Problems with adding XP to a laptop.

[Guest]

Hi guys, I am a second year student and because of financial restraints have
recently purchased a second hand laptop, on which I overwrote the OS with
Windows XP Pro. I do not have the original disk for the version of XP which
was on the laptop, so used an old one which a friend activated with some
crack or something on a disc.
Everything was fine until the 30 day period ended and I was asked to
activate. When I switched on I recieve a message saying this product has to
be activated, when clicking on ok the computer shows another message saying
it is already activated then logs off. Basically I am stuck in a loop and
cannot log on. Now reading the articles on the forum I realise that this may
have been illegal and I will have to buy another version of windows xp pro.

This I am willing to do, however I have heard mentioned that because this is
a company laptop the 'bios' may have been written only to work with the
original copy of XP. Therefore whatever I do the system is useless and is not
going to work.

Is this true, if so I have been well diddled....

As you may have gathered I do not now much about computers so any help would
be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.

 

[Malke]

Hi guys, I am a second year student and because of financial
restraints have recently purchased a second hand laptop, on which I
overwrote the OS with Windows XP Pro. I do not have the original disk
for the version of XP which was on the laptop, so used an old one
which a friend activated with some crack or something on a disc.
Everything was fine until the 30 day period ended and I was asked to
activate. When I switched on I recieve a message saying this product
has to be activated, when clicking on ok the computer shows another
message saying it is already activated then logs off. Basically I am
stuck in a loop and cannot log on. Now reading the articles on the
forum I realise that this may have been illegal and I will have to buy
another version of windows xp pro.

This I am willing to do, however I have heard mentioned that because
this is a company laptop the 'bios' may have been written only to work
with the original copy of XP. Therefore whatever I do the system is
useless and is not going to work.

This is not true if you use a full retail version of XP. The constraint
about which you are thinking is if you try to install an OEM version of
XP from someone like Dell on a non-Dell machine.

Since you are a student, you can get a Students' and Teachers' version
of XP which is less expensive. Check with your school for details.

Malke

 

[Guest]

Thanks mate, I'll look into buying a proper retail version now I know i'm not
wasting any money. Thats a big weight off my mind....