WGA problem

[PaulFXH]

Hi
This is intended more for information than advice-seeking although any
comments would be welcome.
After clean-reinstalling my OS a few days ago, the WGA validation test
failed about ten times because of "an unknown error". I was advised to
talk to my local support team.
As I use an OEM version of WinXP, I called Dell who politely told me
that to resolve this problem would require me to pay €51 as software
sold by them only has a guarantee of 30 days.
Having refused this offer, I went back to the MS Update site where I
just happened to notice a small link referring to CoA (Certificate of
Authority).
This requested quite a few pieces of information about my Product Key
label (with the exclusion of, interestingly enough, the actual product
key itself). Eventually, however, it decided that I did indeed have a
valid version of the OS and ALL of the updates suddenly became
available to me.
Although this episode had a happy ending, I would nevertheless, have
quite some reservations about doing any future clean-reinstalls if
re-verifying the software's validity might mean undergoing this type of
ordeal again.
Can anybody point me to anything | may have neglected or is this just
the way it is?

TIA
Paul

Dell 4550 Desktop
WinXP Home SP2
CPU P4, 2.53 GHz
1.0 GB RAM
Int HD 80 GB ntfs, non-partitioned
Ext HD 160 GB ntfs, non-partitioned

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

This diagnostics helps many:
http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/diag/

--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar
http://www.dts-l.org


Hi
This is intended more for information than advice-seeking although any
comments would be welcome.
After clean-reinstalling my OS a few days ago, the WGA validation test
failed about ten times because of "an unknown error". I was advised to
talk to my local support team.
As I use an OEM version of WinXP, I called Dell who politely told me
that to resolve this problem would require me to pay ?51 as software
sold by them only has a guarantee of 30 days.
Having refused this offer, I went back to the MS Update site where I
just happened to notice a small link referring to CoA (Certificate of
Authority).
This requested quite a few pieces of information about my Product Key
label (with the exclusion of, interestingly enough, the actual product
key itself). Eventually, however, it decided that I did indeed have a
valid version of the OS and ALL of the updates suddenly became
available to me.
Although this episode had a happy ending, I would nevertheless, have
quite some reservations about doing any future clean-reinstalls if
re-verifying the software's validity might mean undergoing this type of
ordeal again.
Can anybody point me to anything | may have neglected or is this just
the way it is?

TIA
Paul

Dell 4550 Desktop
WinXP Home SP2
CPU P4, 2.53 GHz
1.0 GB RAM
Int HD 80 GB ntfs, non-partitioned
Ext HD 160 GB ntfs, non-partitioned

 

[Marvel]

This diagnostics helps many:
http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/diag/

--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar
http://www.dts-l.org


Hi
This is intended more for information than advice-seeking although any
comments would be welcome.
After clean-reinstalling my OS a few days ago, the WGA validation test
failed about ten times because of "an unknown error". I was advised to
talk to my local support team.
As I use an OEM version of WinXP, I called Dell who politely told me
that to resolve this problem would require me to pay ?51 as software
sold by them only has a guarantee of 30 days.
Having refused this offer, I went back to the MS Update site where I
just happened to notice a small link referring to CoA (Certificate of
Authority).
This requested quite a few pieces of information about my Product Key
label (with the exclusion of, interestingly enough, the actual product
key itself). Eventually, however, it decided that I did indeed have a
valid version of the OS and ALL of the updates suddenly became
available to me.
Although this episode had a happy ending, I would nevertheless, have
quite some reservations about doing any future clean-reinstalls if
re-verifying the software's validity might mean undergoing this type of
ordeal again.
Can anybody point me to anything | may have neglected or is this just
the way it is?

TIA
Paul

Dell 4550 Desktop
WinXP Home SP2
CPU P4, 2.53 GHz
1.0 GB RAM
Int HD 80 GB ntfs, non-partitioned
Ext HD 160 GB ntfs, non-partitioned

Check this out
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9001540

 

[UVP]

This diagnostics helps many:
http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/diag/

I get this:

"Microsoft Genuine Advantage - Diagnostic Site
You are not running Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox or Netscape
Browser"

I can't login to my Hotmail account using the Opera browser either. Firefox
works fine with Hotmail and that doesn't use activex either so I have to
ask; why is Microsoft blacklisting the Opera web browser? I don't want to be
forced to use an insecure browser like IE.

 

[NoStop]

I get this:

"Microsoft Genuine Advantage - Diagnostic Site
You are not running Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox or Netscape
Browser"

I can't login to my Hotmail account using the Opera browser either.
Firefox works fine with Hotmail and that doesn't use activex either so I
have to ask; why is Microsoft blacklisting the Opera web browser? I don't
want to be forced to use an insecure browser like IE.

It's just part of MickeyMouse's game plan to rule the world.

--
WGA is the best thing that has happened for Linux in a while.

The ULTIMATE Windoze Fanboy:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2370205018226686613

A 3D Linux Desktop (video) ...

View Some Common Linux Desktops ...
http://shots.osdir.com/

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

You are not being forced to do anything.
But, you make a choice and accept the consequences, both good and bad of the
choice you make.

 

[PaulFXH]

This diagnostics helps many:
http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/diag/

Hi Jupiter
Thanks for your reply.
The diagnostic you recommend seems useful but I'm not sure it would
have helped me in this instance.. This is because it seems to only
pre-test 5 readily identifiable reasons for a failure to gain WGA
validation yet my "problem" was attrbuted to "an unknown error".

