Can you change MOBO and CPU without reinstalling windows?

nheather · Monday at 16:56

Hi,

First of all, I appreciate that it is generally better to do a fresh install.

But, thinking of changing my MOBO and CPU, from i5-4960K to i5-9600K, what would happen if I change over the motherboard and CPU but left the SSD alone, what would happen when I tried to boot the PC.

Would it not boot?

If it did boot would I need to re-authenticate windows?

5abr3 · Monday at 17:00

I swapped from an i6700k to a 7800x3d without reinstalling.

Windows is much better at dealing with this than it used to be.

Windows did need reauthenticating but that was pretty trivial too.

jaybee · Monday at 17:33

It will typically boot up fine and act as before but upon entering windows a couple of things might happen:

1: Windows may complain that it needs to reactivate as it has detected one or more hardware changes. It basically has a threshold where if too much is changed, it does this in case the install has moved to a new computer. A mobo change alone usually triggers this.
2: Some drivers (cpu and chipset related) may flag as needing to update or install. Check device manager.

Usually you can just get windows to reactivate by clicking through the wizard. What used to happen at worst case, is you had to "phone microsoft" which often involved listening to an automated message where you read out a key phrase, and you get given back a licence key as I recall. Uber worst case you have to speak to someone.

Nemiyen · Tuesday at 11:05

You can, but you probably shouldn't.

Windows is glitchy at the best of times and swapping major components like that could cause issues down the line.

If you don't get any issues then it might be fine but a blue screen in a month's time will make you wonder if it's a one off or due to you saving a few hours not reinstalling.

mikemod · Tuesday at 11:13

I went from Intel 8700K to AMD 9800x3D.
It just took a couple of reboots to get the drivers installed and it has been running for the last 4 months with no issues.
Windows just reactivated, I think I had to pick what hardware was associated with the licence and I just picked the new stuff.

You can show "hidden devices" in device manager and delete the old drivers, that you no longer use, if you want.