New
#1
Replaced Motherboard, now Windows 10 won't reactivate
Had to get a new motherboard for my mom's HP Pavilion 110-023w tower because the pins on the socket LGA-1155 board were bent. Was trying to clean it up and apply new thermal grease on it after I had blown out the dust bunnies out early in the month last month. This board: ASRock H81TM-ITX R2.0 LGA 1150 Intel H81 HDMI SATA 6Gbs USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard - Newegg.com
replaces HP part number 717070-501. Now, I tried to get on the activation hotline and once again I get dialed into Bangalore or who-knows-where, and he keeps whining about entering the Product Key from a label that is nowhere to be found on the computer's case. I insisted that I never had a key, that Windows 8 was factory pre-installed without one, they never bothered to include a sticker or label on the computer, or any of the media or the manual, but he kept rambling on about where to look and, I almost started an argument because I already had the Installation ID screen up and everything and I told him, "Look, I came here to tell someone my Installation ID and all you're doing is b#%ch about some label that I can't find on this HP tower?" He kept on keeping on, telling me about all other nonsense I didn't want to hear, and finally I decided he wasn't going to help me activate Windows, so I hung up on him.
So yeah. I did put a new motherboard in the HP chassis, and it was almost a perfect fit except for that I had to cut a length of cable in order for the power connectors to reach from the motherboard to the DVD Super Drive. The remaining connector was within reach of the hard disk that was already still in the system. And being that this is my mother's Internet PC, and that she uses it to do her taxes on it, I copied what was important to her into her OneDrive and then wiped the hard drive
Still not convinced? This is where it gets even worse. The installation media I made to upgrade the laptop and this custom build that I have won't work. I even tried using my old Windows 7 key only to get told that it's "in use by another PC". What?
So not only is my mother running non-genuine Windows now, she is going to get constantly nagged to death until she forks over $120 until something is done out here, or if someone did their job correctly through that activation hotline like I asked...!