Furthermore, even though I did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING that may have
encouraged the validation test to be more lenient with my OS, the
(apparently) more rigorous CoA test readily tipped the balance in my
favor.
I read somewhere that WGA "fails" around 20% of truly genuine OSs. It
seems that I was temporarily in this latter group.
However, I'm still puzzled as to why I should have been (temporarily)
refused accreditation immediately after a clean-install of the OS when
I had already successfully run the validation test at least 50 times
without problem.
What could have changed?
Paul

 

[UVP]

You are not being forced to do anything.
But, you make a choice and accept the consequences, both good and bad of
the choice you make.

Using Opera is all good, unlike IE.
I have an Xbox360 so I guess this means I can't retrieve my Xbox360 spam
from Micorosoft if I can't login to Hotmail. Oh well, I can live with that.

 

[Kerry Brown]

www.VistaHelp.ca

Hi Jupiter
Thanks for your reply.
The diagnostic you recommend seems useful but I'm not sure it would
have helped me in this instance.. This is because it seems to only
pre-test 5 readily identifiable reasons for a failure to gain WGA
validation yet my "problem" was attrbuted to "an unknown error".

Furthermore, even though I did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING that may have
encouraged the validation test to be more lenient with my OS, the
(apparently) more rigorous CoA test readily tipped the balance in my
favor.
I read somewhere that WGA "fails" around 20% of truly genuine OSs. It
seems that I was temporarily in this latter group.
However, I'm still puzzled as to why I should have been (temporarily)
refused accreditation immediately after a clean-install of the OS when
I had already successfully run the validation test at least 50 times
without problem.
What could have changed?

I don't know why your computer failed WGA but the 20% you quoted was from a
ZDNet article where the headline was very different from the article. I
can't find the actual article but if memory serves the headline was
something about many false positives and 20% of computers failing WGA. It
inferred that 20% of the WGA failures were due to false positives. The
actual article stated that 80% of the WGA failures were due to known bad VL
keys. It made no mention of what percentage of WGA failures were false
positives or why the other 20% failed.

 

[Bob]

WGA is the best thing that has happened for Linux in a while.

Whoo Whoo look out microsoft Linux is going to get up to what 6% on the
desktop. LOL

 

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=BAAlias=BA?=]

Whoo Whoo look out microsoft Linux is going to get up to what 6% on the
desktop. LOL

I know a lot of people who swore by Windows, myself included, who are
now looking into Linux. Rome thought they would never fall too, you
know. Arrogance was one of the main causes for their fall.

Alias

 

[Bob]

I know a lot of people who swore by Windows, myself included, who are now
looking into Linux. Rome thought they would never fall too, you know.
Arrogance was one of the main causes for their fall.

Alias

Time will tell. Lots and lots of time.

 

[DanS]

@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com:

As I use an OEM version of WinXP, I called Dell who politely told me
that to resolve this problem would require me to pay €51 as software
sold by them only has a guarantee of 30 days.

TIA
Paul

Dell 4550 Desktop
WinXP Home SP2
CPU P4, 2.53 GHz
1.0 GB RAM
Int HD 80 GB ntfs, non-partitioned
Ext HD 160 GB ntfs, non-partitioned

What was there solution to the problem, sell you a new Windows license ?

 

[PaulFXH]

What was there solution to the problem, sell you a new Windows license ?

As I was unwilling to pay the fee, they were equally unwilling to
inform me of their solution. However, I got the impression that they
believed the problem could be solved with a few well-aimed mouse
strokes/clicks rather than by selling me a new OS CD.
And, this indeed was the case.
However, I would still love to know why my 100% genuine copy of WinXP
failed this test first time around.
Paul

 

[HeyBub]

I know a lot of people who swore by Windows, myself included, who are
now looking into Linux. Rome thought they would never fall too, you
know. Arrogance was one of the main causes for their fall.

Patience, Cricket. It took Rome longer to fall than the United States has
been in existance.

Check back in 400 years and see if Linux has prevailed.

 

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=BAAlias=BA?=]

Time will tell. Lots and lots of time.

Depends on what MS does about WGA. If they continue the trend, people
will get fed up and make the switch.

Alias

 

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=BAAlias=BA?=]

As I was unwilling to pay the fee, they were equally unwilling to
inform me of their solution. However, I got the impression that they
believed the problem could be solved with a few well-aimed mouse
strokes/clicks rather than by selling me a new OS CD.
And, this indeed was the case.
However, I would still love to know why my 100% genuine copy of WinXP
failed this test first time around.
Paul

WGA is flawed, of course. After all, it's only software.

Alias

 

[Tom Willett]

Do you honestly think the average user knows anything about making a switch?

You live in a special little world of your own.

 

[Marvel]

I thought it was the Justice League...

Patience, Cricket. It took Rome longer to fall than the United States has
been in existance.

Check back in 400 years and see if Linux has prevailed.

 

[paulmd]

Depends on what MS does about WGA. If they continue the trend, people
will get fed up and make the switch.

Alias

For myself, I used to have Windows Updates turned on, by default, since
the WGA debaucle, They'll be off, and stay that way. Till I decide what
to upgrade.