Solved! CPU Upgrade Consequences

[lifeblood]

I'm about to upgrade the CPU on my current rig from a Ryzen 5 1600 to a 3600. What are the consequences? Will I need to reactivate Win10? Will Chrome forget all the saved passwords in it?

I can deal with the consequences but my wife, a college teacher, would kill me if I messed with all her saved passwords in the middle of the semester. Its actually the start of spring break so its not as bad but she really wants me to wait until the semester is over in mid May.

 

[OlyAR15]

Passwords are not saved on the cpu.

A CPU change may trigger reactivation of Win10, but it isn’t a big deal.

 

[lakedude]

I think M$ considers the motherboard the computer, license wise. The CPU shouldn't be an issue unless something has changed since last I knew.

 

[scannall]

You may want to make sure your current bios can handle the 3600, and flash it to a newer one if need be.

 

[Plasma1996]

I'm about to upgrade the CPU on my current rig from a Ryzen 5 1600 to a 3600. What are the consequences? Will I need to reactivate Win10? Will Chrome forget all the saved passwords in it?

I can deal with the consequences but my wife, a college teacher, would kill me if I messed with all her saved passwords in the middle of the semester. Its actually the start of spring break so its not as bad but she really wants me to wait until the semester is over in mid May.

Activation is tied to the system hardware. It normally takes changing more than one thing to trigger it but it's possible that you may need to reactivate it. My last reactivation required the KEY for a hardware swap but that is the only time that's happened in dozens of swaps.

 

[maddogmcgee]

Should be fine short term although you would probably be better off doing a reinstall eventually. Passwords should be stored in chrome etc, so as long as you know your chrome login you would be fine. Other option is to transfer everything to a password manager when you both have some time, long term its probably more secure and easier to deal with. Maybe swap it over on a Friday afternoon, just in case you do have some sort of install issue (unlikely if bios is ok), that way you get a couple of days to deal with it.

Not sure if you already have the CPU, but there has been some much better deals offered on the 5000 series in the last few days.

 

[mikeymikec]

If you're really nervous about the saved passwords list in Chrome, you can a) sync it with a Google account or b) export it to a csv file. Though I concur with others that a CPU change has no direct bearing on Chrome or any other browser for that matter.

 

[bigboxes]

Should be fine short term although you would probably be better off doing a reinstall eventually. Passwords should be stored in chrome etc, so as long as you know your chrome login you would be fine. Other option is to transfer everything to a password manager when you both have some time, long term its probably more secure and easier to deal with. Maybe swap it over on a Friday afternoon, just in case you do have some sort of install issue (unlikely if bios is ok), that way you get a couple of days to deal with it.

Not sure if you already have the CPU, but there has been some much better deals offered on the 5000 series in the last few days.

His motherboard doesn't support 5000 series processors. I'm assuming that's why he's going with the 3600X.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Passwords are not saved on the cpu.

Unless, she is utilizing the fTPM on the CPU, and Windows is treating that as the system TPM security device and saving passwords to it.

 

[Leeea]

First be sure to either:
turn off full disk encryption before you start. ( aka bitlocker )
or
print out all your disk encryption keys ( also found in the bitlocker menu )

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Most of your other keys will be backed up in your microsoft account, and will be restored without you even realizing it.

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I would be surprised if anything happened.

A few months back I swapped an intel 4790k + h97 mainboard + ram for a AMD CPU + x570 mainboard + ram and Microsoft did not even blink. No need to reactivate, it booted fine, and win10 found the drivers all on its own. The only prep I did was to disable bitlocker first, and give it time to unencrypt the drive*. The h97 board had a TPM chip on the board and it was enabled.

@lifeblood is just doing a CPU swap. Unless he is using fTPM it will effect nothing. If he is using fTPM he may need to type in the bitlocker key code if he is using bitlocker.

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*I later swapped the drive out and converted it to GPT as a separate step. I had issues getting it to boot, but once I overcame those issues and it booted, Microsoft still did not care.

 

[lifeblood]

His motherboard doesn't support 5000 series processors. I'm assuming that's why he's going with the 3600X.

You are correct. What's annoying is the 3600 is not much cheaper than a 5600. Still, I got a used one so it was not an unreasonable price, not like GPU's.

 

[lifeblood]

@lifeblood is just doing a CPU swap. Unless he is using fTPM it will effect nothing. If he is using fTPM he may need to type in the bitlocker key code if he is using bitlocker.

I am not currently using fTPM but will when I wipe and reinstall my OS this summer (after the semester ends). That might make future hardware swaps a little more complex.

 

[Thibsie]

My upgrade from 2600 to 5600x did not trigger any activation woes for what it's worth.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

I moved AMD CPUs across several builds with no problem. Computer one: moved from 1700X to 3600X then 3800X. Computer two: from 3200G to 5800x. Never had a problem. Windows license is tied to motherboard, not CPU.

 

[legcramp]

Make a backup image of the drive before you proceed, just in case.

 

[Shmee]

Why is your wife using the same computer you are? Even if you only have one computer, she should be using a different account.

