Replace Serial Number on new motherboard with old serial

[Dudefoxlive]

Hi, at some point I plan to replace the motherboard inside my HP Pavilion P2-1122 Desktop and the reason is because I bought it used from a yard sell.  The previous owners said the ethernet did not work and sure enough it does not.  They said there was a nasty stop that came by and the power went though the ethernet and fried it.  Well i am possibly looking to replace the motherboard with a different one that has working ethernet but one thing that concernes me is the Serial Number.  I would like to replace the Serial Number from the board that I would purchase with the Serial Number from the current board to so that it did not seem like i have two different computers.  Can this be done or what has to be done to accomplish this?  Just curious if it can cause if so then I want to consider replacing the motherboard.  I am currently using it with a D-link Wireless adapter but sometimes wireless is not good enough.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

You would have to get the serial number reprogrammed by an HP authorized service center.

If the only reason you are replacing the motherboard is because of a failed ethernet chip, why not purchase an external USB to RJ-45 gigabit ethernet adapter.

That would be much cheaper than replacing the motherboard, and you wouldn't have Windows activation issues or have to reprogram the serial number.

[Dudefoxlive]

I am looking into one of those as i worked on a laptop with no Ethernet port and i had to reinstall Windows on it and i usually use my MDT server to do that so because i could not i had to do it manually.  question is would i be able to PXE boot with a USB to RJ-45 adapter?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Unfortunately, that I do not know.

Too bad the motherboard doesn't have a PCIe x1 slot, or you could have added an internal ethernet adapter.

[Dudefoxlive]

That was my first thought was to install a PCIe X1 Gig card but I opened it and saw no expansion slots 😞