windows de-activated and wont re-activate

[Guest]

Windows said it needs to reactivate windows due to a hardware change,
although I never changed anything. And when it tries to re-activate, it says
the product key is already in use and needs another one. Please help!

 

[GreenieLeBrun]

Windows said it needs to reactivate windows due to a hardware change,
although I never changed anything. And when it tries to re-activate,
it says the product key is already in use and needs another one.
Please help!

You have to use the telephone activation method.

 

[The poster formerly known as Nina DiBoy]

Windows said it needs to reactivate windows due to a hardware change,
although I never changed anything. And when it tries to re-activate,
it says the product key is already in use and needs another one.
Please help!

Yet another example where buggy MS DRM inconveniences the paying
customer. This is doing nothing st stop piracy.

--
Priceless quotes in m.p.w.vista.general group:
http://protectfreedom.tripod.com/kick.html

"Only religious fanatics and totalitarian states equate morality with
legality."
- Linus Torvalds

 

[Cal Bear '66]

Use phone activation

 

[Alias]

Windows said it needs to reactivate windows due to a hardware change,
although I never changed anything. And when it tries to re-activate, it says
the product key is already in use and needs another one. Please help!

Sick of this crap? Try Ubuntu, an Open Source OS. It's free. www.ubuntu.com

Alias

 

[Frank]

Sick of this crap? Try Ubuntu, an Open Source OS. It's free. www.ubuntu.com

Alias

Yeah, try a stupid toy os..great idea...hahaha...good for kiddies like
you...hahaha...lol!
Frank

 

[Alias]

Yeah, try a stupid toy os..great idea...hahaha...good for kiddies like
you...hahaha...lol!
Frank

Your jealously of people who can install a decent OS like Ubuntu and you
can't is showing, Frankie Boy.

Alias

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

Maximus51 wrote:

Yet another example where buggy MS DRM inconveniences the paying
customer. This is doing nothing st stop piracy.

Before jumping in with guns blazing, I'd have asked whether there had
been any hardware changes, and what these were.

If there had been hardware changes, and these were in excess of
Vista's scarce-documented change thresholds, then the DoS payload is
working as designed.

If there had been hardware changes, and these were not in excess of
Vista's scarce-documented change thresholds, then the DoS payload is
buggy. Hey MS - "DoS payload" and "buggy"; pick ONE.

If there had been no hardware changes at all, then the DoS payload is
*really* buggy, and we need to chase this a lot harder.

So... more details, original poster?

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Trsut me, I won't make a mistake!

 

[Alias]

Before jumping in with guns blazing, I'd have asked whether there had
been any hardware changes, and what these were.

If there had been hardware changes, and these were in excess of
Vista's scarce-documented change thresholds, then the DoS payload is
working as designed.

If there had been hardware changes, and these were not in excess of
Vista's scarce-documented change thresholds, then the DoS payload is
buggy. Hey MS - "DoS payload" and "buggy"; pick ONE.

If there had been no hardware changes at all, then the DoS payload is
*really* buggy, and we need to chase this a lot harder.

So... more details, original poster?

The OP wrote, and I quote:

"Windows said it needs to reactivate windows due to a hardware change,
although I never changed anything."

 

[Guest]

Thank you everyone for the help. Activating it by telephone fixed the
problem. For those who were requesting more details...I never changed any
hardware, I didn't open my case or even add new software. During normal use
I got the message unexpectedly.

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

Generally, this situation is resolved by phoning the activation line,
asking to speak to a human, and telling that human that the PC you are
attempting to activate the product is in fcat the same PC that it is
currently activated on.

The bug is not that the activation code tells you the license is in
use (it is, it's on the PC that "changed").

The bug is that an unchanged PC is detected as having been "changed so
much" that it is seen as a different PC.

That's the part I'd want to drill down into.

The OP wrote, and I quote:

"Windows said it needs to reactivate windows due to a hardware change,
although I never changed anything."

Possible "changes" include BIOS and driver updates that can break
previous assumptions as to what the hardware is "called".

Such "changes" are not real hardware changes of course, and that the
DoS payload can't tell the difference, is a serious limitation

Courts are too fallible for many nations to allow the irreversible
death penalty, and a system that can't tell the difference between
software and hardware changes is too fallible for a DoS payload, IMO.

OTOH, maybe this thing is so buggy (or exploitable) that the payload
hatched when there really were no changes at all. If the system
cannot safeguard itself against malware that can trigger a false
alarm, then it is too insecure for a DoS payload, IMO.

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The most accurate diagnostic instrument
in medicine is the Retrospectoscope