Anyway, I think chrome passwords are saved in your google account, if it is like having a firefox account. I haven't used chrome in a while though. And you most likely won't need to reactivate or anything just for changing the CPU and upgrading the BIOS.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Lots of good advice here. I recommend implementing it.

First and foremost - Your board uses bridge bios - 3.40 and then 5.40, if yours' is older than both, you will have to flash both before moving to the latest. It is a PITA, but I always do it with ASRock boards. You risk bricking the board if you skip the steps in the process = not worth it. As soon as you successfully flash to the latest version swap CPUs. Later versions will warn you about using Summit Ridge with them, but I never had any issues. Best to put the 3600 in as soon as the flashing is done though.

Either cloning or imaging the OS drive is best practices. Macrium Reflect is free for home use, and can be configured to update the image regularly so you are not stuck with an old snapshot. Storage is cheap so really no reason not to.

Windows asks to reactivate after swapping boards. But that does not require a fresh install either. E.G. a new 10 pro key is $12. Copy pasta the new key you purchased, and it will activate. I have swapped CPUs in the same board more than half a dozen times and never needed to reactivate. Only when swapping boards.

Chrome has a password manager; it sounds like your wife uses it. If not, now is the time. And as noted by others, if you turn on sync, then even after a fresh OS install, you can log in, and everything is there, seamlessly.

Decent performance boost between 1600 and 3600 so well worth the time to upgrade. And the real beauty of AM4, longevity.

 

[Shivansps]

1) Make sure bitlocker is disabled

2) Update motherboard bios

3) ??? profit!

Windows activation is linked to the microsoft account that is being used so 3 things can happen:

1) Nothing

2) It will be de-activated and you can auto-activate it again

3) If auto-activation dosent work you are likely have to use the automated phone system to re-activate it. It is a 5min process.

 

[amd6502]

I think M$ considers the motherboard the computer, license wise. The CPU shouldn't be an issue unless something has changed since last I knew.

That's been my experience too. I'm quite sure this is correct and that nothing has changed how they match the computer to the license. Windows uses its own method similar to dmidecode to pull the serial number of the board, and it doesn't care what cpu, gpu, or ram configuration you have.

The upgrade will either work (if your board supports it and is up to date enough on the BIOS,) or it won't. There isn't going to be a software configuration issue.

 

[Thibsie]

No software configuration issue but while you're at it, it may be a good idea to reinstall the system.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

I went from a 1700X to a 3800X and did not have to reactivate Windows. Always back up your data if it’s important to you before you do something like a hardware swap. Here’s what I did.

1. Suspended bitlocker
2. Updated the BIOS to enable 3xxx series compatibility (Crosshair VI Hero Wi-fi). This also re-set the BIOS to Stock.
3. Swapped the new CPU in.
4. Worked in BIOS to re-apply settings, including enabling the fTPM again (along with Memory settings, PBO, SVM, all that stuff).
5. Booted into Windows.
6. Verified fTPM was visible in Device Manager. Re-enabled Bitlocker so it would accept the new key.

Some things I learned from the experience.

1. As always, if you modified your BIOS a lot, record all the settings and knobs you flipped because it’s a pain to put it back.
2. Memory Support between Ryzen 1 and Ryzen 2 changed things massively. I had to struggle to get my 2x16GB B-Die stable at 2933Mhz on Ryzen 1. On Ryzen 2, I could do 3400Mhz at CL14 timings by flipping a couple of knobs (basically setting the speed and making sure voltage was at 1.35.
3. Your Windows 10 installation will continue to act as if it is running Ryzen 1 when it comes to features. That means things that have come up with Windows 11 will still remain, such as enabling of VBS, MBEC, HVCI, etc. that will still be off on your Windows 10 install. That won’t prevent migration to Windows 11, but it will leave you in a strange state where those features would technically be enabled, but they’re not because Ryzen 1 didn’t support them when you installed Windows 10.

All the same, the migrations from Ryzen 1 to Ryzen 2 was ultimately smooth, and got me not only solid compute improvements with the Virtualization workloads I run (as well as games), but made getting the most out of the Memory I bought trivially easy. That said, I would still plan a Windows 10 re-installation before migrating to Windows 11.

 

[lifeblood]

I upgraded the CPU Sunday and it went perfectly. As discussed, I had to upgrade the BIOS twice to get it to the correct version. Once there I shut down, swapped CPU’s and brought it back up. Windows didn’t make a single complaint, everything just worked a little quicker.

I absolutely will wipe and reinstall everything before going to Win11 which will be at the end of the semester. This should coincide with the release of the new firmware (AGESA) that will fix the fTPM stuttering issue which will be good as I was planning on using fTPM for Win11.

Of course today AMD also announced the new firmware will allow me to install a 5000 series Ryzen on my motherboard. That kinda annoys me as a 5600X CPU was not much more than the 3600 I bought. I would have preferred to upgrade to it, but the 3600 is still an excellent choice.

 

[Shmee]

Thanks for posting this, I did a quick search, and it looks like Vermeer support on B350 is coming soon. https://www.pcgamer.com/x370-b350-a320-bios-update-ryzen-5000-zen-3/