Motherboard and processor changed

[Marco Trapanese]

Hi,

I write from Italy and I hope my English is good enough to explain
whatever I'm going to explain...

I've got a Packard Bell desktop pc bought with a windows xp home
included in the box. Today I've changed the main board and the
processor. At startup windows tells me I changed some stuff (yeah, I
know) and asks for a new activation. All right, this is not a problem.

Press ok, wait a few seconds, a new window appears and eventually it
says: "Windows is already activated, click ok to continue" (or something
like this, I have the Italian version).

Well, clicking ok leads to the previous message which asks to a new
activation. There is no way to exit this endless loop.

How could I fix this problem? I hope you won't say I need to reinstall
winXP...

Thanks for any advice!

Marco / iw2nzm

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I write from Italy and I hope my English is good enough to explain
whatever I'm going to explain...

I've got a Packard Bell desktop pc bought with a windows xp home
included in the box. Today I've changed the main board and the
processor. At startup windows tells me I changed some stuff (yeah, I
know) and asks for a new activation. All right, this is not a
problem.
Press ok, wait a few seconds, a new window appears and eventually it
says: "Windows is already activated, click ok to continue" (or
something like this, I have the Italian version).

Well, clicking ok leads to the previous message which asks to a new
activation. There is no way to exit this endless loop.

How could I fix this problem? I hope you won't say I need to
reinstall winXP...

Try a repair installation (should keep everything intact) - but even that
may not work...

You have a Packard Bell thhat *came with* Windows XP and you changed out the
Motherboard and CPU. It could very well be that your OEM copy was BIOS
locked to the actual Packard Bell stuff that was in it and your license for
Windows XP is invalid and you would have to purchase and perform a repair
installation with a new license of Windows Xp Home Edition due to your
motherboard/CPU upgrade.

That assumes - of course - that you did not change the motherboard and CPU
with stuff received from Packard Bell to replace defective hardware.
(Although you may still need to perform a repair installation.)

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315341

 

[Marco Trapanese]

Try a repair installation (should keep everything intact) - but even that
may not work...

You have a Packard Bell thhat *came with* Windows XP and you changed out the
Motherboard and CPU. It could very well be that your OEM copy was BIOS
locked to the actual Packard Bell stuff that was in it and your license for
Windows XP is invalid and you would have to purchase and perform a repair
installation with a new license of Windows Xp Home Edition due to your
motherboard/CPU upgrade.

That assumes - of course - that you did not change the motherboard and CPU
with stuff received from Packard Bell to replace defective hardware.
(Although you may still need to perform a repair installation.)

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315341

Thanks for your very quick answer! I'm looking through the links above.

Marco / iw2nzm

 

[sgopus]

This is a WGA issue not a windows issue per se, you need to ask this question
in a WGA group, I don't think you need to reinstall windows. just fix WGA

 

[Marco Trapanese]

This is a WGA issue not a windows issue per se, you need to ask this question
in a WGA group, I don't think you need to reinstall windows. just fix WGA

Thanks to you too, I'll ask in a WGA related group.

Marco / iw2nzm

 

[mayayana]

It's not WGA. WGA is their snoopware to check
whether you have a valid copy of XP in the
first place. Unfortunately, what happened to you
is one of the hidden costs of Product Activation.
If you look here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/824125

near the bottom you'll see that Microsoft defines
the motherboard as the PC and therefore won't give
a new activation for an OEM copy with a new
motherboard. You could try calling them and beg
for a new activation, but if they don't give it to
you you just have to buy a new copy of XP.

----------------------
"Users who run a Microsoft Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) operating
system may upgrade or replace most of the hardware components on the
computer and still maintain the license for the original Microsoft OEM
operating system software provided by the OEM, with the exception of an
upgrade or a replacement of the motherboard. An upgrade or a replacement of
the motherboard is considered to create a new personal computer. Therefore,
Microsoft OEM operating system software cannot be transferred from another
computer. If the motherboard is upgraded or replaced for reasons other than
a defect then a new computer is created, and a new operating system license
is required. If the motherboard is replaced because of a defect, the user
does not need to acquire a new operating system license for the computer."
------------------------

Basically what that says is that if you replace the
motherboard with the same model it will not de-activate,
but if you replace it with a new one then you "have built
a new computer"!

 

[Alan]

Well, it sounds like all the OP would have to say if asked -- and I'm sure
that's why he's replacing the motherboard :> -- is that the ORIGINAL
motherboard was defective.

Additionally, a very similar question was asked yesterday, and all the
responses seem to indicate that Marco will NOT need to buy a new OEM
version.

Click here for that thread:
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...ad/8c6e4388a9b7d790/041f03ec03797a12?lnk=raot

Alan

 

[sgopus]

but if you were correct it wouldn't come back and state windows is already
activated, thus a WGA issue.

 

[mayayana]

but if you were correct it wouldn't come back and state windows is already

activated, thus a WGA issue.

Yes, that does sound odd. I was assuming that it's
some kind of bug or design flaw in the de-activation
process that was triggered by hardware changes. The
WGA would tell him that he has "counterfeit" Windows.

Whatever the case, a de-activation - and need for new
activation - is the expected behavior when changing a
motherboard on a system with Product Activation.

I wonder if the problem might be due to the fact
that OEM Windows is tied to the PC rather than activated.
There may be no way to re-activate, since it was never
actually activated in the first place. ... I don't know.
I'd be interested to hear whether MS agrees to help him,
but it doesn't sound promising.

 

[Chuck]

This was a "bug" that surfaced some time ago on some machines. There is a
process to get around it. Unfortunately, I no longer remember the details.
To add insult to injury, WGA and it's ilk have changed several times in the
interim.
If I remember correctly, there were some web sites that had some info. I'd
likely start here-- http://aumha.org/support.htm

 

[Marco Trapanese]

This was a "bug" that surfaced some time ago on some machines. There is a
process to get around it. Unfortunately, I no longer remember the details.
To add insult to injury, WGA and it's ilk have changed several times in the
interim.
If I remember correctly, there were some web sites that had some info. I'd
likely start here-- http://aumha.org/support.htm

Thanks to all for the interesting discussion.
However, I've just reinstalled windows xp over the previous one (yes, it
sounds a bit dirty) and the WGA issue is gone away. I activated windows
in the usual way, and now it works fine.

Marco / iw2nzm

 

[sgopus]

Thanks I pretty much thought it was a WGA issue, glad to see you got it
resolved.