Curious Win 7 activation issues on new Dell?
Gary Baldi
one desktop and one laptop. Both have Win 7 64-bit Home Premium.
The neighbour asked if I'd mind reinstalling the OS, drivers and apps
from scratch as, like me, they don't like the trial stuff that Dell
bundles with their units. Fair enough.
So I start with the laptop and within about 40 minutes I'm staring at
the bright blue Win 7 desktop. Lovely. So I go into Control Panel/
System to change the name of the workgroup that both pc's will live in
and observe that Windows is already activated.
No surprise there, I wasn't even asked for a product key during the
install routine which has been standard procedure on all the Dell's
I've worked on over the years, my understanding has always been that
the setup routine does a BIOS check to ensure it's being installed on
a Dell.
So, onto the desktop. Again within about 35 minutes I'm at the
desktop except, in Control Panel/System I see that I have three days
until automatic activation takes place? Strange. The option to
"activate now", when clicked, simply throws up an error message
telling me the product key I entered isn't valid?!
Um, excuse me? What product key, I haven't entered any!?
Any ideas why the same OS behaves differently on two different
machines?
I've googled "3 days left for activation" and got nearly 9,000,000
hits so someone else is feeling this too, some of the comments I read
have claimed they've been merrily running the various OS's for months
and months and now have received this message.
I assume MS have dropped something sinister into one of their updates?
Anyone got any thoughts?
Mike S.
In article <d6e5f599-3967-4ad6...@z7g2000vbl.googlegroups.com>,
Not that this explains things - but did you try entering the product key
on the COA affixed to the desktop machine?
William R. Walsh
> I see that I have three days until automatic activation takes
> place? Strange.
Welcome to the wonderful world of Windows Activation AND Windows
Genuine (dis)Advantage Notifications. You're in a room that's getting
smaller and smaller...
Dell installation media is scripted to utilize a volume product key.
Later, if this were to become an issue, you'd simply enter the product
key affixed to your computer.
Microsoft is apparently really big on treating their customer as a
criminal. All of this activation/WGA crap does *nothing* to stop real
piracy, and WGA Notifications is nothing more than a misfiring piece
of garbage that's very difficult to remove once you've managed to get
it. WGA Notifications has been considered as malware by some, and
they're not far off.
> Um, excuse me? What product key, I haven't entered any!?
See above. It used to be that the activation wizard would let you
enter the key affixed to your computer if it didn't like the Dell
volume key. Are you getting the opportunity to do that?
> Any ideas why the same OS behaves differently on two different
> machines?
Other than a malfunction of the WGA stuff included in Vista/Win7,
nope.
> I assume MS have dropped something sinister into one of their
> updates?
WGA Notifications is an update for Windows XP, and I strongly
recommend you not install it. (Note that WGA Notifications has nothing
to with the "quick check" that is required to use the Windows Update
web site or to download certain Microsoft updates and add-ons.)
Unfortunately, it is included with all later versions of Windows. And
that is why I will not be running any later versions of Windows for
more than evaluation purposes. Where will I go? I don't know yet. I've
got some Macintosh systems and like almost everything about them
outside of the fact that the home/end keys don't work like they
should. Linux shows promise but has had a bad habit of annoying me to
the point where I'm ready to toss it out of the nearest window. PC-BSD
appears to be a very solid OS. And there's always ReactOS, which will
have plenty of time to grow and mature by the time XP drops out of
support around 2014.
I'd give Dell a buzz and see what they say. Maybe they know a
solution.
William
Ben Myers
FWIW, Windows 7 has the built-in function to change the product key. No
more screwing around with Keyfinder. So change the product key to match
what is on the side of the computer, and retry activating it. If that
does not succeed in activating Windows, contact Dell... Ben Myers
Gary Baldi
>
> - Show quoted text -
Yes, I thought it rather telling that the reinstallation media states
quite clearly that support for the OS is provided by Dell; so MS can
screw things up with dodgy updates and leave the likes of Dell to
clkear up their mess!
Yes, changing the product key to the one on the rear of the desktop
did the trick................still doesnt explain why the laptop
activated automatically though?
Gary Baldi
>
> Dell installation media is scripted to utilize a volume product key.
> Later, if this were to become an issue, you'd simply enter the product
> key affixed to your computer.
>
Funnily enough, my last Vostro 1700 laptop had the COA affixed to the
bottom of the unit; after a year, I observed that almost all the text
on it was illegible.
