Replacing the Motherboard

[Woolly_]

Hello, due to changing to a smaller case I am changing from an ASUS B450F Gaming to an ASRock B550M Steel Legend.

What do I need to do in preparation? Remove chipset drivers etc.?

Cheers

 

[Armageus]

Highly unlikely you will need to do anything.

Windows 7 onwards has been excellent when it comes to moving between hardware - it just detects and installs any missing devices on first boot,. B450 and B550 are so similar I doubt you'll have any issues.

Only thing possibly worth doing is downloading the Ethernet driver (assuming you use a wired connection) for the B550M, on the off chance that it's not a common one that's already included with Windows 10/11, as without it you won't be able to get online for Windows to find any missing updates.

 

[Woolly_]

Thank you for the reply and a good suggestion about downloading the ethernet driver.

 

[Tetras]

I'd create backups of all your important files, if you don't have them already.

 

[Blackwhite]

Uninstall old Chipset Drivers and load new ones.

 

[Armageus]

Uninstall old Chipset Drivers and load new ones.

Why?

 

[Blackwhite]

They are different chipsets

 

[Armageus]

They are different chipsets

And?

The driver packs for chipsets these days are unified packs that support multiple chipsets
E.g. read the supported products

https://www.amd.com/en/support/downloads/drivers.html/chipsets/am4/b450.html

Even if not, then since Windows 7 onwards, windows has done a great job of detecting hardware changes, and replacing drivers on first boot to avoid any issues.

As someone who has moved existing windows 10 installs between Intel and AMD machines and back, it just works.

 

[Threepwood]

What do I need to do in preparation?

I went from B3550 to 670e-A which I think is a much larger leap than what you are going to do, I was worried that my win10 installation would not be detected but it worked fine, it even worked with a major gpu change alongside that, so I'm confident that you will be fine

 

[Woolly_]

Thanks all for the responses I'll let you know how I get on when I get chance to swap it out

 

[mattyfez]

I'd just give it a bash and see how you go.
In my secondary machine I recently swapped from a broken gigabyte z170 to a lower end gigabyte board and literally didn't need to do anything..
I'd probably grab Wi-Fi and/or ethernet drivers onto a USB stick as a precaution as you only realy need to ensure you can get online with the new board and once you are online you can do whet ever you need.

 

[moppy89]

Do you need a new windows license when swapping mobos or will it remain activated?

 

[xaldub]

Do you need a new windows license when swapping mobos or will it remain activated?

I needed a new license when I recently changed my motherboard. So expect similar.

 

[Gray2233]

Do you need a new windows license when swapping mobos or will it remain activated?

At worst you might need to reactivate, you shouldn't need to buy a new one.

 

[Gabby]

Do you need a new windows license when swapping mobos or will it remain activated?

Depends on your existing licence. If your current licence is OEM you will possibly need a new licence. If your current licence is retail you will not need a new licence.

Is my licence OEM or Retail?

Open a Command Prompt, type in “Slmgr /dli” and then press Enter. After that, Windows Script Host will pop up a window which will tell you whether your Windows is OEM or Retail

 

[xaldub]

If MS can screw you over, they will. I had a retail license for Windows 11 Pro, and I was still forced to get a new key following a change of motherboard. Seems to be luck of the draw - go in expecting the worst ie. anticipate having to buy a new key, but if reactivation works then rejoice !

 

[moppy89]

Depends on your existing licence. If your current licence is OEM you will possibly need a new licence. If your current licence is retail you will not need a new licence.

Is my licence OEM or Retail?

Open a Command Prompt, type in “Slmgr /dli” and then press Enter. After that, Windows Script Host will pop up a window which will tell you whether your Windows is OEM or Retail

Nice, I'm sure there must be another way to look it up but feels better going through command prompt

 

[moppy89]

I needed a new license when I recently changed my motherboard. So expect similar.

This was my experience in the past but I thought maybe i had a dodgy Windows key since I don't think I've ever bought a "proper" key and mostly got them off places like cdkey. My current version is apparently recognised as retail so we'll see.

I guess the install is just linked to the OS drive? Could you change all the other components and still maintain your Windows install as long as you used the same drive?

 

[xaldub]

This was my experience in the past but I thought maybe i had a dodgy Windows key since I don't think I've ever bought a "proper" key and mostly got them off places like cdkey. My current version is apparently recognised as retail so we'll see.

I guess the install is just linked to the OS drive? Could you change all the other components and still maintain your Windows install as long as you used the same drive?

When you activate a license with MS, a digital key is made and registered on their database. It's my understanding the motherboard is THE critical piece of hardware for verification of that key. Changing CPU or GPU isn't a problem at all.

 

[Tetras]

There have been a lot of changes @ MS with regards to activation since they deactivated Windows 7 & 8 keys and the ease with which you could re-use them in the past may no longer apply and the distinction between OEM & Retail seems to be less relevant.