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windows 7:upgraded mobo, cant activate!

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by snuffy09 1 view

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I purposely purchased windows 7 Retail, not OEM for this reason!

I had windows 7 pro installed on my computer with an older motherboard, i upgraded the motherboard, reinstalled 7 and when i went to activate it the activation wizard says "type a different key for activation-the product key you typed cannot be used to activate windows on this computer"

any help would be great!

15 replies

by purpleskys

they will help you obtain a new key for your win7

by dcbrott99

If you have been using an OEM copy of windows, it is tied into your Motherboard and you will have to get another key from microsoft in order to activate on a new Motherboard (not sure how much this costs but you will have to pay something). If it is not an OEM copy, I believe the retail version of Windows 7 allows you to put it on up to 3 different computers. Windows considers a different Motherboard to be a different computer so this will count as one. I had this same issue the other day with my new Motherboard install and while it would not activate online it allowed me to call them to use to get a key over the phone. This did not cost me anything as it was only the 2nd computer for this install of Windows7. Good luck!

by snuffy09

purchased windows 7 Retail, not OEM for this reason!
purchased windows 7 Retail, not OEM for this reason!
purchased windows 7 Retail, not OEM for this reason!
purchased windows 7 Retail, not OEM for this reason!
purchased windows 7 Retail, not OEM for this reason!

by dcbrott99

If not an OEM you should be able to activate without purchasing another key. I did this very thing only a couple of days ago and was miffed at first. If you look carefully at what it says when you try to activate using the already purchased key it says that you have to call Microsoft to activate with the phone. Simply call them with the number provided and spend a few minutes calling out codes and typing in codes that they give you and you will then be good to go without paying anything. Good luck!

by purpleskys

for retail versions...support...call them, we've done it a number of times with XP (haven't had to reload our win7 machines yet) and never had any issues with M$ supplying us with a new key; as long as you have all the relevant info they ask for, all should be fine.

by snuffy09

A)If i put the old motherboard and a hard drive back in with windows 7 loaded on it i would be deactivated?

B)is this M$'s new method to anti piracy? you have to call them every time you install 7?

by purpleskys

A.) what do you mean by deactivated? you have me a bit lost there.

B.) and it's not any new method that they have, if you can't activate your legal, legit version of win7, all you have to do is call them, they will assist you in activating it. They have done this for years; my husband used to work for MS XP support, they did it all the time and that was over 7 yrs ago.

by seanferd

Is Windows activation a total bag of hammers for some people? Yes. Is it worse than it was in the past? Maybe.

No, I don't think they intend that a phone call should be necessary, but it seems that frequently enough it is actually necessary. But when DRM fails, it usually does so spectacularly.

by oh smeg

Bloody Oath they like getting phone calls. It makes them feel important.

I actually walked away from End User Type M$ Product when on a test rig I fitted 6 SCSI Drives and had to reactivate XP Pro. The person at M$ accused me of Pirating their products so I told them to shove it. If they think that I was going to pay in excess of 16K for hardware and then want to stiff them on a $20.00 License Fee they are crazy.

But if this helps any I never attempt to Activate over the Net the M$ Servers are just way too unreliable for my liking I always call them and get an activation Code.

Col

by snuffy09

I called the automated #
besides the virtual support missunderstanding me all the time saying "continue!" it wasnt bad.

the last thing i wanted to do was talk to a live person at M$... That would be like talking to somebody at the IRS.

Thanks all!

by seanferd

I don't like talking to any MS critters at all, even if they are just in a call center in India, giving my poor old dad misleading instructions.

I have the same VR problems with AT&T billing. Anything else we call for, VR seems to work OK, until we want to pay a bill. Then the VR always kicks us over to a live person so they can automatically charge us an extra fiver.

by oh smeg

Is that they are Tier 1 Support Staff so they don't really have much of an idea.

The last time I rang them I activated a copy of XP SP3 from the Disc I used to install the Product originally and I was locked into a endless Loop of Activating the product and the system restarting, asking to be activated. The Support Staff in Singapore then suggested that I speak to the Technical Support Staff in AU for Technical Support where they transfered me to and I was then reliably informed that I had used the wrong Disc to Repair the install. The Guy at M$ insisted that XP wasn't all that great as it was locked to certain Disc's to work from unlike Vista or 7 and that I had used the wring Disc. Have you ever tried to read the numbers off the inner ring of a CD?

It's not easy and they insisted that despite there being a M$ Hologram saying SP3 it was actually one of the original XP Disc's that I had used. They then wanted me to mess around repairing the install with one of my numerous XP Disc's and as the system had been severely infected I came to the conclusion that the infection had messed up WGA and I was up for a wipe and reload. The fact that if I had of used the wrong Disc type it wouldn't have accepted the Product Key didn't seem to matter too much either. XP's Old so we don't like it any more. :^0

Much easier to just blow it all away than attempting to repair the mess that it's owner had made and then trying to deal with Tech Support who didn't have any idea of curing a infected install of XP. Of course if I had of rung M$ Partners Support I wouldn't have had that mess to deal with, but the Activation Center being [b]Helpful[/b] transfered me to the Support Staff so I was being treated just like any other [b]Joe Public[/b] who didn't have a clue. :D

But from my experience with the Activation Center staffed by M$ it's all painless and I do short Circuit the system by entering junk when I'm asked to enter the first 5 digits in the A Group. After doing that 2 or 3 times I get transfered to a person who I can deal with instead of attempting to deal with a Computer running Windows and it's unreliable Logic. :p

Col

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