I lost Vista when I upgraded my motherboard

[MerlinFist]

Hi,

Having just upgraded my mother board (see my specs) I went to restart and was preparing to do a clean install of vista and was told by my pc (HP) that it couldn't reboot and I should contact HP custermer service with the message of code Purple (I have a hard drive particion with vista on it rarther than the vista disc's).

After doing some research on this I found that the big brands (HP,Dell) tattoo there mother boards to the hard drives or visa versa.

I am in a heated email debate with HP on this as I feel that if you pay for something like a pc with vista on it you should be able to upgrade when you like, without having to buy another OS system.

I was quite fond of vista, but am now using good old XP.

I am wondering if anyone has encouted this and found a way round it? or do I need to buy another vista

There seems to be a mass of conflicting idea on how to fix this. I would be grateful for any response.

 

[Ultiweap]

Yeah that's normal man. It's not because it is Hp or Dell or something else. As when you install an OS all those information are taken by the OS to work well with the peripherals inside and when you change something like motherboard everything will change because it is the principal peripheral for it to work.

So when you have change the motherboard you will need to make a new installation. So if you don't have the Vista Disc then you will need to buy a new one or if you have it then just make the re-installation of the OS.

 

[MerlinFist]

I understand what you are saying, but I dont think you understand my post, I have tried to do a clean install of vista but it wont let me due to the message of code purple from HP

 

[Ultiweap]

Hmmm that's a little strange then, even not normal. What are the HP technician asking?

You should be able to install Vista on your PC and Hp did not have the right to block you as a day you would need to put another OS on it.

 

[adweston]

Yuppers.. That's because they buy volume licenses that's tied to their hardware. The recovery software can detect whether it's an HP OEM board, as that's what the license is tied to. You replace that board, the software thinks you're trying to install it on another computer, contrary to your license agreement.

 

[MetalX]

You can't use the Vista disc that came with the computer. You have to buy a new one, because like adweston said, the one that came with it is tied to HP hardware. It can't be installed on anything else.