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  • TonyLisaP
    TonyLisaP Posts: 505 Forumite
    Have you just tried clicking on the "activate" button?
  • shami
    shami Posts: 57 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Yes, the message say that the product key is invalid for activation. It them asks me to either buy a new key online, type in a(nother) key or contact Lenovo.
  • shami
    shami Posts: 57 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Yes, the message says that the product key is invalid for activation. It then asks me to either buy a new key online, type in a(nother) key or contact Lenovo.
  • TonyLisaP
    TonyLisaP Posts: 505 Forumite
    Lenovo are probably correct in that you will have to restore the factory settings as Vista gets activated by a Certificate and your BIOS. Did you reinstall the operating system or something? Please explain how you ended up in this pickle.
  • shami
    shami Posts: 57 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    I really really don't know! Other than leaving on standby on Sunday night, when the laptop was working fine and battery charged up, I have downloaded nothing, added/removed no software or hardware etc. I am certainly no techie, but I am comfortable doing basic stuff, provided I've researched it thoroughly (usually online.)

    However, even the last lot of Windows updates was last week. I am clueless to why this could've happened.
  • TonyLisaP
    TonyLisaP Posts: 505 Forumite
    Has this happened since SP1 for Vista was installed?
  • shami
    shami Posts: 57 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    i do have SP1, but that was downloaded/installed a few weeks ago.
  • TonyLisaP
    TonyLisaP Posts: 505 Forumite
    How many days does it say you have left for the activation?
  • shami
    shami Posts: 57 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Two days :confused:
  • TonyLisaP
    TonyLisaP Posts: 505 Forumite
    That would tie in with SP1 being installed a few weeks ago as it gives you 30 days to activate.
    I don't understand why SP1 is seeing your installation as being hacked if Vista was preinstalled by the OEM on the laptop. This was supposed to stop hackers using the Operating system for free.
    I suggest talking to Lenovo about it but to stop your product being deactivated you can rearm the activation period to 30 days.
    Goto start, programs, accessories and right click on command prompt and select runas administrator.
    In the command window type in the following
    cd\
    cd windows\system32
    slmgr.vbs -rearm

    Wait for the completion message then reboot your machine, this will set the activation back to 30 days, you can perform this rearm function 3 times to give you 120 days total. You really need to get lenovo to sort it out in the meantime.

    I just noticed I entered the wrong command and have corrected it.
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