Swapping Motherboards - Do I Need To Reinstall Windows?

[suzerain_00]

I'm going from an ASRock B350 Pro4 to an MSI X470 Gaming Plus. I wanted to know if I need to reinstall windows to get everything functioning properly, or do I just need to uninstall my previous motherboards utilities and drivers and reinstall the new boards utilities and drivers.

Thanks!

[averagebilly]

3 minutes ago, ExodusR said:

I'm going from an ASRock B350 Pro4 to an MSI X470 Gaming Plus. I wanted to know if I need to reinstall windows to get everything functioning properly, or do I just need to uninstall my previous motherboards utilities and drivers and reinstall the new boards utilities and drivers.

Thanks!

Hard to tell. Windows can be picky about when you need to reinstall. Even if it works, I would still reinstall it.

[Boinbo]

4 minutes ago, ExodusR said:

I'm going from an ASRock B350 Pro4 to an MSI X470 Gaming Plus. I wanted to know if I need to reinstall windows to get everything functioning properly, or do I just need to uninstall my previous motherboards utilities and drivers and reinstall the new boards utilities and drivers.

Thanks!

I'm fairly sure it's the latter, but don't quote me on this, there are more experienced people to help you out.

[suzerain_00]

Just now, averagebilly said:

Hard to tell. Windows can be picky about when you need to reinstall. Even if it works, I would still reinstall it.

I would imagine. I'll give it a shot without a complete reinstall and see how things go - otherwise we're starting from scratch

[suzerain_00]

1 minute ago, Boinbo said:

I'm fairly sure it's the latter, but don't quote me on this, there are more experienced people to help you out.

Guess we'll have to wait and see if Windows craps out from a mobo swap. Wish me luck!

[Boinbo]

Just now, ExodusR said:

Guess we'll have to wait and see if Windows craps out from a mobo swap. Wish me luck!

Luck!

[averagebilly]

1 minute ago, ExodusR said:

Guess we'll have to wait and see if Windows craps out from a mobo swap. Wish me luck!

Have at it! Good luck.

[moriel5]

To chime on what @averagebilly had said, Windows can be very problematic when switching hardware, I have seen instances such as a situation where it worked after switching from an Intel based laptop to an AMD based laptop (I forget the brands, though they were different), as well as situations where switching the motherboard to another chipset by the same maker, from the same vendor (i.e. Intel Gigabyte to Intel Gigabyte), and it freaked out.

 

Hopefully everything works well, though I would still recommend a reinstall, mainly due to the leftovers usually causing small issues, even if the OS works as it should.

[Stormseeker9]

13 minutes ago, ExodusR said:

I'm going from an ASRock B350 Pro4 to an MSI X470 Gaming Plus. I wanted to know if I need to reinstall windows to get everything functioning properly, or do I just need to uninstall my previous motherboards utilities and drivers and reinstall the new boards utilities and drivers.

Thanks!

I always advise a clean install when it comes to adding a need OS storage like a ssd. 

 

As in in your case it’s only the mobo, technically it should work fine, but would

srill recommend a fresh copy of windows. Can never harm, cleans up the system too !

[suzerain_00]

Just now, moriel5 said:

To chime on what @averagebilly had said, Windows can be very problematic when switching hardware, I have seen instances such as a situation where it worked after switching from an Intel based laptop to an AMD based laptop (I forget the brands, though they were different), as well as situations where switching the motherboard to another chipset by the same maker, from the same vendor (i.e. Intel Gigabyte to Intel Gigabyte), and it freaked out.

 

Hopefully everything works well, though I would still recommend a reinstall, merely due to the leftovers usually causing small issues, even if the OS works as it should.

Better safe than sorry, that's for sure. But starting from scratch is soooo annoying  Best practice though, I'll be sure to do a clean install then.

[suzerain_00]

Just now, Stormseeker9 said:

I always advise a clean install when it comes to adding a need OS storage like a ssd. 

 

As in in your case it’s only the mobo, technically it should work fine, but would

srill recommend a fresh copy of windows. Can never harm, cleans up the system too !

Yeah, at this point I'm thinking I best do a clean install. I still want to try without for a little bit to see if anything acts funny - I'll keep the thread updated if I witness anything funky  

[moriel5]

1 minute ago, ExodusR said:

Better safe than sorry, that's for sure. But starting from scratch is soooo annoying  Best practice though, I'll be sure to do a clean install then.

Tell me about it, my motherboard (Intel DH55HC) has started acting up, so I'm using a newer one (MSI H61M-P31/W8) for now.

Linux works without any issues whatsoever (my main OS), however I do not want to go through the hassle of reinstalling Windows on my spare hard drive (some troubleshooting utilities require Windows, especially when dealing with proprietary hardware/interfaces), so I plan on fixing my Intel motherboard (once I find another heatsink for it), rather than reinstall Windows (I also need PCI for my Firewire 400 card, amongst other things).

[suzerain_00]

1 minute ago, moriel5 said:

Tell me about it, my motherboard (Intel DH55HC) has started acting up, so I'm using a newer one (MSI H61M-P31/W8) for now.

Linux works without any issues whatsoever (my main OS), however I do not want to go through the hassle of reinstalling Windows on my spare hard drive (some troubleshooting utilities require Windows, especially when dealing with proprietary hardware/interfaces), so I plan on fixing my Intel motherboard (once I find another heatsink for it), rather than reinstall Windows (I also need PCI for my Firewire 400 card, amongst other things).

I'm certainly interested to see what gremlins (if any) appear in my configuration. It would be useful information in a general sense for people performing the same sort of upgrade in the future.

[moriel5]

2 minutes ago, ExodusR said:

I'm certainly interested to see what gremlins (if any) appear in my configuration. It would be useful information in a general sense for people performing the same sort of upgrade in the future.

I have never seen anything consistent.

 

It could range from nothing at all, to leftover software that the OS is unable to get rid of, to minor harmless errors (that appear at every boot), to random instabilities.

[APasz]

Windows is a lot better these days when dealing with hardware changes. No where near as good as Linux but that should be expected.

The cd key is stored on the mobo so ensure you either have it tied to your MS account or have the key itself before reinstalling.

[Chronnay]

If you are using Windows 10 you will need to reinstall/ reactivate it because it is a bigger hardware change

[suzerain_00]

UPDATE

Sorry for the long wait, the new mobo took a while in shipping. 

 

So here's what I have to report:

After uninstalling the ASRock AB350 Pro4 drivers and utilities and installing the MSI X470 Gaming Plus drivers I witnessed nothing fishy. All of my devices worked perfectly fine. I was getting perfectly clear audio (perhaps even a bit louder, I think the sound system on the MSI board is a bit stronger), running games was super smooth, I could capture screen recordings and encode video and I'd describe the experience as identical to when I had the ASRock board in the system.

 

The only issue I faced was Windows Activation. As your license is tied to your motherboard, I had to reinstall Windows with a new license. I am aware that you can attempt to recover the license, but unfortunately I was unsuccessful. 

 

But yeah, all in all I'd say that at least with my configuration everything worked really smoothly - swapping motherboards was perfectly fine. 

 

Thanks everybody! <3 

[ewitte]

You should but I've been lazy lately.  I think I went from X370 to X470 to threadripper I don't believe I re-installed.