I built a computer 3 years ago, and several months ago had a power supply
failure. Not knowing at the time that it was just the power supply, I
replaced the Mother Board and the PS at the same time to be safe. I'm still
running the same XP Pro OEM without a hitch.
I thought that the only difference between OEM and Retail, is that Retail
comes with lots of fancy packaging and useless offers, and it also has free
phone support with MS for a certain period of time. Other than that, I'm
under the impression that they are the same as far as application and EULA's
go.
"Carey Frisch [MVP]" <cnfrisch@nospamgmail.com> wrote in message
news:O4TxZoaEGHA.3200@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> The OEM license for Windows XP is tied to
> the original computer hardware it was first
> activated on. Replacing the motherboard
> with a different one constitutes a different
> computer, thus the original OEM license
> is no longer valid with a new motherboard.
> Only a "Retail Version" of Windows XP
> will permit motherboard changes.
>
> --
> Carey Frisch
> Microsoft MVP
> Windows - Shell/User
> Microsoft Community Newsgroups
> news://msnews.microsoft.com/
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "tahoemark" wrote:
>
> | 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
> | >
> | > Help us help you:
> | > http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
> | > http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
> | >
> | > You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
> having
> | > both at once. - RAH
> | >