Code 0xC004C003 product key in use?

Strider590

Kinda lost track here, but it would have shipped with OEM Vista, that product key would or should work with a fresh OEM Vista install. Ive done it several times on IBM laptops where I don't have the genuine recovery CD's.
I do have a copy of every Windows OS to date, simply because manufacturers stopped shipping recovery CD's some years back, but they're useless without a genuine product key.

Lum

Vista largely does away with the OEM/Retail/Corporate product key thing. Any Vista DVD will install any version of Vista from OEM Home Basic through to Corporate Ultimate edition. The only exception to this is the royalty OEM stuff I have been describing. (and of course, 32bit vs 64bit)

You have no way of knowing why that key has failed because until that shop reformatted the machine that product key on that sticker was never used with that laptop because it was a royalty OEM install.

There's any number of reasons why the product key on the sticker would fail. This could be a simple printing error at the factory, or it could be that someone read the sticker off the OP's laptop at some point in it's existence and used it to install their own machine, maybe they posted it on the internet and hundreds of people installed using it and now the key is blocked.

Since it's (normally) a valid key, when you reformat your IBM laptops with a standard Vista DVD, the key just works.

This is exactly what the shop will have done (unless, of course, they are the ones who stole your product key) installed it using the key on the sticker and not noticed that Windows didn't actually activate.

OP: Did you check if you have an SLIC entry in your ACPI table yet?

cattie

S3quence wrote: »

Unless in fact the company who formatted it removed the recovery partition which again I would want them to sort it out!

This is in fact what Toshiba think has happened. :eek:

Lum wrote: »

OP: Did you check if you have an SLIC entry in your ACPI table yet?

Ooh, it's like a foreign language & this is too technical for me :rotfl:Fortunately it's not my laptop and owner of the laptop has taken it back to the shop who did the reformat & it's supposed to be AOK now. That remains to be seen, but in a month he'll be back in Saudi Arabia so if any other activation problems occur he'll be able to try to sort them out using his own language.

I appreciate all the input here from people trying to help. You're a smashing bunch. :beer:

Lum

cattie wrote: »

Ooh, it's like a foreign language & this is too technical for me :rotfl:

I did post step by step instructions in post #15, it's not too hard