Does Replacing a Motherboard Necessitate Having to Reinstall Windows from Scratch?

I have a Lenovo Legion laptop. Details that I know of it are in my 'My Computers' System Specs. Cutting a long story short it seems that the motherboard is faulty. Lenovo have now arranged for a tech to come to my home and replace the board with a new one. I have never been through replacing a motherboard before and would like to know if, once the the new board is in place, does that mean that I have to do a from scratch (re-)install of Windows 11? Or, will the Windows system that I already have on my boot SSD boot and work fine with the new board without me having to take an further action?

Lastly, is it likely that I will have to flash the BIOS for the new board?

(I'm just looking for a rule of thumb guide here. Things to consider so that I can prepare things for the new board.)

You should not need to reinstall Windows. In fact, even when moving Windows to different hardware, it does a remarkable job of detecting new hardware, but you should not even need to worry about that because they will be replacing it with the same type of MB.

As for updating BIOS, you may get different opinions. Some subscribe to the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" theory. Otherwise prefer to always be up to date.

My personal suggestion: Check the version that comes with the new MB and compare to the latest. Read release notes on all new versions than what is on the new MB and determine if any of the changes warrant an upgrade.

Another idea: Since the tech will be replacing the MB anyway, make them update it to the latest BIOS while they are there so if anything goes wrong you can blame them

hsehestedt said:

Another idea: Since the tech will be replacing the MB anyway, make them update it to the latest BIOS while they are there so if anything goes wrong you can blame them

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I doubt the tech will do that but I will ask. As it stands the repair info I have states (at the end of a repair), "You are responsible for reinstalling the operating system once the repair is complete." Presumably that would extend to updating the BIOS as well. This said I have on one previous occasion updated the BIOS and Lenovo, bless them, make that really easy.

Thanks very much for the response.

You will have to ask them what they are going to do i.e. use your original SSD, or have a new SSD and go thru the OOBE again as in a newly bought system.
I presume you will remove that 2nd SSD, assuming you installed it.

"You are responsible for reinstalling the operating system once the repair is complete."

To me that implies you will be going thru that OOBE again.

Just as a precaution I would make sure you have downloaded the Recovery Media from Lenovo, you should already have done that.
There is no Recovery Media partition on the SSD.

"Lastly, is it likely that I will have to flash the BIOS for the new board?"

Probably at some point, but all that involves is looking in the Lenovo Vantage App for any BIOS update and doing it.

If there are minor differences in the MOBO then Windows updates and the Lenovo Vantage App will take care of them.

BuddhaNature said:

I'm just looking for a rule of thumb guide here. Things to consider so that I can prepare things for the new board.

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The only significant thing to consider is retaining activation. If not already, switch to signing in with your MS account before the motherboard swap. Then, if needed, you will be able to use the activation troubleshooter after the hardware change.

Windows will normally automatically activate once your PC is connected to the internet and you sign in to your Microsoft account. If you make significant hardware changes on your device, such as replacing your motherboard, Windows will no longer find a license that matches your device, and you will need to reactivate Windows using the Activation troubleshooter.

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My experience is no. I've swapped SSD between totally different laptops and everything went well. Can take awhile to fully boot and may have to restart a few times. Check device manager after you get a full boot and see if anything needs updated. As said, best to make a full backup or image first if possible.

I strongly recommend imaging the drive(s) before the tech's visit. I don't know what the tech will do.

If it was a DIY repair, I'd move the drives to the new MB, and expect everything to work immediately.

I had to do something like that with a desktop PC a bit over a year ago. The MB developed a fault (Bad USB ports.) It was still within the return period. I swapped it for the same model board, plugged everything together, and all was fine immediately. I didn't even need to fight with Windows activation.

I didn't have to reinstall Windows in any of the computers show below.

Asus TUF Gaming A15 (2022) laptop with 1 x 512GB SSD
Cloned 512GB SSD to new 1TB SSD
Replaced 512GB SSD with 2 x 1TB SSDs
Windows 11 Home upgraded to Windows 11 Pro
Motherboard replaced
Reactivated Windows 11 Pro

Whole laptop was replaced with new refurbished one
Replaced 512GB SSD with 2 x 1TB SSDs from first laptop
Reactivated Windows 11 Pro

Also, I have two desktops that both had their motherboards replaced with totally different ones. For each I kept the original drives. After installing new drivers all I had to do was reactivate Windows on each one.

Actually the problem is seemingly with USB-A ports that are failing to mount a USB-A wired mouse, I've tried six different mice, if one is already attached to the system on boot-up. USB-C port works fine every time in mounting a USB-C mouse on boot-up. USB-A ports work fine on boot-up with other things plugged in, portable HDDs and flash drives for instance. Only thing that fails is a mouse – weird. Cutting a long story short, it pretty much looks like faulty electronics in the motherboard that is the issue. Hence, in theory all the tech should be doing is replacing the board and put all the other bits and pieces back together again in good working order (I hope).

