Warranty Service and Installed OS

[ronbo613]

Hello everyone-I recently got a T30 Thinkpad(2367-88U) from a relative who works for a large corporation. She got it when they got newer laptops, then gave it to me. It came with WinXP Pro and Office 2003 and a COA label on the bottom that reads "IBM Corporation". No doubts it is fully legit.
Thanks to the posts I've read here, I learned about the RAM issues with this model due to a system board problem and sure enough, my motherboard is bad. Luckily, there is about a week left on the warranty, so I've arranged with Lenovo/IBM to replace the mobo.
Being new to IBM/Lenovo laptops, I'm not sure what the status of the OS on the computer is. Is it considered part of the computer? When I send the laptop in for warranty work, will they do anything to the hard drive or installed software? How does Microsoft XP licensing work in a case like this? If they are going to say I'm not the legal owner of the operating system, I won't have the mobo replaced.
Sorry to have such basic questions, but this is my first laptop(which I've only had for a week) and my first experience with IBM/Lenovo.

[jdhurst]

There are a lot of questions there:
1. IBM can replace the motherboard and fix the memory problem without affecting the hard drive.
2. Replacing the motherboard will not cause Windows to reactive (at least not in my experience and I have clients with T30's with the memory problem).
3. The OS on the laptop is almost for sure an OEM version that lives and dies with the laptop.
4. Try to get (purchase from IBM, ebay, or whatever) a set of recovery CD's so you can recover from a hard drive failure if that happens.
... JD Hurst

[JaneL]

5. Item #5 in the FAQ.

[ronbo613]

Thanks for the info JD-Sorry to ask so many questions, but with only a week left on the warranty, I have to kind of jump on this system board problem right away.
I looked at the Recovery CD situation, I was thinking of cloning the laptop hard drive with Acronis, which I do with all my computers, but I'm still checking it out.
I've seen many of your posts here and I'm sure I've read some of them since I got this T30, so thanks for the help.
Nonny-I should take the hard drive out of the computer before I send it to EasyServ? I read the FAQ, but I didn't know EasyServ was the warranty provider. The technician on the phone didn't say anything about removing the drive, he even said they would install some service-oriented software. Like I said before, I'm totally new at this and scrambling to get things done before the warranty expires.