No OEM License from MS on New Motherboard

[adrian]

Source

“An upgrade of the motherboard is considered to result in a “new personal computer” to which Microsoft® OEM operating system software cannot be transferred from another computer. If the motherboard is upgraded or replaced for reasons other than a defect, then a new computer has been created and the license of new operating system software is required.”

That just made my decision for Vista. I'm now slowly creeping towards Linux.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: No OEM License from MS on New Motherboard

One thing I've noticed when I do rebuilds is that if you have a generic mobo (not Compaq, Dell, HP, whatever) like Biostar, Asus, Soyo, PC Chips or whatever, I've been able to load my original hard drive (with OS) and the BIOS on that generic board will allow that OS to run on that new mobo.

I keep an old 13Gb hard drive loaded with XP on it to test bad computers. I've been able to simply remove the original hard drive on an old generic computer and install this test hard drive and have the system boot right into the OS desktop.

I've also been on occasion been able to remove a hard drive from a Dell computer and install this test hard drive and having it boot to the desktop.

I'd say try and install your original hard drive from your defunct computer and attempt to run your OS on your rebuild. If it works hey you saved some moola!