Vista question

Ice_2

Hi a friend of my sons rang me yesterday and asked me when I rang microsoft to activate xp what did they ask me...so asked him why:idea:...turns out his MB died he's running vista home premium OEM version bought from ebuyer...anyway he replaced the MB with new processor and :mad: vista wont activate so he did a search on the web on his brothers pc and apparently he has come up with this...vista can only be activated 5 times when up-grading pc components and you have to ring M$ everytime when you want to do this...is this right...is the retail any different...or is vista just as useless as everyone said it was...:mad: or do any of you know a way round this...

banger9365

first off vista is not useless
letts get back on track, you need to activate vista more often than xp when you change parts
changing the motherboard when using a oem is really a no no
put you can if it goes faulty,change for the same or if the same is not avalible then a different one,only on faulty boards(it's a gray area still)
activation will fail when you try by the internet so you have to ring them up (microsoft on the free phone number)
they will ask for a activation code you get this by going through the actvation screen and choseing activate by phone.
they ask if it was bought from a shop or came with the pc
bought from shop.
they will ask how many computer it's on - none trying to put it on this one (which it is not on any other pc )
hope fully they will talk you through the rest and give you a new actation code
and i should not tell you this has some poeple will say you cannot do it with an oem version of windows,it's against the rules/law which it is not,it's only against the rules if you change the board that is not faulty any other parts are ok to change
this is a very very gray area that microsft set down in the rules of having a oem version of windows

Ice_2

thanks banger9365 I thought it was going to be better than xp but obviously not...don't get me wrong I love vista and wouldn't go back to xp but...as his MB died which was way old he has had to buy another with a different processor don't know which one's as he only rang yesterday to rack my brains over M$ really...so if I up-grade my graphics card this wont happen to me will it...thanks you are fabulous...

indierocker85

Banger has pretty much covered what I was going to say which is....

When upgrading or replacing defective parts, (without going into too much detail) vista recognises that the new parts have different serials etc. Thus windows activation resets itself, but if you try and activate it as normal it will say its already been activated or suggest that the copy isn't genuine.

If you pay close attention to the automated phone service there may be an option that says if you are re-activating windows press (whatever number). Enter activation key it will ask why you are reactivating if you then say upgrade and it won't allow you to do it. Then there should be one for defective parts, so just tell them the upgraded part was done so due to defect, it is unlikely this should make much difference. Any problems and it will more than likely connect you to an advisor anyway. Hope this helps

Ice_2

thankyou for that...night off to my bed now...

robt_2

Vista is useless because it tries to prevent piracy?

banger9365

robt wrote: »

Vista is useless because it tries to prevent piracy?

that a good thing makes poeple buy legit copys and think about what you have just said (vista do's not prevent piracy trust me )

sleep2much

XP does the same thing when you change too many components, so it's nothing new, but what the heck, let's blame Vista.

Cricri

The reason why people whine is not that software producers try to protect their assets, but that the process they use to do so make it a major PITA.
Go figure why people pirate software when it is less of a pain to use a pirate copy than to use a legal genuine retail copy.
I'm sticking to my legit XP myself, although I could get a copy of Vista via MSDNAA. I don't need the eye candy because I use a computer to do what I need it to, not to show off to the neighbour that my desktop configuration looks better than his. And if I need any of the non-visual extras, I just run a separate freebie to do so. Heck, even the eye-candy can be obtained if you are that desperate (using WindowBlinds or such).