New activation code required????

[Guest]

I had a vista automatic update on the 14 July, I noticed just before the pc
re-booted a message saying there was a significant hardware change. I thought
nothing more of it until 3 days later I have been prompted to supply a new
activation code. There has been no change at all to my pc, why have I got
this message? Is this a known issue?

 

[Michael Solomon]

I had a vista automatic update on the 14 July, I noticed just before the pc
re-booted a message saying there was a significant hardware change. I
thought
nothing more of it until 3 days later I have been prompted to supply a new
activation code. There has been no change at all to my pc, why have I got
this message? Is this a known issue?

Some changes in the system, usually hardware can trigger the need to
activate again. You don't need a new code. Run Activation when prompted
and use the activate by phone option. You will be give a phone number to
call, tell the operator what has happened, you will likely have to provide
your product key and you will be given a new activation code.

 

[Richard Urban]

If you will look in your installed updates I'll bet that you see one for
SATA drivers. That is the likely culprit.

--


Regards,

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

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

On Tue, 17 Jul 2007 19:23:51 -0400, "Richard Urban"

If you will look in your installed updates I'll bet that you see one for
SATA drivers. That is the likely culprit.

The activation payload is not supposed to be triggered by changing a
single item, and changing drivers is not a hardware change - unless
the hardware detection logic is buggy.

If the logic is buggy, should we really be trusting it to hold back
the trigger on a user-hostile payload?

So no, it is not enough to step on ants one at a time, with advice
such as "phone and beg, they'll let you use your PC again".

We need to get to the bottom of these cases, and see that MS either
fixes what appears to be defectively-controlled user-hostile code, or
removes it if it can't be fixed, or convinces us there really is no
defect (and thus the reason for these failures is...?)

See:

http://cquirke.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!C7DAB1E724AB8C23!190.entry?_c=BlogPart

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

When Occam's Razor meets the Halting Problem,
the Halting Problem wins