"Key Already in Use" Activation question

[Guest]

I installed Vista business about three weeks ago, and a week ago, I managed
to complete destroy my motherboard. Today I received my replacement and
reinstalled Vista, only to find I can't activate it successfully. It says
"the product key you have entered is already in use". How can I resolve this?
Thanks

 

[Richard Urban]

Activate by phone.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[SteveC]

This key business is going to doom Vista as an upgrade. I paid for my
academic license of Vista Ultimate two weeks ago and have yet to get a key.
I went to my reseller and I got an email from Microsoft promising me one
within 5 business days. I had already phoned twice their activation center
where they told me they were emailing me the key, which I never got. The
guys were Indian and I couldn't understand them and they couldn't understand
me.

We have decided here against installing more upgrades though many of them
are free for machines bought since October.

 

[Guest]

Activation by Internet does not work. Activation by phone does not work!
I had initially a Genuine (registered) version of XP on my PC, I had bought
online in last september (on Microsoft.com website) the DVD for Vista RC1,
during the evaluation. Its activation had worked. This was instaleld as an
upgrade.

When I have seen Vista was released, I have bought a Vista Ultimate OEM
version with a new graphics card, but before doing that I had backup all my
files to a remote repository. Then I have formated all, and installed Vista
Ultimate from a clean new partition. I have been able to activate it on
February 9, until my PC crashed yesterday (motherboard dead, probably because
of the new graphics board).

So I have just bought today a new motherboard. I have the same processor,
same harddisk, I have not reinstalled Vistan, just changed my motherboard. At
first start after mounting the motherboard, I saw that Vista downloaded some
updates for a few drivers of my new motherboard. I also saw that Vista wanted
a reactivation within 3 days! (less than the initial delay, because I had
installed it on february 9 and then I had 30 days to activate...)

After some drivers were installed, Windows Vista has rebooted and then said
that it remained 2 days to activate (1 day lost after only a few minutes!).
Then several drivers were updated again after reconfiguring the graphics
board, and Vista rebooted. Now it remains 1 day (so 2 days lost only in less
than 30 minutes!)

I have clicked on "activate now". Activation by Internet failed, and I was
asked to activate by phone, so I called that displayed number.

I enter the displayed code and the phone says that my licence of Windows XP
is not valid! (Hey! this is not XP, this is Vista, and it is an OEM version,
not an upgrade!)

So finally my activation is REFUSED, and a voice says "buy a new licence of
XP". But I don't want XP, I have bought Vista. This concludes by a GOOD BYE
(in French, because I'm in France).

It just remains now 1 day to activate (I have mounted my PC only 3 hours
ago) and I fear that even tomorrow my Vista will completely die.

What is outraging is that I am not even offered the option to get a voice
contact (please call later during open hours, but I was calling furing open
hours). Activation by phone is simply IMPOSSIBLE.

I'll retry in the morning, if only there's someone at the Microsoft call
center. Apparently they don't work during their announced open hours!

 

[ad sheff]

Hey verdy_p, I have had the same problem with Vista Home Premium OEM. Except
the motherboard hasn't even changed. I activated it on a brand new PC, whose
hard disk promptly failed completely. I installed the replacement disk they
sent, put Vista on it from the OEM disk and now online activation will not
work. I phoned the activation line, that didn't work. I spoke to someone in
India, she said she was not technical support and I need to wait until MONDAY
to call them. I will now have to phone them from work, where I will not have
my PC in front of me. I tried to do the email support but it keeps on telling
me I have to pay £54 for technical support !!!!!!!!
Considering the copy of Vista is worth £90 this is a completely ridiculous
suggestion.
All I want to do is use my legally purchased version of Windows on one PC
and apparently this is impossible.

Anyone any ideas?
Or maybe someone from Microsoft would like to call me and tell me why I paid
for Vista instead of downloading an illegal copy for free.....

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

You can activate Vista by performing the following:

1. Click on the Start button and in the Start Search box type in: slui.exe 4
2. Press the Enter key on your keyboard.
3. Select your Country.
4. Follow the instructions for phone activation.
5. Once completed, restart your computer.
6. Then visit http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/ and click "Validate Windows"
and restart your computer.


--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

---------------------------------------------------------------

:

Hey verdy_p, I have had the same problem with Vista Home Premium OEM. Except
the motherboard hasn't even changed. I activated it on a brand new PC, whose
hard disk promptly failed completely. I installed the replacement disk they
sent, put Vista on it from the OEM disk and now online activation will not
work. I phoned the activation line, that didn't work. I spoke to someone in
India, she said she was not technical support and I need to wait until MONDAY
to call them. I will now have to phone them from work, where I will not have
my PC in front of me. I tried to do the email support but it keeps on telling
me I have to pay £54 for technical support !!!!!!!!
Considering the copy of Vista is worth £90 this is a completely ridiculous
suggestion.
All I want to do is use my legally purchased version of Windows on one PC
and apparently this is impossible.

Anyone any ideas?
Or maybe someone from Microsoft would like to call me and tell me why I paid
for Vista instead of downloading an illegal copy for free.....

 

[John Barnett MVP]

How areyou going to activate your PC from work when it is not in front of
you? You are simply wasting a phone call, even though it s free. You need to
be in front of your pc to insert a set of numbers that the activation peple
will give you to activate your pc. If you don't have the PC in front of you,
then you can't activate via phone.

--
--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows - Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

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