I enter the product key but get "invalid product key"...but I own

[amelpa]

Last year a virus fried my computer. I had at least four people try to remove
the virus for me. My computer was gone for almost 6 months before I got it
back. All I know is that it was passed from one person to another (a friend
of a friend of a friend) until someone knowledgeable and nice enough, did the
work for me.

The only thing I know about my anonymous "tech guy" is that he works at
Intel and is a senior programmer, so I would have to guess that he knows what
he's doing. He was unable to recover/repair the old hard drive, so he put in
a new one (which I paid for). He said that he called microsoft to
report/register the new hard drive. (I don't know if this is pertinent
information or not.) And it was magically returned it to me...

Ever since, I have had nothing but trouble with my computer. When it starts
up, it says "OS not found". If I continue to reboot it (sometimes it takes
8-10 tries to get it to work) it will eventually let me get to the files
saved on the hard drive and to the internet. It will not let me access any
files/documents using microsoft office, though.

I have a certificate of authenticity with the product key for "Windows XP
Media Center Edition 2005" glued to the underside of my laptop. When I enter
it, I keep getting the message "The product key you have entered is not
valid". I have the original disk that was with my computer when I purchased
it, but whoever helped fix my computer also "helped" themselves to the
certification code... i.e. IT'S GONE.

What do I do now? How do I get my computer to be more than just gateway to
the internet and email? Is it just a matter offinding a valid product
key...or...? Do I have to purchase a new copy of the software? Will microsoft
be able to reactivate the one on my computer?

Can anyone help me out? If you have a solution for me, please let me know
at: (e-mail address removed)

Thanks

 

[Roy Smith]

Last year a virus fried my computer. I had at least four people try to remove
the virus for me. My computer was gone for almost 6 months before I got it
back. All I know is that it was passed from one person to another (a friend
of a friend of a friend) until someone knowledgeable and nice enough, did the
work for me.

The only thing I know about my anonymous "tech guy" is that he works at
Intel and is a senior programmer, so I would have to guess that he knows what
he's doing. He was unable to recover/repair the old hard drive, so he put in
a new one (which I paid for). He said that he called microsoft to
report/register the new hard drive. (I don't know if this is pertinent
information or not.) And it was magically returned it to me...

Ever since, I have had nothing but trouble with my computer. When it starts
up, it says "OS not found". If I continue to reboot it (sometimes it takes
8-10 tries to get it to work) it will eventually let me get to the files
saved on the hard drive and to the internet. It will not let me access any
files/documents using microsoft office, though.

I have a certificate of authenticity with the product key for "Windows XP
Media Center Edition 2005" glued to the underside of my laptop. When I enter
it, I keep getting the message "The product key you have entered is not
valid". I have the original disk that was with my computer when I purchased
it, but whoever helped fix my computer also "helped" themselves to the
certification code... i.e. IT'S GONE.

What do I do now? How do I get my computer to be more than just gateway to
the internet and email? Is it just a matter offinding a valid product
key...or...? Do I have to purchase a new copy of the software? Will microsoft
be able to reactivate the one on my computer?

Can anyone help me out? If you have a solution for me, please let me know
at: (e-mail address removed)

I have no idea of what to tell you about your product key problems. As
for your problem with not being able to open your files/documents with
Office, it sounds like you need to take ownership of the files. To do
this follow the steps at this page:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421

 

[Mark Adams]

Last year a virus fried my computer. I had at least four people try to remove
the virus for me. My computer was gone for almost 6 months before I got it
back. All I know is that it was passed from one person to another (a friend
of a friend of a friend) until someone knowledgeable and nice enough, did the
work for me.

FOAFs, not a good idea.

The only thing I know about my anonymous "tech guy" is that he works at
Intel and is a senior programmer, so I would have to guess that he knows what
he's doing. He was unable to recover/repair the old hard drive, so he put in
a new one (which I paid for). He said that he called microsoft to
report/register the new hard drive. (I don't know if this is pertinent
information or not.) And it was magically returned it to me...

Microsoft does not "register" hard drives. This must mean he called
Microsoft for a phone activation of Windows, probably because he used a
different product key that wouldn't activate on your machine.

Ever since, I have had nothing but trouble with my computer. When it starts
up, it says "OS not found". If I continue to reboot it (sometimes it takes
8-10 tries to get it to work) it will eventually let me get to the files
saved on the hard drive and to the internet. It will not let me access any
files/documents using microsoft office, though.

You may still be having hardware problems. Did you purchase the computer
with Microsoft Office preinstalled? If so, the manufacturer must have
provided you with a way to restore Office as well as Windows.

I have a certificate of authenticity with the product key for "Windows XP
Media Center Edition 2005" glued to the underside of my laptop. When I enter
it, I keep getting the message "The product key you have entered is not
valid". I have the original disk that was with my computer when I purchased
it, but whoever helped fix my computer also "helped" themselves to the
certification code... i.e. IT'S GONE.

