OEM Install - pclover

pclover- I read you response to this thread:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=201930

and have a question (would PM but not enough posts to do that yet)

My wife's computer does not boot-goes through an endless boot, and it's been a long time, but I believe the message had stated something about a hardware change. Now the original towers power supply died (though at the time I did not know it). I had bought another tower for her, stuck her hard drive in, and it failed to boot. The original tower was an eMachine with what I'm assuming is an eMachine OEM XP Home install. Would it be a safe bet that the reason it won't boot is due to the OEM install being tied to the motherboard, and if I fix the power supply in her old tower it would possibly work?

If this is not the case, give me a little time to get some video of the boot-up, and I'll post for a fix.

 

I know I am not PCLover, but I thought I would save you some time by telling you that as fat as I know XP is not tied to a motherboard, except possibly by HP (but that is beside the point), but if the two computers do not have identical hardware a failed boot is likely as the wrong drivers are present in the XP installation, making XP give incorrectly structured or non-existent commands to the hardware, causing it not to boot up.

 

The OEM license is tied to the first motherboard that that Microsoft OS was installed on. You just can't switch it to another computer. You have to buy another OEM copy. That is why OEM copies are so cheap. Though, in order to legally order an OEM copy one must also purchase a non-peripheral hardware component.

Anyway, more info here: https://oem.microsoft.com/script/contentpage.aspx?PageID=553075

 

Sorry, I got a little confused. What I meant was that XP is not tied to a motherboard BIOS, but Micro$oft will check the machine hardware when you activate it. Vista/Windows 7 actually use BIOS locking.

 

Can you give some explanation of that? Exactly what is BIOS locking?

 

Interesting, looks like XP is also BIOS locking. Hence, tied to the motherboard. Just read an article about it. Posted in July 19, 2001.

http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/21832/bios-locking-more-intrusive-than-wpa.html

Also, it isn't Micro$soft, it is Microsoft.

 

Very interesting. I'll make an attempt to fire the old system up (replace the power supply) and then see if the OS will load. When I first bought the computer for my wife, there was no activation required, and that may be due to the BIOS locking and eMachines license, and I can see where it would not want to boot because of a BIOS/hardware change. I'll see what happens and let you know the results.

 

I meant to say You cant transfer your license to a new pc/mobo.

 

Figured that's what you meant
And it would make sense as well. I just hope that is what the problem is.

 

Well, it works. Changed power supplies and it fired up like nothing was ever wrong with it. OEM and BIOS locking. Learned something new.

Thanks to everyone for the info.

Edit: Now I have ti figure out what I am going to do with the tower that I had bought for her......sounds to me like I just might have to throw together another Linux box

 

Ah, just changing out the PSU won't affect it, since it is just powering the unit.

 

Her tower is a Athlon XP 2000 CPU, and the new tower is a 2 gig Intel

It'll make a far better Linux box for me :-D