Microsoft Help Experience - :-(

[Terry Smythe]

Last Christmas I gave my grandaughter a new Toshiba laptop, bought at Future
Shop here in Winnipeg. It contained pre-installed WinXP Home, with a
legal CofA sticker, no recovery disk. Notwithstanding my advice, she
failed to create a set of recovery disks. On Friday, her laptop died,
critical files inaccessible, time deadline, no recovery disks.

In the interests of being helpful and in the absence of a recovery disk, I
used my WinXP Home disk to bring her laptop back to life. But now, my
registration key is residing in 2 computers, one only allowed. My
experience with the Microsoft Help line has become an appalling exercise in
futility.

So far, I've been transferred to 7 different people, all who can barely
speak English in a normal manner. Severe accents, rapid fire language,
poor telephone connections, making it almost impossible to communicate.

Basically, all I want is a different registration key for my granddaughter's
laptop, so I can then execute the Toshiba utility to create a set of
recovery disks for her. Each person I tried to speak to all demanded I do
the same thing - remove my WinXP OS from her computer, something I am not
prepared to do. None so far have offered an option.

What is so difficult about assigning a new registration key for her laptop?
Yes, she blew it last Christmas in her failure to create a set of recovery
disks. But the fact remains she does have a legal CofA, which at this
moment we are unable to use.

My experience with Microsoft's Help line is turning out to be communications
nightmare. Microsoft has a serious language barrier in place which needs
to be fixed soonest.

Regards,

Terry Smythe
Winnipeg, Canada

 

[Gerry]

Terry

Is or was there a restore partition on the Toshiba? Your attempt to help
could have destroyed the means that Toshiba provided to resolve the
problem!


--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Roger Blake]

Basically, all I want is a different registration key for my granddaughter's
laptop, so I can then execute the Toshiba utility to create a set of

Isn't there a product key sticker on the bottom of the laptop? You can install
from a generic XP OEM disc and use her product key. (Then of course you
would have to download and install device drivers for devices that
XP doesn't recognize out of the box.)

What is so difficult about assigning a new registration key for her laptop?

It's Microsoft's product and they are free to license it under whatever
terms and conditions that they specify. If you don't care for Microsoft's
terms and conditions you are free to install and use an alternative
operating system such as Linux, BSD, Plan 9, Solaris, etc. (I use Linux on
my own computers.) However, having said this, you should have no problem
doing a generic installation of XP from an OEM disc as long as it is the
same version (Home, Professional, or Media Center), and you use
the product key on the bottom of the Toshiba.

 

[Guest]

Last Christmas I gave my grandaughter a new Toshiba laptop, bought at Future
Shop here in Winnipeg. It contained pre-installed WinXP Home, with a
legal CofA sticker, no recovery disk. Notwithstanding my advice, she
failed to create a set of recovery disks. On Friday, her laptop died,
critical files inaccessible, time deadline, no recovery disks.

In the interests of being helpful and in the absence of a recovery disk, I
used my WinXP Home disk to bring her laptop back to life. But now, my
registration key is residing in 2 computers, one only allowed. My
experience with the Microsoft Help line has become an appalling exercise in
futility.

So far, I've been transferred to 7 different people, all who can barely
speak English in a normal manner. Severe accents, rapid fire language,
poor telephone connections, making it almost impossible to communicate.

Basically, all I want is a different registration key for my granddaughter's
laptop, so I can then execute the Toshiba utility to create a set of
recovery disks for her. Each person I tried to speak to all demanded I do
the same thing - remove my WinXP OS from her computer, something I am not
prepared to do. None so far have offered an option.

What is so difficult about assigning a new registration key for her laptop?
Yes, she blew it last Christmas in her failure to create a set of recovery
disks. But the fact remains she does have a legal CofA, which at this
moment we are unable to use.

My experience with Microsoft's Help line is turning out to be communications
nightmare. Microsoft has a serious language barrier in place which needs
to be fixed soonest.

Regards,

Terry Smythe
Winnipeg, Canada

Hi terry,
Download this tool and try to Renter the Product Key from the COA Sticker:
Windows Product Key Update Tool Instructions
http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/selfhelp/PkuInstructions.aspx?displayLang=en
HTH.
nass