I note that now the COA on laptops isnt immediately apparent; I
believe it's on the inside of either the memory casing or the hdd
casing.
But I wonder what would have happened if I'd needed to re-enter the
key on my Vostro........because although it was there, I couldn't read
it!
MJMIII
news:d6e5f599-3967-4ad6...@z7g2000vbl.googlegroups.com...
You have to manually enter the key. I thought the same thing when I
performed a DnC on this box. I got my warnings after 60 days.
--
"Don't pick a fight with an old man.
If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you."
Ben Myers
Why one activated automatically and the other didn't? Poltergeists, of
course! Microsoft is full of them. This the unifying explanation why
Windows has always been so screwed up and why it has so many quirks,
anomalies, defects and security holes. Steve Ballmer needs to call out
Ghostbusters... Ben Myers
Christopher Muto
why did the installation with the dell provided windows 7 machine work
with a desktop an not a laptop? who knows. i too recently found that a
dell provided windows 7 pro dvd that came with a vostros 1700 required
manual activation (had to reinstall the defective factory image - thanks
dell). this surprised me and reminded me of a dell provided windows xp
pro cd i once received with a latitude laptop that also required manual
activation despite every other dell oem windows xp cd not needing it.
this activation stuff really is a nuisance and what is so absurd about
it is that before windows 7 was even released someone came out with
something called "7loader by hazar" that actually activates a windows 7
installation. of course microsoft chases down this software wherever it
is posted so there are tons of dead links for it all over the internet.
but it is remarkable that it exists, and shows how truly meaningless the
activation process is, and shows that windows activation only punishes
legitimate users of their software and doesn't little to actually stop
those that wish to pirate it.
RnR
wrote:
Agreed. I never will fully understand this activation stuff nor agree
in principal with it.
Jonathan Eales
"Christopher Muto" <mu...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:c5mdnRvRkYrJybTW...@speakeasy.net...
Did you use the same DELL Windows 7 Home Premium disk for both the laptop
and the desktop? If so the setup recognised something in the DELL BIOS of
the laptop that was OK and didn't find it in the desktop. Hence the
difference.
Gary Baldi
>
> Did you use the same DELL Windows 7 Home Premium disk for both the laptop
> and the desktop? If so the setup recognised something in the DELL BIOS of
> the laptop that was OK and didn't find it in the desktop. Hence the
>
> - Show quoted text -
Hmmm, that must be the "answer" although it's still strange. Yes, I
used the same DVD but both of them have the same Dell part number and
the barcode on the sticker on the back of both packages is the same!
Ben Myers
Nope. Like I said earlier: "Poltergeists!"
What? You expect consistency from Microsoft? Same as Joe Lieberman?
... Ben Myers
Gary Baldi
:-) well does the finger point at Microsoft or Dell?
I notice the laptop BIOS is labelled as "Roberts Intel" and has a
different look and feel to previous dell BIOSes and is different from
the modded Phoenix BIOS on the desktop.
I suspect Jonathan may be close with his suggestion. Seems Dell may
have rewritten their setup routine but some systems are failing the
check? Tech support will be having a field day ;-)
Tony Harding
LOL (literally). Thanks for the comic break, Ben
TH
Ben Myers
What? You think Dell has a whole cadre of programmers who write BIOSes?
Fat chance. Like every name brand vendor, Dell gets a pre-packaged
generic BIOS to go with each model of motherboard, whether desktop,
laptop or server. Then somebody (probably outsourced) adds the Dell
look-and-feel, namely the common BIOS CMOS setup interface that you and
I see when we muck around there. They also add a BIOS signature that
identifies the motherboard as Dell. This BIOS signature is what
triggers Windows to install without its usual belching and farting
activation routine.
You are probably right. Somebody screwed up the BIOS for the laptop and
did not add the Dell BIOS signature. Look forward to a BIOS update to
fix this, but only after so many thousand support calls and emails. Of
course, the cheaper the product, the less likely it is to get any
attention at all... Ben Myers
Mike S.
In article <431e3eab-51e8-4a75...@p8g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>,
Would be find to run a SLIC dump program on both machines and see what the
licensing table actually says. If the certificate on the Win7 install disk
doesn't match one of them it could explain why the automatic activation
failed.
Gary Baldi
> In article <431e3eab-51e8-4a75-8b74-f1db8f74d...@p8g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>,
>
> - Show quoted text -
I've got some free time over the weekend, I've downloaded SLIC Toolkit
and I'll have a play......