I am trying to upgrade a laptop with an oem mce 2004 system. I have an older
version xp pro upgrade disk and when I try it, I get a message that the
installed version is newer than the one I am trying to install. I
slipstreamed sp3 into the disk and now it is willing to make the upgrade, but
then says my cd key is not valid.

FYI concerns about piracy: The xppro disk was on a P3 that I salvaged for
parts. It will be on only 1 machine.

PS: When I start a clean install with the original disk it does accept the
key that came with it. I also tried all the keys in the pid.inf and the
unattend.txt files.

After I posted my question, I installed an old version of xp home on a clean
hd and tried upgrading with my slipstreamed disk. It worked fine, so the
trouble must be with mce 2004 ???

On Jul 15, 3:57*pm, Wildprairie
<Wildprai...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> I am trying to upgrade a laptop with an oem mce 2004 system. *I have anolder
> version xp pro upgrade disk and when I try it, I get a message that the
> installed version is newer than the one I am trying to install. *I
> slipstreamed sp3 into the disk and now it is willing to make the upgrade,but
> then says my cd key is not valid.
>
> FYI concerns about piracy: The xppro disk was on a P3 that I salvaged for
> parts. *It will be on only 1 machine.
>
> PS: When I start a clean install with the original disk it does accept the
> key that came with it. *I also tried all the keys in the pid.inf and the
> unattend.txt files.

XP versions and CD keys are not interchangeable! Media Centre Edition
(MCE) keys require a MCE install media. XP Pro CD requires an XP Pro
key. You can not update the XP while using a different type of CD
key.

MCE XP version is a modified XP Pro version with a lot of network
setting removed and additional "media" applications added.

Thanks smlunatick for responding. However, the first key I tried in many
attempts was the one that came with the xp pro disk. Sorry if I worded the
original question poorly.

"Wildprairie" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:C1D988FC-9D89-44E3-9A16-(E-Mail Removed)...

> After I posted my question, I installed an old version of xp home on a
> clean
> hd and tried upgrading with my slipstreamed disk. It worked fine, so
> the
> trouble must be with mce 2004 ???

Only XP Home may be upgraded to XP Pro. See "Windows XP supported
upgrade paths":

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/292607

The key supplied was for the original cd and service pack level, since you
added the scv pk3 I would think the install key is no longer valid.
since you discovered this by installing clean and using the original cd,
problem solved.

"Wildprairie" wrote:

> Thanks smlunatick for responding. However, the first key I tried in many
> attempts was the one that came with the xp pro disk. Sorry if I worded the
> original question poorly.