Building a new system and want to use my existing case. Moved everything,
MB complete, power supply, cd/dvd drives and the HDD to an older case. Upon
first start up, MS msg said this machine is not activated, I went thru and
activated without any problem. Only new things are the mouse, keyboard and
monitor, same video card. Just think it strange...or normal?

Meebers wrote:
> Building a new system and want to use my existing case. Moved everything,
> MB complete, power supply, cd/dvd drives and the HDD to an older case. Upon
> first start up, MS msg said this machine is not activated, I went thru and
> activated without any problem. Only new things are the mouse, keyboard and
> monitor, same video card. Just think it strange...or normal?
>
>
From http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.php

The WPA system checks ten categories of hardware:

1. Display Adapter
2. SCSI Adapter
3. IDE Adapter (effectively the motherboard)
4. Network Adapter (NIC) and its MAC Address
5. RAM Amount Range (i.e., 0-64mb, 64-128mb, etc.)
6. Processor Type
7. Processor Serial Number
8. Hard Drive Device
9. Hard Drive Volume Serial Number (VSN)
10. CD-ROM / CD-RW / DVD-ROM
It then calculates and records a number based on the first device of
each type that was found during setup, and stores this number on your
hard drive. ... What does ‘substantially the same’ mean? WPA asks for
‘votes’ from each of these ten categories: ‘Is the same device still
around, or has there never been one?’ Seven Yes votes means all is well
— and a NIC, present originally and not changed, counts for three yes
votes!

--
Lem -- MS-MVP

Apollo 11 - 40 years ago this month:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ap...0th/index.html

OK on the categories. Display adapter the same but went from 2 digital
monitors to one analog. NIC is on the MB although different port on my
switch, same RAM, processer/sn, same OS HDD (C but removed one HDD used
as storage. ....thanks for the info.

"Lem" <lemp40@unknownhost> wrote in message
news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
> Meebers wrote:
>> Building a new system and want to use my existing case. Moved
>> everything, MB complete, power supply, cd/dvd drives and the HDD to an
>> older case. Upon first start up, MS msg said this machine is not
>> activated, I went thru and activated without any problem. Only new
>> things are the mouse, keyboard and monitor, same video card. Just think
>> it strange...or normal?
> From http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.php
>
> The WPA system checks ten categories of hardware:
>
> 1. Display Adapter
> 2. SCSI Adapter
> 3. IDE Adapter (effectively the motherboard)
> 4. Network Adapter (NIC) and its MAC Address
> 5. RAM Amount Range (i.e., 0-64mb, 64-128mb, etc.)
> 6. Processor Type
> 7. Processor Serial Number
> 8. Hard Drive Device
> 9. Hard Drive Volume Serial Number (VSN)
> 10. CD-ROM / CD-RW / DVD-ROM
> It then calculates and records a number based on the first device of each
> type that was found during setup, and stores this number on your hard
> drive. ... What does ‘substantially the same’ mean? WPA asks for ‘votes’
> from each of these ten categories: ‘Is the same device still around, or
> has there never been one?’ Seven Yes votes means all is well — and a NIC,
> present originally and not changed, counts for three yes votes!
>
> --
> Lem -- MS-MVP
>
> Apollo 11 - 40 years ago this month:
> http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ap...0th/index.html

Believe movement of any same card on the motherboard to another slot is seen
as a change, as is any removal of any component listed in the ten categories
that are removable. I'm not sure of any externals like a monitor, keyboard,
mouse detected by XP.

--
Dave
"Meebers" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:OB$(E-Mail Removed)...
> OK on the categories. Display adapter the same but went from 2 digital
> monitors to one analog. NIC is on the MB although different port on my
> switch, same RAM, processer/sn, same OS HDD (C but removed one HDD used
> as storage. ....thanks for the info.
>
> "Lem" <lemp40@unknownhost> wrote in message
> news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Meebers wrote:
>>> Building a new system and want to use my existing case. Moved
>>> everything, MB complete, power supply, cd/dvd drives and the HDD to an
>>> older case. Upon first start up, MS msg said this machine is not
>>> activated, I went thru and activated without any problem. Only new
>>> things are the mouse, keyboard and monitor, same video card. Just think
>>> it strange...or normal?
>> From http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.php
>>
>> The WPA system checks ten categories of hardware:
>>
>> 1. Display Adapter
>> 2. SCSI Adapter
>> 3. IDE Adapter (effectively the motherboard)
>> 4. Network Adapter (NIC) and its MAC Address
>> 5. RAM Amount Range (i.e., 0-64mb, 64-128mb, etc.)
>> 6. Processor Type
>> 7. Processor Serial Number
>> 8. Hard Drive Device
>> 9. Hard Drive Volume Serial Number (VSN)
>> 10. CD-ROM / CD-RW / DVD-ROM
>> It then calculates and records a number based on the first device of each
>> type that was found during setup, and stores this number on your hard
>> drive. ... What does 'substantially the same' mean? WPA asks for 'votes'
>> from each of these ten categories: 'Is the same device still around, or
>> has there never been one?' Seven Yes votes means all is well - and a NIC,
>> present originally and not changed, counts for three yes votes!
>>
>> --
>> Lem -- MS-MVP
>>
>> Apollo 11 - 40 years ago this month:
>> http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ap...0th/index.html
>
>