Win XP license F*ck Up ! What to do?

THe corp. edition costs a lot.

 

You could get it at a college bookstore much cheaper along with other MS goodies! But you have to be attending there and have to show them an ID card...

 

Since you do own the license and it does no longer work, maybe you should look for other backup license numbers. There's TXT files full of them on some websites I won't mention here.
This would be wrong in many, but since you HAVE the license, and you need your computer to work, then it should be considered fair.
If you want me to help you look for those serial numbers, please tell me, and I'll send you a bunch.

 

I didn't want to start a new thread, but my WinXP CD reads *Not for Retail or OEM Redistribution*.

EDIT - Mines not a Corporate Edition



Here's Microsoft's discs:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/howtotell/en/archived/cd_win.mspx

Here's mine:

 

Well guys, I phoned Microsoft and yes indeed they did give me a new number but guess what? The twats gave me a number that dissabled my internet conection !!! I can't config the settings to a manual setting. THE BASTARDS !! So now after 3 days of pissing about and calling the ADSL company I finally called a mate in Microsoft Tokyo (nothing to do with windows) who told me that it sounds like they gave me a dodgy code. So now I'min the internet cafe looking for bloody service numbers so I can get back in touch with the sods. Let's hope this mess will be sorted soon. I'm lost without the net and god only knows how many mails are building up.

*EDIT* Well, finally got the net back on by just formatting the harddrive then re-installing XP Pro. I'll be on the phone to Microsoft tomorrow (Japanese one ) and give them a right ear full !.

Yakumo

 

If you called the US MS office, then maybe they gave you would work with a US copy, not japanese, but I still don't know if you have a US copy or Japanese release.

Don't give up!

 

This is not true. Please, verify this stuff yourself before repeating FUD that gets spread Internet chat forums.

Yakumo, it shouldn't matter if you swapped hardware or had an OEM version. Really it doesn't sound like a proper activation issue at all. It sounds like your system had a hard crash which corrupted part of the drive and as a result the corrupted data is preventing the system from rebooting.

Easiest solution is simply to restore from your backup. Might lose a day's worth of work, but you'll be up and running in no time.

-hl718

 

I am a comp. technician for PC systems builder who sells OEM Windows XP Pro and Home operating system as well as other computer parts, and only sell to resellers and business with an IT department. I got my information from the Microsoft sales agent that visits our company once every couple of months.

What I was stating before only applies to activating the copy of windows XP pro and Home, as well as 2k3 Server. If you have an OEM version and switched motherboards from one chipset to another and try to activate the fresh install of windows, it will not let you. I've tried this out myself, I have an OEM copy of XP pro. When I upgrade my PC from 32bit to 64bit I'm going to have to buy a new copy of XP, so that i can activate that copy and continue using it after the 30day window period. THere are hax you can use to bypass activation, but I don't use them.

Thats who I got my information from both a guy who works for MS and from actually testing this out. If you concur then point me out to where it disproves what I say, just make sure it isn't FUD that gets spread Internet chat forums. I check to see what I say, when posting information like this, is correct. But by all means, please correct me if I'm wrong, just don't be a dick about it.


Yakumo, try logging into safe mode and see if you can do a system restore because what hl718 is saying might be true you probably have severly corrupted system files. If it won't let you do it through safe mode google ERD Win Commander. Its like Knoppix, which boots directly off the CD but tailored for Windows and lets you access files on the harddrives and do system restores, etc. I can send you a licensed copy if you need one.

 

Madhatter,

The first point in your post is incorrect as BOTH the retail and OEM versions of Windows XP will take a "snapshot" (actually a hardware hash) of your system when installed. When major system components are swapped out (or Windows reinstalled) this hash is recalculated and if it varies by a certain amount from the original, it will trigger reactivation.

Reactivation is typically a simple process that just requires a quick Internet ping. I've never even had to call in to Microsoft for it.

Despite your claim, there is NO motherboard lockout in the OEM version of windows. You can freely swap the motherboard and depending on the hardware hash, it may or may not trigger activation. If you keep all the other major components the same, chances are good that you won't even need to reactivate. If you do need to, it is just as simple as reactivating the retail version.

It would be stupid for Microsoft to prevent motherboard swaps on OEM copies as the licensing agreement DOES NOT tie the OS to the motherboard.

Now the one wrinkle in the puzzle are pre-activated versions that are created specifically for major OEMs such as Dell, Gateway, etc. These specific builds of Windows XP are activated based on a key stored in the BIOS. As a result, you can freely swap the hardware in, say, a Dell machine and you will never trigger reactivation. You can even jump to an entirely new machine so long as it's still a Dell. Now, drop that install on a Gateway and suddenly it's gonna whine like hell because the hardware key is missing.

All of this is well documented on Microsoft.com as well as Technet and other resources. I'll trust Microsoft's technical resources over the word of a salesguy. I've also personally verified this on test benches here as I have just about every major build of Windows sitting in the office. I've also done compliance audits in the past, so it's not like licensing is a new topic to me.

-hl718

 

Thank you for this clarification, seriously. I assumed, because of what I was told, that with OEM it was only a "one-time" deal when it came with swapping out parts. I did not know that exactly.

 

No worries. Glad to help. And sorry if I came off a bit harsh at first. It's just that I always see folks going off on how "restrictive" Windows is, when the activation scheme for WinXP is really rather lenient. Sure, it sucks that it had to be implemented in the first place, but it really is a set and forget kind of thing.

Now going from a 32 to 64-bit CPU, you can still use your current Windows if you run the CPU in compatibility mode, but you really should purchase a 64-bit version of XP if you're gonna pay extra for the CPU.

-hl718

 

I have to try XP64 again soon. The last time I used it a lot of key programs didnt work

 

You did come off a bit harsh . Windows 2000 is just easy to lend around with the same key, etc, no need to activate it compared to XP Pro.

 

I have a Japanese copy and called the Japanese number. My friend who works in microsoft in Japan said that they can give codes that won't activate all the options which looks like what they did to me. But in the long run I won at the expense of formating the harddrive

Yakumo

 

Get on Linux - jokes apart..i never heard of something like that..you sure you havent got a virus or something like that that maybe modified the registry license entries?

 

That's probably what I had but it's all fixed now thanks to a format and a new code I just got from phoning Microsoft Japan.

Yakumo