Activations Exceeded

[carl.clawsontakethisout]

The following exchange was observed last month

(an MS-MVP)

You are incorrect.
There is no limit to the number of times you can activate an OS (OEM or not)
on a given single computer.

I say you're both wrong. There's a limit, but it's more than three.
I've been automating a production process to sysprep and pre-activate
Dell computers that we resell. I must have reactivated one machine a
dozen or more times while doing test & demo but I finally hit the limit
and got the message #45092. I tried activating by phone and the
automated voice told me to send the computer back to Dell. No option to
speak to a human and straighten it out. I got to a human at MS tech
support on another number but they tell me Dell provides all support,
unless I want to use paid tech support. Dell says they have no control
over activation.

This is freakin' hilarious. I'm trying to come up with a procedure to
more efficiently resell their product and they're trying to obstruct
me! I will say this: Dell is trying to help me. Microsoft is just
trying to get me to go away. Or pay money.

I'm still in the customer service round-about on this. Looks like a
three-way conference with Me, Dell, and MS will be required to resolve
it.

Lucky I'm in a good mood, and I don't need to ship this controller
today for end-of-quarter revenue.

LMAO

 

[carl.clawsontakethisout]

Additional note: it's possible, can't really be sure, that I used the
same product key one or more times on a different controller. I had two
that I was using for testing.

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

There is no limit as to activations on the same computer.
Multiple installations may require phone activation, but activation is still
possible but not over the internet.

Are you using the original media that comes with the Dell?
If so activation is not required.

Or are you using other media and attempting to use the key on the side of
the computer?
If so, you may be running into the change Microsoft made a while back
attempting to slow casual piracy.

But since you are getting the activation message, it seems you are
installing differently than designed by Dell.
You have a few choices, a few being:
1. Use the method provided by Dell.
2. Buy whatever OS is wanted on the computer.

 

[carl.clawsontakethisout]

Thanks for the quick reply, Jupiter.

We use a process of disk images and sysprep to replicate computers in
production. So I have a sysprepped image of one of the Dells that gets
copied to the target machines and brought up using Mini-Setup and the
key off the COA on the box. Going back to the original Dell CD is not
an option for this reason. "Windows Welcome" oobe is not an option
because it has some bug that coughs up an error message on me after
I've run sysprep. This is not the oobe that we want our users to have.

All I'm doing is following instructions obtained from Microsoft, using
tools provided by Microsoft, to replicate and deploy my machines!
Simply testing the process has now got me in this pickle. It will work
fine in production because the machines will only be activated once.
But we are a small, poor company and can't really afford to have an
extra PC sitting around that we can't sell.

Anti-piracy is fine, but MS needs to inject some human element into it
so that odd situations like this can be corrected.

 

[carl.clawsontakethisout]

On my third call to MS tech support I got lucky and was picked up by a
helpful fellow in Nova Scotia who issued me a new product key after I
told him what happened. This is at least marginally acceptable. I say
marginally because it no longer matches the COA on the box, but then
again the key should never be needed again once we go through setup &
activate. He convinced me that getting my old key out of prison would
be too much trouble. He didn't say that it would be impossible though.

This system would be a lot better if the phone activation number had an
option to connect to someone like this guy.

And take a lesson from this: if tech support doesn't help you, keep
calling. You get a different person each time and sooner or later you
might reach someone who'll help you.

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Be sure to keep a good record of the new key.
Many write it on the CD, but in your situation, perhaps writing it on the
inside or outside of the computer case may also be a good idea.

 

[carl.clawsontakethisout]

Yes, will certainly keep that new key secure.

Now, just for a reality check can we back up and see if I'm being
overzealous with my procedure? I tried to follow what is stated in
deploy.chm, which is fairly adamant that you must first populate the
correct product key, then activate. It doesn't seem possible to put in
the correct key without also reactivating. Here's what I do:

I start with a system with key A, which was already activated by Dell.
I get this system all configured for my end customer, run
sysprep -factory -activated
and take an image of its hard drive with Ghost. (The -activated keeps
you from hitting the grace period reset limit if you do this in several
steps, although it seems odd that this would even have any effect in
factory mode.)

To build a new machine, I start with another Dell computer with key B
and clone the image to its drive. This machine now thinks it's
activated and thinks its key is A. I populate sysprep.inf with key B
and run
sysprep -reseal -mini -reboot
It comes up, and I make sure it got through Setup with that key (i.e.
didn't make a typo). Then I run
msoobe /a
sysprep -reseal -mini -activated
and put it in the box for shipment. By doing this I've deactivated it,
entered a new product key, and reactivated it under the new key.

I could not find any other way to make this work. Setup will
automatically deactivate when it sees the new key if I try to use
-activated on the first reseal. This procedure works great, except that
I can't test it or demonstrate it very many times on the same machine
without MS slapping the boot on. I guess the answer is to cancel out of
msoobe when testing/demonstrating.

Am I missing something?

TIA
Carl

 

[thereaintnojustice]

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/oempreac.mspx

may be germane.

 

[Guest]

Seen a growing number of cases recently where OEM keys won't activate AT ALL,
not even first time. I end-up calling the activation line, and (after some
inevitable griping) they give me a new serial.

Unfortunately it's also becoming the case that more and more OEM computers
need reloading before they can be used, owing to the presence of foistware
that won't uninstall properly.

 

[carl.clawsontakethisout]

Thanks for the link! I did not find this when I was trolling
microsoft.com.

It looks like it ought to do just what I need, plus save a reboot step
in production as I won't have to verify the key every time.

It also seems to contradict their other sysprep documentation in that
you don't end up entering a unique product key for each workstation.
But I'm OK with that if they are!

I'll give it a try.