Bruce,
I'm a little confused (so what's new?)--I built this computer several years
ago and as I said I just replaced the motherboard and cpu. I reformatted the
old hard drive and installed windowsxp pro oem which is the license I had
bought for the original 4 year old computer. So is it possible to activate
this or not. I tried doing it by internet and telephone and no luck. The
telephone method had me taking to a computer and entering a 50 digit product
id number and than said the id wasn't any good. I couldn't figure out how to
talk to a human being.

thanks
mark

"Bruce Chambers" wrote:

> tahoemark wrote:
> > I decided to replace my aging motherboard and processor and now I'm asked to
> > activate windows. I follow the activation process and it tells me that my
> > product key is invalid or something like that.
>
>
> Normally, and assuming a retail license (many factory-installed OEM
> installations are BIOS-locked to a specific chipset and therefore not
> transferable to a new motherboard - check yours before starting), unless
> the new motherboard is virtually identical (same chipset, same IDE
> controllers, same BIOS version, etc.) to the one on which the WinXP
> installation was originally performed, you'll need to perform a repair
> (a.k.a. in-place upgrade) installation, at the very least:
>
> How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade of Windows XP
> http://support.microsoft.com/directo...;EN-US;Q315341
>
> The "why" is quite simple, really, and has nothing to do with
> licensing issues, per se; it's a purely technical matter, at this point.
> You've pulled the proverbial hardware rug out from under the OS. (If
> you don't like -- or get -- the rug analogy, think of it as picking up a
> Cape Cod style home and then setting it down onto a Ranch style
> foundation. It just isn't going to fit.) WinXP, like Win2K before it,
> is not nearly as "promiscuous" as Win9x when it comes to accepting any
> old hardware configuration you throw at it. On installation it
> "tailors" itself to the specific hardware found. This is one of the
> reasons that the entire WinNT/2K/XP OS family is so much more stable
> than the Win9x group.
>
> As always when undertaking such a significant change, back up any
> important data before starting.
>
> This will also probably require re-activation, unless you have a
> Volume Licensed version of WinXP Pro installed. If it's been more than
> 120 days since you last activated that specific Product Key, you'll most
> likely be able to activate via the Internet without problem. If it's
> been less, you might have to make a 5 minute phone call.
>
>
> --
>
> Bruce Chambers
>
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>
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> both at once. - RAH
>