Are all OEMs the same?

[Beck]

Laptop came with Acer XP home OEM with sticker on back with product key.
The disc backup which was created from the hidden partition does not work.

Is it possible to use another generic OEM home disc but use the original key
which is stickered on the laptop?
I think that it is the license which is important here, not the actual disc
that is used.

thanks

 

[Malke]

Laptop came with Acer XP home OEM with sticker on back with product key.
The disc backup which was created from the hidden partition does not work.

Is it possible to use another generic OEM home disc but use the original
key which is stickered on the laptop?
I think that it is the license which is important here, not the actual
disc that is used.

thanks

Yes, it is possible. The OEM install disk must be a true generic, not
one from another computer mftr. You will need to call to activate
Windows after installation. A better solution would be to call Acer and
have them send you actual recovery cd's.

Malke

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Laptop came with Acer XP home OEM with sticker on back with product key.
The disc backup which was created from the hidden partition does not work.

Is it possible to use another generic OEM home disc but use the original
key which is stickered on the laptop?
I think that it is the license which is important here, not the actual
disc that is used.

thanks

It should be possible to use an unbranded, generic WinXP Home OEM CD
with that Product Key, but it'll lack the proprietary devices drivers
for the Acer laptop. Make sure you can download those from Acer's
website before proceeding.


--

Bruce Chambers

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[Beck]

It should be possible to use an unbranded, generic WinXP Home OEM CD with
that Product Key, but it'll lack the proprietary devices drivers for the
Acer laptop. Make sure you can download those from Acer's website before
proceeding.

HI Bruce,

I do have another disc which contains all the drivers I need. When I got
the Acer I was prompted to create two discs. One for the OS and one for
drivers and bundled software.

 

[Beck]

Yes, it is possible. The OEM install disk must be a true generic, not one
from another computer mftr. You will need to call to activate Windows
after installation. A better solution would be to call Acer and have them
send you actual recovery cd's.

Hi Malke,

Thanks for the reply. Yes the XP OEM spare is a generic one I purchased with
some hardware. I might not even have to activate by phone as the product
key is bios-tied anyway and it may recognise that and activate it with no
problem.
I can get another copy of it from Acer, just need to fill in a form for
ownership details etc.

 

[Kerry Brown]

Hi Malke,

Thanks for the reply. Yes the XP OEM spare is a generic one I purchased
with some hardware. I might not even have to activate by phone as the
product key is bios-tied anyway and it may recognise that and activate it
with no problem.
I can get another copy of it from Acer, just need to fill in a form for
ownership details etc.

The key on the back of the computer may be BIOS keyed but it will need
activation. The one used at the factory is not the same key.

 

[Beck]

It should be possible to use an unbranded, generic WinXP Home OEM CD with
that Product Key, but it'll lack the proprietary devices drivers for the
Acer laptop. Make sure you can download those from Acer's website before
proceeding.

Forgot to ask, sorry, if I need to, is it possible to untie the XP from that
Vista in the future? Say if I wanted to move the Vista to another PC and
have original XP back on laptop can I do that or are they tied forever?

 

[Guest]

Acers normally have an i386 folder on C: which contains the setup files. Burn
this to a CD, run winnt.exe from DOS.

Only thing I do find is that it complians of three missing oembios.* files.
You just skip these, though, and it works.

 

[Beck]

Forgot to ask, sorry, if I need to, is it possible to untie the XP from
that Vista in the future? Say if I wanted to move the Vista to another PC
and have original XP back on laptop can I do that or are they tied
forever?

LOL wrong group, sorry.

 

[Beck]

The key on the back of the computer may be BIOS keyed but it will need
activation. The one used at the factory is not the same key.

Thankyou. I don't mind calling them if I have to, no problem

 

[Beck]

Acers normally have an i386 folder on C: which contains the setup files.
Burn
this to a CD, run winnt.exe from DOS.

I no longer have these files unfortunately.

Only thing I do find is that it complians of three missing oembios.*
files.
You just skip these, though, and it works.

Yes I had those errors too but unfortunately it stalls after that. The
other thing is the key to access the restore partition does not work either.
I am not sure what key it was, I think its F3 to start the restore from the
hidden partition, but it does not work at all either.

 

[Kerry Brown]

I no longer have these files unfortunately.


Yes I had those errors too but unfortunately it stalls after that. The
other thing is the key to access the restore partition does not work
either. I am not sure what key it was, I think its F3 to start the restore
from the hidden partition, but it does not work at all either.

It's Alt-F10 to access the restore partition on an Acer. The default
password from the factory is six zeros, 000000. You also have to make sure
that Disk to disk recovery is enabled in the BIOS.

 

[Rock]

Hi Malke,

Thanks for the reply. Yes the XP OEM spare is a generic one I purchased
with some hardware. I might not even have to activate by phone as the
product key is bios-tied anyway and it may recognise that and activate it
with no problem.
I can get another copy of it from Acer, just need to fill in a form for
ownership details etc.

No the key on the sticker will not be preactivated. You will have to call
to activate if you install with a generic OEM CD and use that key.

 

[Beck]

No the key on the sticker will not be preactivated. You will have to call
to activate if you install with a generic OEM CD and use that key.

Hi Rock,

Just installed and it accepted the key and activated it. I did not have to
phone them.

 

[Rock]

Hi Rock,

Just installed and it accepted the key and activated it. I did not have
to phone them.

I'm surprised it went through on the internet but that's great.

 

[Beck]

I'm surprised it went through on the internet but that's great.

That product key was activated on the original machine, so because there
have been no hardware changes I assume it just accepted it as the same.