Thanks, I had seen that last night after going through everything. All the more reason when buying a machine to require a retail version OS. I haven't bought a whole machine in maybe 20 years, just keep upgrading, a video board or hard drive here, and a mother board or power supply there. All the MS software are upgrades too from way back when. Needed Win 98 disc to install Win ME, but still have it along with WIN 3.1 floppies.:) Does anyone have an Abacus (sp?) for sale and tutorial services :) :) :) Xiaofan Chen wrote: > On Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 9:15 PM, Carl Denk wrote: > >> Have since found online, this is a possibility, the issue of XP is tied >> to the motherboard ID. I couldn't find any EULA, including the original >> Compaq getting started book. was looking for some wording that tied the >> machine and OS together. The only thing I found was on the XP home >> edition setup brochure, on the back the "Certificate of Authenticity" >> was remove, exposing wording that the manufacturer was to attach it to >> the PC, and it is on the case. I interpret that XP is married to that >> case, and I should be able to do that, but can't fight city hall. ~) >> >> > > I believe your XP OS is an OEM version from Compaq (now part of HP). > In that case the copy of OS is tight to the machine. > > The following article may help. > http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.php > > I believe your copy of Windows XP is an OEM version and it may > well be tight to the motherboard BIOS. So once you change the > motherboard, you have to buy a new OS. > > Xiaofan > -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist