Activation Error 0x8004FE33 Article ID 921471

[Guest]

I need to activate Windows Vista Beta 2 in next 12 days.
I can't do it online because
1) I get Error 0x004FE33
2) Our IT dept are unable to use Workaround Method 1 in Article ID 921471
which is to turn of basic authentication on the proxy server.

So, I need to use Workaround Method 2 which is to use telephone activation.
I can't do that - I've tried. Its not available for Beta products.
Please help
Thanks
Steve

 

[Mark D. VandenBeg]

"Steve McLaughlin (Kodak)" <Steve McLaughlin
(Kodak)@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

I need to activate Windows Vista Beta 2 in next 12 days.
I can't do it online because
1) I get Error 0x004FE33
2) Our IT dept are unable to use Workaround Method 1 in Article ID 921471
which is to turn of basic authentication on the proxy server.

So, I need to use Workaround Method 2 which is to use telephone
activation.
I can't do that - I've tried. Its not available for Beta products.
Please help
Thanks
Steve

hello Steve;

That is odd. If you search the Vista newsgroups, you will find several
different examples of successful telephone activation.

Good Luck.

 

[Guest]

Hmmm...just read through all messages on newsgroup containing word
"Activation" and didn't spot one talking about sucessful telephone
activation. I did find a few stating that telephone activation is not
possible for Vista Beta 2. This also matches what the activation line rep
told me. Can you point me to one of the "several" that you refer to? A phrase
to search on maybe?
Thanks
Steve

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Did you also check vista.general?

Hmmm...just read through all messages on newsgroup containing word
"Activation" and didn't spot one talking about sucessful telephone
activation. I did find a few stating that telephone activation is not
possible for Vista Beta 2. This also matches what the activation line rep
told me. Can you point me to one of the "several" that you refer to? A
phrase
to search on maybe?
Thanks
Steve

 

[Mark D. VandenBeg]

Hmmm...just read through all messages on newsgroup containing word
"Activation" and didn't spot one talking about sucessful telephone
activation. I did find a few stating that telephone activation is not
possible for Vista Beta 2. This also matches what the activation line rep
told me. Can you point me to one of the "several" that you refer to? A
phrase
to search on maybe?
Thanks
Steve

In a thread named "Vista activation Issues" there is a post by Ben Salisbury
on 21 July 2006 with a timestamp of 10:37am, Ben claims to have been
unsuccessful activating Vista by automation, and then calling Microsoft
which resulted in a successful product activation.

Here is the web link:

http://www.microsoft.com/communitie...416CF09D5DC5&lang=en&cr=US&sloc=en-us&m=1&p=1

Mark

 

[Mark D. VandenBeg]

Hmmm...just read through all messages on newsgroup containing word
"Activation" and didn't spot one talking about sucessful telephone
activation. I did find a few stating that telephone activation is not
possible for Vista Beta 2. This also matches what the activation line rep
told me. Can you point me to one of the "several" that you refer to? A
phrase
to search on maybe?
Thanks
Steve

You may also find this interesting (Thank-you Jane!):

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/921583

 

[Ben Salisbury]

Mine was one of those in this newsgroup that said activation by phone was
possible.
I did it, the rep didn't give me any issues with activating the product.
As I stated before, the automated 800# didn't work but it gave me the option
to connect to a live person.

I ordered my DVD's from MS, so that may be why. But I do not see why they'd
discriminate
between the 2 options.

-Ben

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

I don't either. It's all one db.

Mine was one of those in this newsgroup that said activation by phone was
possible.
I did it, the rep didn't give me any issues with activating the product.
As I stated before, the automated 800# didn't work but it gave me the
option to connect to a live person.

I ordered my DVD's from MS, so that may be why. But I do not see why
they'd discriminate
between the 2 options.

-Ben

"Steve McLaughlin (Kodak)"

 

[Guest]

Thanks everyone (Mark/Ben/Colin)
I'll call MS again and try to persuade them to take pity on me
I'll let you know how I get on.
Cheers
Steve

 

[Mark D. VandenBeg]

Thanks everyone (Mark/Ben/Colin)
I'll call MS again and try to persuade them to take pity on me
I'll let you know how I get on.
Cheers
Steve

Hey, No problem, Steve. Let us know how it works out.

Mark

 

[Guest]

The continuing story with a twist at the end...

Before calling MS again I went back to our IT dept.
I managed to bypass our proxy server and was hopeful that this would solve
the issue.
I tried the activation process several times including reboots, etc. but it
still failed with the same error.

Called MS again.
Got passed from the Activation Line to the Support Line.
I was again told that there is no telephone support for Vista and was
directed to www.support.microsoft.com. I tried to escalate this to a more
senior member of staff. The more senior member of staff asked if we had an
MSDN subcription (which we do) and so I was given another number to call.
This was all a little dissapointing since we are certified partners, a top-10
healthcare ISV and we have an ADC account.

I was then away from the machine for about 30 minutes (in a meeting).
When I got back there was a desktop notification message stating that
"activation had been sucessful" and when I returned to the "System" window
(Control Panel > System and Maintenance > System) it then displayed "Windows
is activated" and a "genuine windows" logo.

So, I'm not sure if this activation was perfomed automatically by the OS or
if it was one of my attempts that reported failure but, in fact, worked?

Still, if others have a similar issue this may give them a glimmer of hope.

BTW I also have Vista Beta 2 running happily in a VMWare 5 virtual machine.

Thanks for all your help.
Steve

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Did you just happen to hit the 72 hour mark since installation?