Invalid product key for windows vista

Donnie

Have you tried the switching off and then pressing Alt+F10 whilst it is re-starting?

BritBrat

Phone Acer up and ask for a restore CD/DVD. (If calling from UK : 0870 853 1000)

My OH new laptop came with VISTA home basic but we had a few problems using VISTA so I thought I would see if I could get restore disks for XP home.

Well much to my surprise they sent me XP professional restore disks, not that I am complaining then while I was waiting for the disks I sorted out the VISTA problems. I will install XP pro later but not untill I have made a full disk backup with Norton Ghost.

lisa1969_2

I phoned Acer and they won't send me the recovery discs they want the unit sent by courier.

I have tried F11 and Alt F10 but nothing happens, goes straight to password page.

Someone else suggested phoning Microsoft and asking for new product key...but don't know if this will work.

Many thanks for all your help.
Lisa

Donnie

Are you certain that no discs were supplied with your system?

fuzzgun19

I have a new Acer Aspire t180, i bought it from tesco a few weeks ago, and it had a 'Recovery disk' with it..

I think PC world have c r a p customer service.

Is it not possible to do System restore (the thing where you go back to a different date)?

tomstickland

Someone once posted a link on here to a utility that unencrypted the windows key that' stored on the machine.

mountainchrisriver

Something just doesn't seem right here... PC World Acer computers should come with recovery discs... what exactly is this "upgrade disc" your son put on the computer and did it actually come with the computer?

Fonz_2

It'll be the Windows Anytime upgrade.

Its a way to upgrade from one 'edition' of Windows Vista to another. It's now asking for a product key for the upgraded version - this can be purchased from Microsoft.

fuzzgun19

tomstickland wrote: »

Someone once posted a link on here to a utility that unencrypted the windows key that' stored on the machine.

Do you mean something like this? http://www.download.com/Product-Key-Finder/3000-2094_4-10736781.html?tag=lst-4

marms

When you turn the computer on press F2 to enter the bios setup.
Then go to the Main Menu.
Change the setting D2D Recovery to Enabled.
Press F10 and choose Yes to save the change and exit the bios.

That's how it's done on my Acer Extensa 5610 so there's a good chance it'll be the same, the original system should now be resored. You may need to change the D2D Recovery setting back to disabled after the restore.