Changed motherboard - Unable to activate Windows 10

Soldato
Joined
19 May 2009
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3,113
Location
Cannock
Seem to be hitting a brick wall with this.

I'm trying to reactivate my Windows 10 Pro license (Upgraded from Windows 7 Retail last July) since changing my motherboard. I go through settings > troubleshoot > recently changed hardware, but I always hit this error:

We can’t reactivate Windows because our servers aren’t available at the moment. Wait for a few minutes, or try adding your Microsoft account again.

Having seen this sort of error on Apple hardware before, I suspect it actually means "actually you're not eligible to do this, go do one"

Any ideas?
 
I had the same problem earlier. Went on live chat with a MS technician and allowed them to take remote access. They asked for proof of my new MB, the invoice and within a matter of minutes the whole process was complete and Win 10 authorised. Try it and see how you get on.
 
Well it took an hour, but it all worked out in the end. Luckily I keep a record of all my old license keys so I think that helped, but they ended up having to generate a new Windows 10 Pro key as mine was allegedly just a default key even though it was activated?

No need for an invoice which was good news and I had a customer rep with a sense of humour and knew how to use logmein to it's full advantage:

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;)

Thanks Spiki!
 
I did the same before, I refused them access (not giving that to anyone) and they still reset my licence key so it activated fine - I think from memory there's an issue with one of the older versions of W10 so actually updating it to the latest build allowed the old key to be used again and activate.
 
I did the same before, I refused them access (not giving that to anyone) and they still reset my licence key so it activated fine - I think from memory there's an issue with one of the older versions of W10 so actually updating it to the latest build allowed the old key to be used again and activate.

Microsoft isn't out to hack you or scour your hard drive for questionable pornography choices...
 
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