Re-activate 2nd-user machine?

[Fidcal]

A relative has given his computer to his girlfriend. She wiped
it to get a fresh start and used the recovery disk. It asks her
to activate. Should she give her own name or the original name?

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Activation is mandatory does NOT ask for any personal information.
Registration is optional and asks for personal information.

If she chooses to register, she should not use any one else's name.

 

[Minnie Bannister]

So what does the compulsory "activation" accomplish? Does it check that
another system with the same key hasn't already been activated? (Don't
packages preinstalled on machines often have the same key? So I have heard.)

MB

Whether you vote Democrat or Republican in November, the country will
still be run from boardrooms in the USA and elsewhere, not by your
elected representatives.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

So what does the compulsory "activation" accomplish? Does it check
that another system with the same key hasn't already been activated?
Yep.

(Don't packages preinstalled on machines often have the same key? So
I have heard.)
Nope.


MB

Whether you vote Democrat or Republican in November, the country will
still be run from boardrooms in the USA and elsewhere, not by your
elected representatives.

 

[Andrew]

"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]"

Yep.

But don't activation "roll off" the MS web server, or whatever, in 120 days
and she will be treated as a new consumer?
Besides that, she and her boyfriend can call MS and get a new key?

 

[Alex Nichol]

So what does the compulsory "activation" accomplish? Does it check that
another system with the same key hasn't already been activated? (Don't
packages preinstalled on machines often have the same key? So I have heard.)

See my page www.aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.htm

The aim is to prevent activation on different hardware, and hence use on
that different hardware for more than the 30 initial days

Installations on factory machines is often done using a special key for
that setup (and then associating with the machine's BIOS rather than
normal activation). But an individual key is also supplied that must be
used in a re-installation

 

[Alex Nichol]

But don't activation "roll off" the MS web server, or whatever, in 120 days
and she will be treated as a new consumer?

That is for the benefit of people who make regular and extensive changes
to their hardware. It is not provided to be a way of evading the
conditions of the licence

Besides that, she and her boyfriend can call MS and get a new key?

Not in any normal circumstance. But most of this discussion is based on
the mistaken idea that activation relates to the owner. It doesn't - it
relates to the hardware. There is no need whatever to reactivate on
transferring the machine. The registration that might have been done at
the same time (voluntarily) is only to register for free support; and
for the benefit of MSoft Marketing.

You can change the Registered owner as recorded on the machine, and
picked up when installing software - tool can be found at
www.dougknox.com

 

[Minnie Bannister]

I don't remember when the activation requirement commenced (only with
XP?), but when my Toshiba notebook died and had to have the motherboard
replaced, I installed a larger hard disk at the same time, then tried
reinstalling WinME from the Recovery Disk, but was unable to do so (so I
installed from the WinXPHome upgrade disk I had received later).

Was the Recovery Disk barfing on the different BIOS or on the larger hd,
do you think?

MB

Whether you vote Democrat or Republican in November, the country will
still be run from boardrooms in the USA and elsewhere, not by your
elected representatives.

 

[Ken Blake]

In

I don't remember when the activation requirement commenced (only
with
XP?), but when my Toshiba notebook died and had to have the
motherboard replaced, I installed a larger hard disk at the
same
time, then tried reinstalling WinME from the Recovery Disk, but
was
unable to do so (so I installed from the WinXPHome upgrade disk
I had
received later).
Was the Recovery Disk barfing on the different BIOS or on the
larger
hd, do you think?

Probably on the diiferent motherboard.

I love your name, by the way. I remember Minnie (and Henry Crun)
well.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

In


Probably on the diiferent motherboard.

I love your name, by the way. I remember Minnie (and Henry Crun)
well.

Have a noodle!

 

[Alex Nichol]

I don't remember when the activation requirement commenced (only with
XP?), but when my Toshiba notebook died and had to have the motherboard
replaced, I installed a larger hard disk at the same time, then tried
reinstalling WinME from the Recovery Disk, but was unable to do so (so I
installed from the WinXPHome upgrade disk I had received later).

Was the Recovery Disk barfing on the different BIOS or on the larger hd,
do you think?

