Windows XP Professional Reinstall -- Product Key Question

[Guest]

Hi, I received my Dell PC with Windows XP Professional from a company I
worked for over a year ago. I no longer have contact with that company.
However, I have been having significant problems with my machine and
therefore have upgraded a few components and also desire to do a fresh
reinstall of Windows XP Professional. I have the product key that I am using
currently written down and it IS A VALID key that came installed by Dell.
Now, here is my problem...one, since I have upgraded specific components in
the machine, and added a harddrive that I wish to make my main, won't this
mean that my product key might be affected because it may no longer detect my
machine as a "Dell" machine and the product key was specified for Dells only?
Second, I do not have access to the original CDs for reinstalling the
operating system so I would like to borrow a friend's and use his. I believe
that this will definitely cause a conflict with the product key activation
upon reinstallation and will say it is invalid. Is there any way I can
contact a Microsoft representative and get them to sort of confirm that the
product key is valid and make sure that I do not encounter any problems
during reinstall? I do not want to go ahead and attempt a reinstall and lose
this OS only to find out I am unable to install a new one. Like I said, I am
confident that I am the only person using this product key and it is entirely
valid and I have used the Genuine Advantage tool provided by Microsoft.
Thanks in advance for all replies.

 

[Beemer Biker]

1. Go here http://www.licenturion.com/xp/ and download xpinfo and see how
close you are to needing to re-activate windows.

There are a couple of tricks you can do such as changing the volumn
serial number on your new disk to match the original "C" drive. You would
have to change that VSN on C to something else afterwards. Setting the same
VSN on the "C" offsets the "-" you get when the C drive is swapped out. Be
aware that upgrading the firmware on a cd burner can cause a "point" to be
lost in microsofts re-activation "bookkeeper".

2. Bring up xp's restore points and see if there is one "way back" before
things started going wrong on your system. I would try a restore before
atttempting to use someone elses Dell disk. We have several dell systems,
laptop, server, desktop sp2, sp1a etc and they seem to be color coded and
one cd will not always work with another system. When we found this out and
put in better controls to keep track of the problem. I have found that dell
laptop XP CD's seem to work better on non dell systems. ie: I can boot the
recovery shell without it complaining it is a non-dell product.

you might want to save the wpa.dbl and wpa.bak files you got now, so they
can be restored

 

[DL]

As its OEM, MS will not help out
Your friends wincd would have to be an identical Dell cd in order for you to
use your key.
I dont know whether Dell cd's are bios locked, I dont believe so.
Since your Dell should have a tag # you could try Dell site tech in order to
replace the cd
PS assuming your Dell hd is ok you could install new disk as a slave

 

[Guest]

I guess then my best option if I really do want a fresh install and cannot
get the correct CD through Dell that I would have to just go ahead and chance
it and do the reinstall and then call Microsoft upon activation hoping that
they will provide me with the activation code (not product key) over the
phone that overrides the activation when a product key isn't working. Since
the product key has only been activated once and also it's valid, maybe
explaining my situation to them will allow this...

 

[Beemer Biker]

I guess then my best option if I really do want a fresh install and cannot
get the correct CD through Dell that I would have to just go ahead and chance
it and do the reinstall and then call Microsoft upon activation hoping that
they will provide me with the activation code (not product key) over the
phone that overrides the activation when a product key isn't working. Since
the product key has only been activated once and also it's valid, maybe
explaining my situation to them will allow this...

If a valid product key for your system, then wpa.dbl and wpa.bak are valid.
Copy those files to a floppy (from \windows\system32) and copy them back
after entering in your serial #. That will avoid haveing to call microsoft.
That also assumes that the CD matches the product key.

Can you boot into safe mode? If so, have your brought up ACCESSORIES ->
SYSTEM -> SYSTEM RESTORE ?
What is its status now?

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Ryan: I've upgraded many XP PCs in various ways and with one
exception, I've *never* encountered XP reactivation. The *sole*
exception is motherboard replacement. Typically, when a mboard
is replaced, XP will have to reinstalled and even if it isn't
(reinstalled), XP (in every case I can recall) will invalidate
the current activation. In the case of my home PC, I've
added/changed the USB 2.0 card, added/replaced WiFi adapters,
replaced Ethernet cards, w/o reactivation. Of course, these are
one-at-a-time upgrades, so YMMV.

My experience is that a given XP installation will often (not
always) tolerate a mboard change, as long as the CPU family
doesn't change. That is, if the old CPU and new CPU are both
Celerons, XP *might* not crash, but not certain. However,
(re-)activation is almost certain. (BTW, re-activation
*assumes* that one *isn't* replacing the mboard with a
duplicate.)

The problem with this is that Dell is one of those OEMs that has
a BIOS locked XP, so that in order to use your (valid) product
key, one *must* have a Dell XP CD to reinstall. Alternatively,
one can purchase and reinstall using a retail XP, so that the
license can be moved to *whatever* PC/motherboard you have at
that moment.

HTH....MR

 

[Guest]

Tonight I plan on just going ahead and making copies of my current WPA files,
writing down my product key, backing up all crucial files and then
reinstalling with the Windows XP Professional disc that I have...I am about
99.9% sure it will not work but I am banking on the fact that customer
service will help me after I explain my situation to them and get a phone
activation code...fingers crossed...

 

[Beemer Biker]

Tonight I plan on just going ahead and making copies of my current WPA files,
writing down my product key, backing up all crucial files and then
reinstalling with the Windows XP Professional disc that I have...I am about
99.9% sure it will not work but I am banking on the fact that customer
service will help me after I explain my situation to them and get a phone
activation code...fingers crossed...

You might want to use google first and search for your product key on the
internet. If you got one of those corporate dell that were compromised you
will not make it past the the phone call. Put the first 5 digits into
google and hit return. Here is a well known serial:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCKGW If it starts with that then save
yourself the trouble of installing XP.


--
=======================================================================
Beemer Biker joestateson at grandecom dot net
http://TipsForTheComputingImpaired.com
http://ResearchRiders.org Ask about my 99'R1100RT
=======================================================================

 

[yardkarter456]

You might want to use google first and search for your product key on the
internet. If you got one of those corporate dell that were compromised you
will not make it past the the phone call. Put the first 5 digits into
google and hit return. Here is a well known serial:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCKGW If it starts with that then save
yourself the trouble of installing XP.


--
=======================================================================
Beemer Biker joestateson at grandecom dot net
http://TipsForTheComputingImpaired.com
http://ResearchRiders.org Ask about my 99'R1100RT
=======================================================================

I remember, I had a serial beginning with those five digits made by a
custom builder....Oh well, Micro$oft is rich enough as it is....