On 30/12/2020 14:59, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Last time I opened it up, to replace a noisy fan, I managed to wreck the
ribbon connector for the card reader + one USB slot - all were just push
connectors, apart from this which had a flip up type bar to tighten. So
I have been keeping my eyes open for a replacement m/board, since then.

I spotted one on ebay, made an offer, 'won' it and delivered this
morning. Board installed, powered up and all looked OK in the initial
boot, until it got to Win10 - then the horizontal of the display went
like an old CRT where the horizontal was slipping, diagonal line across.

Rebooted and second time around, it went to an Outlook screen, wanting
me to log in with my Outlook email address and password, which I
couldn't remember the password, but I could get access only once I could
get into Windows. The 'forgotten password' system was down.

Tried a third reboot, then a fourth one with the same result. At attempt
five, it all booted up just as normal into Win10 and all working fine.

I sort of expected I would have to ring Microsoft, to reactivate
Windows, due to a component swap.

For future reference. if you have you PC logged in with an online
account (MS, outlook, live etc), then it can link the windows activation
to the account. Hence you can change a mobo, and when you login again it
will recover the activation state.

(which sounds like what happened here - even if not on the first attempt!)

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/