a Mac costs, and I tried Linux and was
not willing to spend the time needed to learn how to use it.

You should have used the phone activation again (and hence gotten another
help desk clerk) and acted like a newbie and say your computer is asking
you to activate and you haven't a clue as to what the reason is. Better
yet, you should have gotten your wife to make the call. Honesty isn't
always the best policy. It could cost you a hundred whoppers and a whole
lot of frustration ;-)

Yes I received several "helpful" suggestions like that. Such as spend half
my free time on the phone to MS, or sue them, or go camp out on the lawn at
Redmond until the media took up my case. Since I am semi retired now and do
have some free time these days I have better ways to spend it so I elected
to take the easy route. If others want to spend huge chunks of their life
tilting at windmills that's fine with me. It is after all their life. I just
warn people who are told things like "just slap that MF-ing new MB in that
sucker at it will work", that, that in not quite the way it works in the
real world. I have no doubt that if someone who has an OEM license replaces
a MB they could get it to work, but I warn them that it is not as simple as
some would have them believe.

 

[Alex Clayton]

My method would have taken less than half an hour. The dumber you seem
when you use phone activation, the quicker they get rid of you and the
quickest way to get rid of someone is to just give them the activation
code. My suggestion isn't even remotely similar to the suggestions you
outline above.

Yes you "claim" your method works, but back when I was going through this
you made some other claims that did not work, even though you were "sure"
they would.

Another way is to go to where you bought the Acer computer at a time when
there are a lot of shoppers and in a loud, but polite, voice explain what
the problem is and see how quickly they resolve it for you.

ROTFLMAO!! You bet!! I bought it at Best Buy on a Black Friday sale. I am
sure going into BB and raising hell would have had the manager handing me a
new laptop because Acer replaced the MB for me and now it will not work.
Anyone who believes that, hey have at it, as I said I have better things to
do with my time.

If this happens again, will you merrily shell out another 100 bucks?

Yes, given the choice of camping out at Redmond, going to Best Buy and
raising hell which would do nothing, calling MS over and over to be told
"sorry call Acer, or sending it back to Acer at about $15.00 a pop only to
have it last 30 days and have to start over, yes, I would again shell out
the $100.00.
Of course my simple answer to this is I will most likely go the rest of my
life and never buy anything Acer makes again.
As for Linux Mint color me skeptical at best. After the trouble with Acer
I was in the market for a new Desktop and of course did not buy another
E-Machine, but did buy another nice desktop. So I do have a perfectly good
machine sitting in my attic that I used when I tried Ubunto. I guess maybe
one of these days if I ever get caught up on the "around the house" to do
list and find my self with untold free time on my hands and nothing to do I
may get that down and load Mint on it to try. I don't really foresee that
happening in this life though.

 

[felmon]

Suit yourself.

someday I will be retired, possibly in not too long awhile, and I hope
I'll still be in the mood to pop a disk in or boot from a usb drive to
try something new on a computer.

Alias, I was a bit miffed with Mint 9 which I tried installing on a
colleague's computer, a Dell Studio something-or-other laptop. everything
was fine but there was some network problem. worked alright but he had to
restart the network each time he booted in.

some student ran it off an ubuntu disk and no problem! the student claims
ubuntu is really catching up with Mint in ease of installation, hardware
recognition. I think the fellow now has Win 7 as well as Mint and Ubuntu.

he blew me away because he insisted on trying to install ubuntu himself -
did so, no problem. uncommonly adventurous.

Felmon