No OEM XP Reactivation After Death of Motherboard

[Guest EdwardATeller]

One of my customer's PC's was knocked out by a power surge through the

modem connection. It has an OEM copy of XP home. It is my

understanding that if I replace the motherboard, then she will have to

buy a new OS if she wants one from Microsoft. This basically means

her computer is a pile of junk.

[Guest RJK]

Re: No OEM XP Reactivation After Death of Motherboard

 

I've replaced motherboards, sometimes up to three times in lots of PC's

with OEM XP and never had to 'phone a MS regional office once !!!

 

regards, Richard

 

 

"EdwardATeller" <sorry_no_email@yahoo.com> wrote in message

news:8f03c01f-7bb0-4ed7-9014-b4bbb1e20dec@25g2000hsx.googlegroups.com...

> One of my customer's PC's was knocked out by a power surge through the

> modem connection. It has an OEM copy of XP home. It is my

> understanding that if I replace the motherboard, then she will have to

> buy a new OS if she wants one from Microsoft. This basically means

> her computer is a pile of junk.

[Guest M.I.5¾]

Re: No OEM XP Reactivation After Death of Motherboard

 

 

"EdwardATeller" <sorry_no_email@yahoo.com> wrote in message

news:8f03c01f-7bb0-4ed7-9014-b4bbb1e20dec@25g2000hsx.googlegroups.com...

> One of my customer's PC's was knocked out by a power surge through the

> modem connection. It has an OEM copy of XP home. It is my

> understanding that if I replace the motherboard, then she will have to

> buy a new OS if she wants one from Microsoft. This basically means

> her computer is a pile of junk.

 

It depends on the exact version of XP. If the replacement motherboard is

exactly the same, chances are that there should be no problem.

[Guest p]

Re: No OEM XP Reactivation After Death of Motherboard

 

EdwardATeller wrote:

> One of my customer's PC's was knocked out by a power surge through the

> modem connection. It has an OEM copy of XP home. It is my

> understanding that if I replace the motherboard, then she will have to

> buy a new OS if she wants one from Microsoft. This basically means

> her computer is a pile of junk.

 

She may update/replace computer parts to her heart's content and if it's

been over 120 days since the last activation, it will activate on line.

If not, use phone activation and tell them what happened and they will

activate it for her.

 

That said, you can try a repair install after replacing the motherboard

but more than likely, you will need to do a clean install.

 

P

[Guest Twayne]

Re: No OEM XP Reactivation After Death of Motherboard

 

> One of my customer's PC's was knocked out by a power surge through the

> modem connection. It has an OEM copy of XP home. It is my

> understanding that if I replace the motherboard, then she will have to

> buy a new OS if she wants one from Microsoft. This basically means

> her computer is a pile of junk.

 

Your understanding is wrong. Go to MS; get the straight info.

[Guest Bruce Chambers]

Re: No OEM XP Reactivation After Death of Motherboard

 

EdwardATeller wrote:

> One of my customer's PC's was knocked out by a power surge through the

> modem connection. It has an OEM copy of XP home. It is my

> understanding that if I replace the motherboard, then she will have to

> buy a new OS if she wants one from Microsoft. This basically means

> her computer is a pile of junk.

 

 

Your understanding is wrong. Advise your "customer" to take the

computer to someone who's actually in the business of repairing them

professionally. (And where such a question wouldn't even arise.)

 

 

--

 

Bruce Chambers

 

Help us help you:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

 

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

 

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary

safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

 

Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand Russell

 

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has

killed a great many philosophers.

~ Denis Diderot

[Guest Kelly]

Re: No OEM XP Reactivation After Death of Motherboard

 

Yikes, that was a bit harsh Bruce...but true!

--

 

All the Best,

Kelly (MS-MVP/DTS&XP)

 

Taskbar Repair Tool Plus!

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm

 

SupportSpace

http://www.supportspace.com/pages?aiu=kellyskorner

 

"Bruce Chambers" <bchambers@cable0ne.n3t> wrote in message

news:OanExvE4IHA.2524@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

> EdwardATeller wrote:

>> One of my customer's PC's was knocked out by a power surge through the

>> modem connection. It has an OEM copy of XP home. It is my

>> understanding that if I replace the motherboard, then she will have to

>> buy a new OS if she wants one from Microsoft. This basically means

>> her computer is a pile of junk.

>

>

> Your understanding is wrong. Advise your "customer" to take the computer

> to someone who's actually in the business of repairing them

> professionally. (And where such a question wouldn't even arise.)

>

>

> --

>

> Bruce Chambers

>

> Help us help you:

> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

>

> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375

>

> They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary

> safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. ~Benjamin Franklin

>

> Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. ~Bertrand

> Russell

>

> The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has

> killed a great many philosophers.

> ~ Denis Diderot

[Guest Ken Blake, MVP]

Re: No OEM XP Reactivation After Death of Motherboard

 

On Mon, 7 Jul 2008 02:24:52 -0700 (PDT), EdwardATeller

<sorry_no_email@yahoo.com> wrote:

> One of my customer's PC's was knocked out by a power surge through the

> modem connection. It has an OEM copy of XP home. It is my

> understanding that if I replace the motherboard, then she will have to

> buy a new OS if she wants one from Microsoft. This basically means

> her computer is a pile of junk.

 

 

 

That's not correct. There are two potential issues here, a physical

one and a licensing one:

 

1. The physical issue. If this OEM copy is one installed by a major

OEM, such as Dell, it is probably BIOS-locked to the motherboard. If

so, it would be necessary to replace the motherboard with an identical

one, otherwise that copy of Windows would not install.

 

But if it's a generic OEM copy of Windows, not one specifically from a

particular OEM's computers, that's not an issue at all.

 

2. The licensing issue. An OEM copy is licensed for only use on the

original computer it was installed on, and may not be moved to another

one. For a long time, it wasn't clear exactly what constituted the

original computer, and many people felt that replacing the motherboard

made it a different computer.

 

However, Microsoft has clarified the situation. See

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/a...

or http://tinyurl.com/384gx5

 

which says,

 

"You might have to activate Windows again in a number of instances,

such as:

 

....

 

You make a significant hardware change to your computer, such as

upgrading the hard disk drive and memory at the same time or replacing

the motherboard in your OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer)

computer."

 

Although this page is about Vista, the same is presumably true of XP,

and this clarifies that replacing the motherboard is specifically

permitted.

 

 

--

Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

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