14 R1, motherboard upgrade

Thank you for the helpful information!

Your Windows key is embedded onto your motherboard so swapping boards usually means losing your Windows licence. I believe there are ways of transferring your key to the new board but you may want to keep that in mind. If you still have your Windows install CD then you can get around this by reinstalling Windows on your drive using the CD and using the Microsoft Media Creation Tool to upgrade to Windows 10. 

Even if the new motherboard has had Windows 10 installed previously, the system will still recognise that a different board is in your laptop and it (usually) won't activate the Windows licence. I had this happen a few weeks ago while swapping boards in a 17 R1 I was working on. I reinstalled Windows using my Alienware Windows 7 Pro CD and then upgraded to Windows 10 online and it reactivated Windows perfectly. 

Happy to help. You can throw the new board in with your old HDD/SSD and see how it goes first. You may find that it auto-activates your licence and you don't have to go through the pain of reinstalling Windows.

Also, the old Windows 7 and 8 install CD's don't contain any drivers so you can't even connect to the internet once it's installed. You need to download the network driver onto a USB and install it manually and then you can install all the other drivers and try to upgrade to Windows 10. 

Perfect. I'd use the resource CD just to install the network driver and then get all the latest ones straight from Dell but it's up to you. 

There is also a correct order to install the drivers so you don't conflict with anything. I've used this guide countless times in the past. It's fine to install the network driver first if you like or just use your resource CD and do them one at a time. If you then do all the Windows 7 updates (takes hours) then you can go to Microsoft and upgrade to Windows 10 and then all your drivers will auto update. I find that if I install all the drivers and do the Windows updates on Windows 7 first, I can still get the free upgrade to Windows 10. Also, if you have Windows 7 Home then you can't get a free upgrade to Windows 10 Pro. It has to be like for like. 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/how-to-clean-windows-7-install-driver-install-order-guide-for-alienware-systems.556721/

Thank you once again, I have the Windows 7 disc and Resource DVD I used to reinstall Windows on my new SSD. I also downloaded the new drivers from the dell website.

Hi mattyb,

So I purchased and installed an Alienware 14 m14x R3 motherboard (GTX 765m) and I have clean reinstalled Windows 7 TWICE because I can’t figure out why the NVIDIA Graphics driver cannot be installed. Im currently doing my second install, following the guide you sent, and no success. When I go to device manager, it says “Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems.” (Code 43). On my previous install, I reinstalled the drivers with the updated ones and no success. Is this motherboard faulty? Is there something I did wrong...? Please help. I’m stuck.

I also updated the bios and that still didn’t work. Based on some research I’ve done, specifically on reddit, I fear the GPU may be faulty. The motherboard is brand new too, from eBay.

The Code 43 on the GPU can mean a few things. Sometimes it just means there's a driver issue but usually it means the GPU has failed. If you can't get a driver to install then you could be in trouble. 

It can also mean that the vBIOS on the GPU is wrong or corrupted. You could try finding a new vBIOS from TechPowerUp and downloading the NVFlash program to flash the vBIOS. I don't know why the vBIOS would be wrong though since it's an Alienware board. I've only flashed a vBIOS twice in my life so I'm no expert. There are guides/videos out there on how to do it if you want to try. 

To get you current vBIOS you'll have to remove the driver and install GPU-Z. Usually if you have a driver installed with a Code 43 then GPU-Z won't show the card details. 

I've heard some people have luck by going into the device manager and disabling the GPU, restarting the PC and then enabling the GPU again. This is a rare fix but you never know. 

EDIT: I would contact the seller and let them know

Yeah it's odd. Very good of them to do that without much hassle. It is possible that something happened during installation. It's best to use an anti-static wrist band

Thanks for replying mattyb. I contacted the seller and they offered me a replacement once the motherboard was returned. I just delivered it to the post office today. Strange how a new motherboard that has never been used has a faulty GPU.