Another OEM question

[Rowan]

Wondering how much my system would have to change before my retail OEM XP
would implode.
Would any of these individual changes cause MS to negate my XP agreement?

 

[EGMcCann]

Wondering how much my system would have to change before my retail OEM XP
would implode.

There's no such thing as a "retail OEM" version -
Retail: Bought in the blue or green box from a store.
OEM: Got through a manufacturer with a system, or bought with a
CPU/Mainboard.
None of the stuff listed below should cause problems, though if you've (say)
reinstalled recently, reinstalling AGAIN on a replacement hard drive might
make the activation message come up. Not a big deal.

What MIGHT - replacing a mainboard (lots of components on it.) Though, in
all honesty, they don't seem to care. Just call and talk to them.

 

[Rowan]

EG, thanks for your advice.
Here is what I meant by "retail OEM," as opposed to preloaded OEM:
-My hard drive died, and I bought a new drive and a $100 copy of XP that is
identical to retail except for the restrictions.
OR
-A website I saw sells the same XP that I got, but you have to "buy" a $5
piece of hardware, which is automatically discounted to $0.00 by virtue of
buying XP. Maybe they are about to be busted by XP, but I saw it this week.

That's what I meant by "retail OEM." As opposed to just getting a "restore
disk" when you buy the XP preloaded. I thought there were differences based
on that, and actually have encountered the term on this forum, if I'm not
mistaken.

 

[skot]

actually i bought my OEM version online. technically i
ordered my motherboard, processor, hard drive, case, etc
seperately and then decided a day and a half later that i
wanted to pay for xp and ordered it too, but seperately,
but perhaps that counts as "bought with" the system... but
whatever. the fact that i was able to process a complete
order for XP OEM by itself and have it shipped to me
seperately from everything else i ordered with no questions
asked and no flags raised indicates that it's very possible
to get a "retail oem" version of xp.

 

[skot]

let's see here. i've changed motherboards twice, once
replaced with an identical board, the second time with the
same manufacturer, but a newer model. i've added a cdrw
drive, i've disconnected and reconnected the cdrw drive, cd
rom drive, floppy drive, and hard drive at various times
while i was diagnosing various problems, i've changed
positions of said drives on their ide cables, i've doubled
my ram (512 to 1 GB), i've changed position of my NIC, etc
etc etc, and i've never had a problem with XP refusing to
boot because of 'too many changes' to the system. there
are a few resources online which will state the criteria
that may cause XP to ask you to re authenticate.

it's something along the lines of 10 points. you
automatically get points added for having this or that on
your system, you get points subtracted for things that you
add, change position of, remove, etc. i think you have to
have 7 out of 10 points to pass and boot successfully.
after doing my math i figure that i'm probably barely
passing by the skin of my teeth. either that or the
criteria isn't as strict and unfair as i was first lead to
believe.

as it is explained online, though, 1. if you have a legit
copy of xp, all you have to do is call and say "i've made
some changes, no big deal" and they'll give you a key to
get back in and the slate is wiped clean. 2. the points
you lose when you change things on your system are wiped to
a clean slate after about 120 days of not changing a thing.
3. if you run a hacked copy of xp, you won't ever need to
worry about the authentication process at boot. it's hacked.

anyway i talk too much.
g'night

 

[Brooke]

No! No! Tell us more about #3...

let's see here. i've changed motherboards twice, once
replaced with an identical board, the second time with the
same manufacturer, but a newer model. i've added a cdrw
drive, i've disconnected and reconnected the cdrw drive, cd
rom drive, floppy drive, and hard drive at various times
while i was diagnosing various problems, i've changed
positions of said drives on their ide cables, i've doubled
my ram (512 to 1 GB), i've changed position of my NIC, etc
etc etc, and i've never had a problem with XP refusing to
boot because of 'too many changes' to the system. there
are a few resources online which will state the criteria
that may cause XP to ask you to re authenticate.

it's something along the lines of 10 points. you
automatically get points added for having this or that on
your system, you get points subtracted for things that you
add, change position of, remove, etc. i think you have to
have 7 out of 10 points to pass and boot successfully.
after doing my math i figure that i'm probably barely
passing by the skin of my teeth. either that or the
criteria isn't as strict and unfair as i was first lead to
believe.

as it is explained online, though, 1. if you have a legit
copy of xp, all you have to do is call and say "i've made
some changes, no big deal" and they'll give you a key to
get back in and the slate is wiped clean. 2. the points
you lose when you change things on your system are wiped to
a clean slate after about 120 days of not changing a thing.
3. if you run a hacked copy of xp, you won't ever need to
worry about the authentication process at boot. it's hacked.

anyway i talk too much.
g'night

 

[GSV Three Minds in a Can]

EG, thanks for your advice.
Here is what I meant by "retail OEM," as opposed to preloaded OEM:
-My hard drive died, and I bought a new drive and a $100 copy of XP that is
identical to retail except for the restrictions.
OR
-A website I saw sells the same XP that I got, but you have to "buy" a $5
piece of hardware, which is automatically discounted to $0.00 by virtue of
buying XP. Maybe they are about to be busted by XP, but I saw it this week.

That's what I meant by "retail OEM." As opposed to just getting a "restore
disk" when you buy the XP preloaded. I thought there were differences based
on that, and actually have encountered the term on this forum, if I'm not
mistaken.

Yep, I've used that term (and a few people yelled at me for it, just as
they yelled at you .. however since there is no other term, we might as
well keep using it).

None of what you propose should even cause re-activation. If it does,
and it's been 120 days since you activated the first time, it'll go
through on line. If it's been <120 days, you'd have to talk to some MS
liveware, who trade numbers with you. No big deal.

Nobody at MS has ever legally defined when an 'upgrade' or 'repair'
(both of which are allowed) results in a 'different computer' (which
isn't), so don't worry about it. As you noticed, you can buy 2 'OEM'
copies for the cost of 1 retail copy anyway. Support is expensive. 8>.

 

[Brooke]

Thank you for clearing this up. You are so right that nobody seems to have a
solid definition of "new machine." But, you state sequential upgrading seems
to be kosher, regardless of the kind of machine you end up with over the
long run. And that's the good news. 8>)

 

[Alex Nichol]

Wondering how much my system would have to change before my retail OEM XP
would implode.

See www.aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.htm

You would certainly be OK within the limits for 'substantially the same
hardware, shown there. And if you go 120 days between activations (ie
before format and reinstall, as opposed to just change hardware) you
*probably have it start over, as for retail. The question of when it
becomes a 'different machine' for the purposes of OEM licensing just
does not seem to have been thought through, and is a grey area

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings --

According to the EULA, an OEM license may not be transferred from
one distinct PC to another PC.

However, Microsoft has, to date, been very careful _not_ to define
when an incrementally upgraded computer ceases to be the original
computer. The closest I've seen a Microsoft employee come to this
definition is to tell the person making the inquiry to consult the
PC's manufacturer. As the OEM license's support is solely the
responsibility of said manufacturer, they should determine what sort
of hardware changes to allow before the warranty and support
agreements are voided. An incrementally upgraded computer ceases to
be the original computer, as pertains to the OEM EULA, only when the
*OEM* says it's a different computer.

If you've built the PC yourself, and used a generic OEM WinXP CD,
*you* are the OEM, and *you* get to decide when you're going to stop
supporting the system and its OS.


Bruce Chambers

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