Activation came in with XP (after some preliminary experiment in later
versions of Office 2000). The problem with your Toshiba is that the
recovery disk they supplied would be specifically designed to install
only on their hardware. So changing Motherboard to another - even
supplied by Toshiba if not an exact replacement - would have needed a
different CD

 

[Minnie Bannister]

Just for kicks, I reinstalled the original hd and tried the Recovery CD,
but it says "Wrong Machine!" But surely Toshiba doesn't create a CD for
every machine individually: after all, they are pressed not burned,
aren't they? I wonder if it could be the updated BIOS that it detects
and dislikes?

But that means that if one needs to reinstall Windows on a machine that
has already had a mobo replacement, one is at a disadvantage. Even going
out and buying a new retail Windows CD won't get back the
machine-specific features the machine had originally -- e.g., an
on-screen volume control "bar-graph" as the volume control "knob"
(actually a rocker switch) is adjusted. Moreover (less important
perhaps), the originally installed WinMe included Plus!, which would
mean yet another separate purchase to reinstate.

I even tried unZIPping the archives on the original Recovery CD, but
they are password protected.

MB

Whether you vote Democrat or Republican in November, the country will
still be run from boardrooms in the USA and elsewhere, not by your
elected representatives.

 

[Minnie Bannister]

i found a note on the Toshiba Web site concerning this "Wrong machine!"
message: it is caused by missing or erroneous "DMI" (forget what that
means) information in the machine's CMOS. It takes a visit to a Toshiba
Authorized Service Center to fix the problem. So I assume that the
people who replaced the motherboard (half a continent and almost two
years away) messed up.

I did find that I could extract the contents of the password-protected
..ZIP archives using the TUNZIP utility on the CD, but I have no idea
whether anything is going to work with WinXP.

MB

 

[Alex Nichol]

i found a note on the Toshiba Web site concerning this "Wrong machine!"
message: it is caused by missing or erroneous "DMI" (forget what that
means) information in the machine's CMOS. It takes a visit to a Toshiba
Authorized Service Center to fix the problem. So I assume that the
people who replaced the motherboard (half a continent and almost two
years away) messed up.

That sounds about it. Where you buy a machine from a maker like that
and have the system software adjusted for it (quite apart from the
activation, which will be tied to the BIOS of the motherboard) it is
important to have such major work done by an accredited agent, who will
use the correct compatible parts

 

[Minnie Bannister]

The motherboard replacement was performed by a company on Toshiba's list
of "Premier" service centers, but I think see what they did:

If I insert the Recovery CD when Windows (XP, which I have now
reinstalled from scratch) is running, I see the message:

"This Recovery and Applications CD is not configured to work with this
machine (SATEITE 3005) . . ."

IOW, "Premier" or no, they need to find people who can spell.

MB

 

[Alex Nichol]

The motherboard replacement was performed by a company on Toshiba's list
of "Premier" service centers, but I think see what they did:

If I insert the Recovery CD when Windows (XP, which I have now
reinstalled from scratch) is running, I see the message:

"This Recovery and Applications CD is not configured to work with this
machine (SATEITE 3005) . . ."

IOW, "Premier" or no, they need to find people who can spell.

And you had better ask them to provide a CD and key that will work with
the hardware they fitted

 

[Minnie Bannister]

Someone has offered to send me a file that will fix the machine's
internal "identity." In the meantime, however, I had ripped the Recovery
CD, used a hex editor on the resulting .iso file to change the string
for which the Install program on the Recovery CD was looking, then
burned it back to a CD and restored to the original 20GB hard disk. It
did display "Wrong" -- not "wrong Machine!" -- (probably because the
string was a different length, so I put nulls after the CRLF), but
continued anyway.

Now I see what other things I was missing by doing a generic XP
installation: e.g., a SpeedStep utility that slows down the CPU if the
external power is disconnected, a "change hardware" utility specifically
for the SelectBay (for interchangeable CD-RW/DVD, floppy, 2nd hd, and
2nd battery), and a utility to determine what the EZButton does.

Next step is to Ghost the installation to an external drive, then run
the upgrade to XP, Ghost again, then restore to the larger hd.

MB

 

[Al Dykes]

Activation came in with XP (after some preliminary experiment in later
versions of Office 2000). The problem with your Toshiba is that the
recovery disk they supplied would be specifically designed to install
only on their hardware. So changing Motherboard to another - even
supplied by Toshiba if not an exact replacement - would have needed a
different CD

If the mobo is replaced by Toshiba within warranty, and you bought XP
from them they'll give you a way to reinstall XP.