Vista Ultimate OEM Re-Install...

Ok, I purchased my PC from a local Pc builder. It came with a packaged Vista
Ultimate OEM which I have activated and everything was good for a few
months....

Now, my mainboard has just failed, taking my processor with it and after
consultation with the builder I am going to take the opportunity to upgrade
to an AM2 board and a dual core processor. This means, however, that I will
not be able to use my memory (DDR) or my graphics card (AGP) and so I am
upgrading those too.

Now, I am keeping my hard-drive and optical drives, just replacing /
upgrading my motherboard, memory and graphics card.

Am I going to be able to re-install / reactivate my Vista with these
hardware changes or do I have to contact Microsoft in order to get
re-activated? If I contact Microsoft, what number / department do I call?

Thanx in advance guys / girls.

Inevitably, you will have to activate over the phone.. Instructions should
be given at the point of install..


"Andy McDonald" <AndyMcDonald@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:74A32978-AC4A-4FD4-B8EB-A08538876DA7@microsoft.com...
> Ok, I purchased my PC from a local Pc builder. It came with a packaged
> Vista
> Ultimate OEM which I have activated and everything was good for a few
> months....
>
> Now, my mainboard has just failed, taking my processor with it and after
> consultation with the builder I am going to take the opportunity to
> upgrade
> to an AM2 board and a dual core processor. This means, however, that I
> will
> not be able to use my memory (DDR) or my graphics card (AGP) and so I am
> upgrading those too.
>
> Now, I am keeping my hard-drive and optical drives, just replacing /
> upgrading my motherboard, memory and graphics card.
>
> Am I going to be able to re-install / reactivate my Vista with these
> hardware changes or do I have to contact Microsoft in order to get
> re-activated? If I contact Microsoft, what number / department do I call?
>
> Thanx in advance guys / girls.

Will there be any problems do you think? If not, thats great news I
don't mind calling them as long as they allow me to activate again

Thanx for the reply

"Mike Hall - MVP" wrote:

> Inevitably, you will have to activate over the phone.. Instructions should
> be given at the point of install..
>
>
> "Andy McDonald" <AndyMcDonald@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:74A32978-AC4A-4FD4-B8EB-A08538876DA7@microsoft.com...
> > Ok, I purchased my PC from a local Pc builder. It came with a packaged
> > Vista
> > Ultimate OEM which I have activated and everything was good for a few
> > months....
> >
> > Now, my mainboard has just failed, taking my processor with it and after
> > consultation with the builder I am going to take the opportunity to
> > upgrade
> > to an AM2 board and a dual core processor. This means, however, that I
> > will
> > not be able to use my memory (DDR) or my graphics card (AGP) and so I am
> > upgrading those too.
> >
> > Now, I am keeping my hard-drive and optical drives, just replacing /
> > upgrading my motherboard, memory and graphics card.
> >
> > Am I going to be able to re-install / reactivate my Vista with these
> > hardware changes or do I have to contact Microsoft in order to get
> > re-activated? If I contact Microsoft, what number / department do I call?
> >
> > Thanx in advance guys / girls.
>
>

Hi,

An OEM package is generally not transferrable to new hardware, this is a
limitation of the OEM version versus a retail one. It is usually permanently
associated with the machine it is activated on. Replacing as much as you are
will be seen as a new system and may require that you purchase a new
license. However, you lose nothing by going ahead with the install and
attempting phone activation. You'll need to get through to a real person,
and they may go ahead and activate it based on the fact that the change was
necessitated by the system failure.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"Andy McDonald" <AndyMcDonald@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:74A32978-AC4A-4FD4-B8EB-A08538876DA7@microsoft.com...
> Ok, I purchased my PC from a local Pc builder. It came with a packaged
> Vista
> Ultimate OEM which I have activated and everything was good for a few
> months....
>
> Now, my mainboard has just failed, taking my processor with it and after
> consultation with the builder I am going to take the opportunity to
> upgrade
> to an AM2 board and a dual core processor. This means, however, that I
> will
> not be able to use my memory (DDR) or my graphics card (AGP) and so I am
> upgrading those too.
>
> Now, I am keeping my hard-drive and optical drives, just replacing /
> upgrading my motherboard, memory and graphics card.
>
> Am I going to be able to re-install / reactivate my Vista with these
> hardware changes or do I have to contact Microsoft in order to get
> re-activated? If I contact Microsoft, what number / department do I call?
>
> Thanx in advance guys / girls.

Let the builder reinstall the OEM version of VISTA...........and activate
it.
With all that new hardware your Vista will not start anyway..due to the
changes your drivers for most things will not match whats on the system.
peter
"Andy McDonald" <AndyMcDonald@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:74A32978-AC4A-4FD4-B8EB-A08538876DA7@microsoft.com...
> Ok, I purchased my PC from a local Pc builder. It came with a packaged
> Vista
> Ultimate OEM which I have activated and everything was good for a few
> months....
>
> Now, my mainboard has just failed, taking my processor with it and after
> consultation with the builder I am going to take the opportunity to
> upgrade
> to an AM2 board and a dual core processor. This means, however, that I
> will
> not be able to use my memory (DDR) or my graphics card (AGP) and so I am
> upgrading those too.
>
> Now, I am keeping my hard-drive and optical drives, just replacing /
> upgrading my motherboard, memory and graphics card.
>
> Am I going to be able to re-install / reactivate my Vista with these
> hardware changes or do I have to contact Microsoft in order to get
> re-activated? If I contact Microsoft, what number / department do I call?
>
> Thanx in advance guys / girls.

Thank you all for your relplies.
Just a follow up.

After speaking to a Microsoft support rep via the phone activation as
suggested, they very kindly reset my activation and I have now successfully
re-activated my Vista Ultimate on my new hardware.

Regards

Andy

"peter" wrote:

> Let the builder reinstall the OEM version of VISTA...........and activate
> it.
> With all that new hardware your Vista will not start anyway..due to the
> changes your drivers for most things will not match whats on the system.
> peter
> "Andy McDonald" <AndyMcDonald@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:74A32978-AC4A-4FD4-B8EB-A08538876DA7@microsoft.com...
> > Ok, I purchased my PC from a local Pc builder. It came with a packaged
> > Vista
> > Ultimate OEM which I have activated and everything was good for a few
> > months....
> >
> > Now, my mainboard has just failed, taking my processor with it and after
> > consultation with the builder I am going to take the opportunity to
> > upgrade
> > to an AM2 board and a dual core processor. This means, however, that I
> > will
> > not be able to use my memory (DDR) or my graphics card (AGP) and so I am
> > upgrading those too.
> >
> > Now, I am keeping my hard-drive and optical drives, just replacing /
> > upgrading my motherboard, memory and graphics card.
> >
> > Am I going to be able to re-install / reactivate my Vista with these
> > hardware changes or do I have to contact Microsoft in order to get
> > re-activated? If I contact Microsoft, what number / department do I call?
> >
> > Thanx in advance guys / girls.
>
>