Windows 10 Activation after replacing damaged motherboard and processor

[EliasRodz]

Hello.

I recently had to have my Omen Desktop PC serviced to replace the mother board and processor, (purchased at BestBuy in May, 2017), lost to a power surge . Due to the Covid-19 lock down I had it repaired by a local computer service as I could not locate an authorized HP service provided close to where I live in Puerto Rico and as many, need to work from home.

They were able to replace the parts and deliver a working PC, but I keep seeing a message to Activate my Windows 10 Home Edition and the techs told me I needed to contact HP for the keys in my original boards Bios.

Any help in how I should address this will be greatly appreciated as I have limited access to change many of the the system settings.  Thanks in advance!

[WAWood]

@EliasRodz 

The problem you are facing is that the original Windows version was an HP OEM version and the activation key for that was encoded into the firmware of the ORIGINAL motherboard.  When you discarded that, you also discarded your ONLY HP OEM license.  HP is under no obligation to provide you a second one, and they don't sell Windows licenses.

The Techs told you WRONG -- as HP keeps no records of individual product keys associated with individual PCs.  So, there is no way now to get that product key from HP.

What would work as an alternative is the following:

1) use this information to save off a copy of all the drivers on your PC.  You can use this data later to restore the HP drivers:  https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/68426-backup-restore-device-drivers-windows-10-a.html

2) Use this link to download and create Win10 install media: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
3) insert that into your PC and BOOT boot from it. This will start an installation that should take no more than 30 minutes to complete.
4) If you are forced to use an MSN account for Windows, do not worry, as after you get it up and running, you can later switch to a local account.
5) If you are presented with a window asking for a product key, down near the bottom is a entry you can click to skip that. Do NOT enter a product key, as when you finish and get back online, Windows will check with the Activation Servers, find out your PC was already running Win10 and reactivate it.
6) After you're up and running, restore your HP drivers from the ones you saved in step 1)