Are you sure Media Center Edition was reinstalled? Right click My Computer,
select "Properties" from the menu. What operating system is listed? What type
of install disk do you have? Is it a manufacurer branded reinstallation disk,
or is it a "recovery" disk that returns your computer to "As shipped"
condition? If it's the latter, I would copy all of my data off to an external
hard drive and use the recovery disk to restore the computer to as shipped.
This should include the original preactivated product key that shipped with
the installation (not the one on the bottom of the computer), and possibly
Microsoft Office if it came preinstalled. You might have been given separate
disks for Office---hope you still have them. If the reinstallation hangs up
or won't install, you still have hardware problems.

 

[peter]

It seems to me that if are having problems booting the system
He did not do a good job of fixing your virus problem.
Do you know what version of XP he installed on that new HD??

If it was my machine I would save everything I had worked on to CD/DVD.
Then using the Original Disks that came with the system I would reinstall
from scratch
formatting the HD in the process. The product key on the sticker should
allow you to
"activate" since it should match that Original CD. Contacting the
manufacturer of your Laptop
to purchase the original restore CD's would be the next step if that
"Original Disk" is not an
Operating system installation disk...maybe its only a Drivers/Other programs
disk.
Then you would need to reinstall all of your programs that did not come with
the machine.
and finally put all of your work back on the machine.

If this is too much for you might I suggest the manufacturers own Service
depot

peter

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Last year a virus fried my computer. I had at least four people try to remove
the virus for me.

What virus? Let me point out that a virus is a piece of software
designed to do irreparable damage to your computer.

Does that mean that viruses can never be removed? No, of course not.
In practice it is often possible to remove a virus, especially if you
haven't been infected with it very long. However, it's possible that
your situation was bad enough to be uncorrectable.

My computer was gone for almost 6 months before I got it
back. All I know is that it was passed from one person to another (a friend
of a friend of a friend)

Ugh! Ugh! Ugh! That sounds absolutely terrible. Uncontrolled by you,
your computer went from person to person to try to fix it. It's
extremely likely that at least some of these people screwed up things
even worse.

until someone knowledgeable and nice enough, did the
work for me.

The only thing I know about my anonymous "tech guy" is that he works at
Intel and is a senior programmer, so I would have to guess that he knows what
he's doing.

Not at all a necessarily good guess. Working at Intel or being a
programmer does *not* mean that he is an expert at removing viruses.

He was unable to recover/repair the old hard drive,

Perhaps because it was unrepairable; perhaps because the others
screwed up things a lot more; perhaps because his skills were nowhere
near as good as you thought.

so he put in a new one (which I paid for).

That makes no sense at all. A virus can destroy what's on the hard
drive, but not the drive itself.

He said that he called microsoft to
report/register the new hard drive. (I don't know if this is pertinent
information or not.)

He didn't do that at all. Drives don't need to be reported or
registered. If he installed Windows on it, he probably called to
activate Windows.

And it was magically returned it to me...

Ever since, I have had nothing but trouble with my computer.

Then clearly, this Intel senior programmer didn't know what he is
doing.

When it starts
up, it says "OS not found". If I continue to reboot it (sometimes it takes
8-10 tries to get it to work) it will eventually let me get to the files
saved on the hard drive and to the internet. It will not let me access any
files/documents using microsoft office, though.

Has Microsoft Office been installed on the new hard drive?

I have a certificate of authenticity with the product key for "Windows XP
Media Center Edition 2005" glued to the underside of my laptop. When I enter
it, I keep getting the message "The product key you have entered is not
valid". I have the original disk that was with my computer when I purchased
it, but whoever helped fix my computer also "helped" themselves to the
certification code... i.e. IT'S GONE.

Product keys and CDs need to match with respect to the following:
whether they are Professional, Home, Media Center; whether they are
OEM or retail; whether they are Full or Upgrade. Almost certainly you
don't have a match with at least one of those things. Your Intel
senior programmer screwed you up.

What do I do now? How do I get my computer to be more than just gateway to
the internet and email? Is it just a matter offinding a valid product
key...or...? Do I have to purchase a new copy of the software? Will microsoft
be able to reactivate the one on my computer?

It's very hard to answer for sure, because there's no way to know
exactly what he did and what state he gave it back to you in. But my
guess is that you probably need to buy and install a new copy of
Windows XP.

Can anyone help me out? If you have a solution for me, please let me know
at: (e-mail address removed)

Sorry, neither I nor most of the people here will reply to you by
e-mail. If you ask here in this newsgroup, read your answers here.

 

[lemel_man]

You may want to verify that the version that is now installed is the
same version you have media and key code for.

You could download Belarc Advisor and install it. It develops a report
showing the key codes for the products installed. Another option would
be to download and install keyfind from magical jelly bean.

You can probably check the key that's on the CD this way...

1. Insert the Installation CD into your CD / Drive Drive.
2. Explore the CD and navigate to the i386 folder.
3. Open the file UNATTEND.txt and scroll down to the last line.
4. You will find your Windows XP Product key there.
It worked for me.