Upgrading Mobo - Vista OEM Question

I've had a quick search and can't see anything that directly relates to this so...

I have recently bought a new motherboard (Gigabyte GA P35 SD3L) and am in the process of transferring all of my components from the old one... having problems with the drivers, as Vista just BSOD's as soon as it loads (I'm pretty certain it's motherboard driver issues) but as I have a pre-installed OEM version of Home Premium, I don't have the disc to repair it... can I buy a retail upgrade version of HP and use that to repair my current version (and use the new licence key to activate it) as I don't want to do a cleam install as I've got a fair few programs that I have downloaded and installed?

I also have a mate who has his copy (not sure if it's OEM or retail) and I may try to do a repair using that. If it works, and Vista doesn't activate, can I contact MS and see if they can reactivate the key for the new mobo?

Cheers!

You are lucky to even get the PC to boot with a new motherboard. Usually when you switch motherboards without re-installing the OS, the PC will not even boot. And when it does, it is almost always glitchy as you are describing.

I would suggest buying a new copy(because the OEM's that come with pre-builts are usually tied to the motherboard, and will not install with a different one.) of Windows and doing a fresh install, that would be the best option.

If you know someone with a Vista disc, a repair might work... Repairs never seem to work for me. (XP) You might even be able to use that disk to reinstall Vista using your cd key. (assuming you have one) And if you get your Vista working again and it de-activates you can call MS and re-activate it. When I did it they just asked that it was only installed on one PC.

If you reinstall without formating, your data will still be there. But your programs will have to be re-installed because the registry entries for them will be gone. Sometimes keeping the programs there, then re-installing into the same folder is helpful, as it can sometimes restore settings/history/etc.

Cool, I'll give the repair route a try first then, and see what happens! Technically it's the same PC it's installed on, as I'm just transferring the HDD, but will MS see it like that... hmmm :)

OEM versions of Windows are strictly tied down to the motherboard on first install. So even if you used another motherboard of the same make\model, its still a different motherboard and you would need to purchase a new Windows license. **** yes, but until Linux becomes more popular for developers, thats going to be the situation. You could try repair install with a new purchase of Windows. This would leave all your applications and data intact, except for one thing. A repair install would also leav your drivers intact. If you are changing your motherboard, this will probably result in a blue screen. You must uninstall your graphics drivers, chipset drivers and sound card drivers before making the swap. Then reintsall these drivers after you have done the Windows repair install.

Good luck

OEM versions of Windows are strictly tied down to the motherboard on first install. So even if you used another motherboard of the same make\model, its still a different motherboard and you would need to purchase a new Windows license. ****

Neme2010

You can call the MS call center and re-activate. Unless things have changed.