Motherboard swap out question

JulesP · 12 Nov 2015

I'm having a few problems with my pc and am now fairly convinced its the motherboard.

I'm tempted to buy a new mobo and swap it out - technically not an issue as I built the pc and am an electronics engineer, but I'm not 100% with Windows and its little quirks.
Will I be able to swap out the motherboard and use my old processor and RAM etc (they should all be compatible with the board I'm looking at) and will it boot straight in to Windows 10 or will I need to reinstall?
I'm guessing Win10 will need reactivation but I'm just concerned that it won't boot straight up.

Hope that makes sense and any advice appreciated

Julian

connersz · 12 Nov 2015

I can't see that you will need to re-install it. I built a new PC recently and moved my laptop SSD straight into it without issue.

Ploddles · 12 Nov 2015

You shouldn't need to reinstall but would would probably need to update/change drivers for the new motherboard.

JulesP · 12 Nov 2015

Thanks folks - was hoping that would be the case

Jimbu · 13 Nov 2015

Ploddles said:
You shouldn't need to reinstall but would would probably need to update/change drivers for the new motherboard.

This, relatively straight forward. Just need all the new mobo drivers.

neil_g · 14 Nov 2015

depends which way the wind is blowing.

ive had replacement boards of the same model but slightly different revision blue screen constantly until the OS was reinstalled.

best way, uninstall all of the current motherboard drivers before shutting down to swap the board. and then cross everything when turning on for the first time.

you'll chances are you'll also need to rerun the windows activation, and if its OEM you may have to phone them up.

JulesP · 14 Nov 2015

I'll find out later - new motherboard arrived today

JulesP · 14 Nov 2015

It doesn't like it - got to do a full re-install. Oh well at least it'll clean things up (again).

Luckily I have my win10 key so no worries. Not sure how I'll get hold of office 2016 again though (legit download from work).
Photoshop CC shouldn't be a problem either (I hope).

JulesP · 16 Nov 2015

All up and running well so far. Had to go through Microsoft to get a new key for win10 as it didn't like that at all.
The only things not swapped out now are CPU and PSU.
Would have probably been easier to buy a new PC but where's the fun in that?