Reading the comments here I don't know now what to do with respect to reinstall or not reinstall Windows. I would be fine with reinstalling that's just a tedious reconfiguring and tweaking of the system for a couple of days to get things working the way I like. But the possible mentioned issue with activating Windows again after a change of motherboard would be new territory for me and I don't know exactly how to negotiate that.

This is a Lenovo laptop and has been activated with a digital licence. I thought that nowadays licence keys were stored somewhere by the computer supplier (Lenovo) in the BIOS/UEFI data. So my thought was that if Lenovo are supplying the motherboard, and I assume it will be pretty well identical to the one already in the machine, then the licence data would have been put in BIOS/UEFI by Lenovo when the board was manufactured — so there shouldn't be any issue at all with Windows activation. Or is my thinking askew on this?

You are correct - the BIOS of the MB in effect contains a signature that says "I was shipped with Windows Home" or "I was shipped with Windows Pro". So technically, you should not have to transfer your license key - even though it sees the new MB as just that - new hardware - it should see that it can legitimately activate on that system so it should automatically do so.

The only hitch would be if you upgraded editions. For example, if the system originally shipped with Home and you upgraded to Pro. In that case you need to transfer the license.

It looks like Lenovo are going to replace the faulty motherboard with an identical one, so in that case I'd suggest only doing a full reinstall if absolutely necessary.

BuddhaNature said:

... the possible mentioned issue with activating Windows again after a change of motherboard would be new territory for me and I don't know exactly how to negotiate that.

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As long as you are using a Microsoft account it's quite straight forward. I've had to use the Activation Troubleshooter a couple of times now. Just run it and tell it you've changed hardware, then it asks you to sign into your MS account and point to the old hardware.




It works the same way in Windows 11 as in 10.

I'm not using a Microsoft Account and I don't want to. I do have a hotmail email address, does that count?

BuddhaNature said:

I'm not using a Microsoft Account and I don't want to. I do have a hotmail email address, does that count?

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Lol. If you have the upgrade key just use the key you were given. You can also use the phone number activation, I done that several times in the past.

Your digital license is based on various factors which include the MOBO. They can detect all sorts of hardware changes. That will be on MS servers.
A change of an identical MOBO or change of SSD is not counted as a change of Laptop/PC. So it should still have an active license.

"I'm not using a Microsoft Account and I don't want to. I do have a hotmail email address, does that count?"
You already have a Microsoft Account = Outlook Mail = Hotmail.

I used the one of the bypass methods with the OOBE to a Local Account, no wired or wireless Internet access. Whether that still works in 2025 no idea.

It is easy enough to change from Microsoft Account <> Local Account, so it is not really a big deal.

BuddhaNature said:

I'm not using a Microsoft Account and I don't want to. I do have a hotmail email address, does that count?

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Helmut said:

It is easy enough to change from Microsoft Account <> Local Account, so it is not really a big deal.

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You need to switch to a MS account so that your PC gets listed in 'Devices' in your MS account. This enables you to use the Activation Troubleshooter later, if required. You can switch back to a Local account straight away, your PC will remain listed in 'Devices'.

I think that the point is getting missed here...

Let's say that you have a home built PC and Windows is activated on it. One day the motherboard releases the magic smoke and you have to replace it. In that case, you need to transfer your license.

Now, suppose the same scenario but with a PC from an OEM like Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc. When they replace the MB, it's like having a whole new system with the difference being that the BIOS has the key embedded. So there is simply no reason to have to transfer the license. The new MB includes a whole new license so who cares about the license on the old MB?

hsehestedt said:

Now, suppose the same scenario but with a PC from an OEM like Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc. When they replace the MB, it's like having a whole new system with the difference being that the BIOS has the key embedded. So there is simply no reason to have to transfer the license. The new MB includes a whole new license so who cares about the license on the old MB?

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I have heard of cases where an OEM replacement motherboard did not have any OEM key embedded. You can't count on it.

Bree said:

I have heard of cases where an OEM replacement motherboard did not have any OEM key embedded. You can't count on it.

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Interesting, was not aware of that.

hsehestedt said:

Let's say that you have a home built PC and Windows is activated on it. One day the motherboard releases the magic smoke and you have to replace it. In that case, you need to transfer your license.

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I have two home build desktops. Both have local accounts. I replaced the motherboards with two totally different ones. I didn't have to reinstall Windows. Windows reactivated OK both times. I didn't have to transfer the licenses. Could that be because the licenses were originally retail or does that not make a difference?