Phoenix Enigma said:
I bough a system with a (as far as I can tell) legal copy of XP Pro SP2.
It's comke time to replace my mobo, and all the research I've done
suggests
that I'll need my original XP cd. I never got one. Nor my COA or product
key. Am I correct in believing that OEMs have to provide these. For the
record, I did not buy my system from dell, etc, but rather a small
whitebox
type operation. To make a long story short - can I demand my disc from my
OEM with the law(so to speak) at my back?
The oem has to provide a way for you to restore your computer to factory-new
condition. For some OEMs, that means a hidden partition on the hard drive.
But....even with that, you should have gotten an COA. And it's pretty likely
that a small white box builder would be using system-builder type installs,
which means you should have gotten a generic OEM cd with the machine, along
with the COA stuck on the case.
Whether you have a legal leg to stand on is another story. Calling the
police isn't likely to do much for you; I doubt they're going to get very
excited. If you know a cop, that's another story; he might go in there as a
favor to you. You could call MS and report the company, if they are in fact
violating MSs agreement. You might try small claims court and see if you can
win a judgment (have fun collecting....). However, before you start the
legal wheels in motion, you might want to look at your invoice and see what
it says you paid for. If it's got XP listed and you didn't get it, you've
got a chance. But if it just has the OEMs model number or something, they
could claim that the computer was supposed to come without an OS, and they
owe you nothing. Or they could claim that they gave you the CD and COA and
then you'd have to prove that they didn't.
If you go to the shop and threaten them with MS and small claims court, they
might decide it's not worth their bother and they might give you a CD. It's
worth a try.
