Locked out, "vista not genuine"

[Martmcd]

Thanks Jon, tried that already, may have to give in and reinstall

 

[Martmcd]

Definately genuine.
i think the green screen may be just his background with all icons, taskbar
etc removed.

the other thing i have been unable to find is microsofts number from the UK
if i could get into the activation wizard i could find it but, i am locked
out. do you know it?

 

[Over Easy]

I never reply to Alias' posts suggesting Ubuntu as an alternative, so,
yes, I do ignore posts.

And when involved in a thread, I don't go on, and on, and on, post after
post, with the same boring illogical rhetoric that makes no sense to
anyone, or calling the same persons a liar...over and over and
over.....and over......or any other lame prepubescent name-calling.

You, however, fit the bill perfectly.

Thanks very much. I do have my membership card. Laminated!

 

[Jon]

Definately genuine.
i think the green screen may be just his background with all icons,
taskbar etc removed.

the other thing i have been unable to find is microsofts number from the
UK if i could get into the activation wizard i could find it but, i am
locked out. do you know it?

According to the file 'C:\Windows\System32\SLUI\phone.inf' it's

GBR,,,%United_Kingdom%,0800 018 8354,+44 870 2411963,%not_available%

ie probably the first of those embedded numbers 0800 018 8354

 

[Bob Knowlden]

Re-installing looks like the best alternative.

Out of curiosity, I did a little looking around. The WGA bit looks like more
of a symptom than a cause. It's not supposed to lock the PC to anywhere near
that extent, no matter how long your friend might have ignored a warning.
(He/she may not have ignored it for long - something appears to have
seriously damaged Windows.) I'm not a fan of WGA, if only because of its
name. (The main "advantage" is to Microsoft. Most advantages to consumers
are indirect at best.) However, its not supposed to be so draconian as to
completely disable Windows and make a fresh install the only way to recover.

I hope that you have drive imaging software that can be run from a CD. (I
use Acronis True Image.) That may permit you to rescue your friend's data
files, even if the patition ultimately has to be reformatted.

If you ever find out what caused this, I'd appreciate it if you posted that.
No one likes the possibility that an OS could blow up at any moment. (No,
I'm not planning to switch to Linux, BSD, Solaris, or any of the other *nix
variants that can run on a PC. I'd consider Max OSX, if only Mr. Jobs would
allow me to do that without buying Apple hardware. They make nice hardware,
but I'd rather roll my own.)

Thanks Jon, tried that already, may have to give in and reinstall

 

[JEWboy]

1. Have ownership/genuinity proof ready at hand.
2. Call Microsoft.

Problem should be solved.

P.S. Such things have never happened to me in all history, I've never heard
of "green screens" - somethign is fishy here. Maybe it's indeed cracked in
some way even though sold thru a major retailer.

 

[mazorj]

1. Have ownership/genuinity proof ready at hand.
2. Call Microsoft.

Problem should be solved.

Maybe, maybe not. This MS XP horror story isn't quite exactly the
same but it does show that OS authentication is a sometime thing, and
MS will fix it only sometimes.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/167787/windows_xp_user_im_no_thief.html?tk=nl_wvx_h_crawl

 

[kevpan815]

But you can Google for Microsoft support phone#'s on any other WORKING
computer connected to the Net??
I know it's a big transnational corporation, it'll give you a headache
to dig out a specific phone# out of a million little facts on their
website(s), but it should be searchable?

I learned Google behavior to a point I sometimes enter a few characters
and get valid results, heck you can even enter "2+2" into Google and
it'll return "4" as the search answer!

You Learned Google Behavior After 8 Months Of Intensive Training. Just FYI.

 

[JEWboy]

But you can Google for Microsoft support phone#'s on any other WORKING
computer connected to the Net??
I know it's a big transnational corporation, it'll give you a headache to
dig out a specific phone# out of a million little facts on their website(s),
but it should be searchable?

I learned Google behavior to a point I sometimes enter a few characters and
get valid results, heck you can even enter "2+2" into Google and it'll
return "4" as the search answer!

 

[Guest]

Go Away Imposter!

You Learned Google Behavior After 8 Months Of Intensive Training. Just
FYI.

 

[Martmcd]

in message



According to the file 'C:\Windows\System32\SLUI\phone.inf' it's

GBR,,,%United_Kingdom%,0800 018 8354,+44 870 2411963,%not_available%

ie probably the first of those embedded numbers 0800 018 8354

Thanks jon, the first number as you suggested is for the activation, they
were at least able to give me another number - 08706010100 option 0 - i got
through to an unusualy helpful microsoft employee in Asia, after rebooting
into safe mode 3 times we were able to get to system restore. restoring to a
point before this happened we were faced with warnings about victim of
piracy, activate now etc.
microsoft provided (free off charge) a new product license key and activated
it in the same conversation.
the problem is aparently caused by HPs license expiring, and should be
resolved by HP however, according to the chap i was talking with, if the
machine is out of warranty HP are telling customers it is a microsoft
problem.

Thanks to those that offered possible solutions, especially Jon. To those
that argued about alternatives - thanks for the entertainment.
Martin

 

[Alias]

Alias wrote:

I don't spam. Profanity goes against MS' TOS but that doesn't stop you
from using it along with your lies and weird animal sex accusations.

Alias

 

[Alias]

You spam and you lie.
Nice combo huh?

I don't spam or lie. Profanity goes against MS' TOS but that doesn't
stop you from using it along with your lies and weird animal sex
accusations.

Nice combo, eh?

Alias

 

[+Bob+]

I don't spam or lie. Profanity goes against MS' TOS but that doesn't
stop you from using it along with your lies and weird animal sex
accusations.

Nice combo, eh?

Frank always has sex with farm animals on his mind - that's why he's
always posting about it.

Let's face it - when you're overweight, out of shape, have his
immature personality, and have his offensive smell, women run away as
you approach. He's got much more in common with farm animals and those
are the only dates he's likely to get.