No, Windows activation is not linked to your motherboard. It depends on the product key and licensing agreement.
No, Windows activation is not linked to your motherboard. It depends on the product key and licensing agreement.
It might be only the drive, or possibly more; I’m assuming it’s just the drive itself.
Yes, OEM refers to an Original Equipment Manufacturer, which typically involves products designed for specific computers or systems.
It's a combination of all parts, changing over time, and MS has consistently been unclear about it. On a retail license, it's meant to support regular upgrades—like swapping your SSD, GPU, or motherboard while keeping the rest unchanged should keep it working—but not if you replace everything at once. You could update some components now and others later, and it would still function.
The activation is connected to the board, but only the board itself. This allows you to change components like GPUs and CPUs while keeping activation active. However, once the operating system moves to a different board, the issue arises. The problem stems from the OS writing information to the board's BIOS as a "key," which prevents activation during POST. Although Microsoft is very effective at handling activations, this can cause trouble if you switch boards. Re-activating it should work if you change the board, as newer OS versions do this differently. Earlier versions like XP handled it another way, but most recent ones follow the same process.
It's not the drive itself. The issue seems to lie with the board and maybe other factors mentioned by others.
It seems OEM keys aren't permanently attached to the motherboard; instead, they lose the capacity to re-register elsewhere. The outcome remains unchanged—you can't relocate them, though it likely contributes to the issue.