XP CD key question

[Etienne C.]

One of my relatives has a laptop with an XP MCE2005 Key.
Long story short, he installed crap that made it BSOD concistently so I
decided to recover.
Recovery procedure worked but system wasn't stable at all.
I got an MSDN subscription at work so I reinstalled with a CD from it,
hopping to use his key.
It didn't work (invalid key) so I figured its not the same flavor of XP
MCE2005 (oem vs retail?).
Anyways I used my MSDN key to see if the system would be stable.
It is.

So finally, my question is:
Is there any hope that I can change the installed key (from my office MSDN
subscription) with my relative's own legitimate key?

By the way, I tried explaining all this to an activation support lady but
she either genuinely couldn't help me or she did not understand.

Thanks for reading.

Etienne

 

[Andrew E.]

Try this page for
key:http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/selfhelp/pkuinstructions.aspx

 

[Etienne C.]

Yes, I tried that already.
I should have mentionned it.

I had great hopes it would work but when run, the program the page offers to
download pops up an error box titled "Windows Product Key Update Tool" and
the message says:
"The application must be run on a supported version of the Windows XP
operating system".

It seems it does not like the fact that its an MCE2005 XP.

But thanks for the suggestion.

Etienne

 

[Dustin Cook]

One of my relatives has a laptop with an XP MCE2005 Key.
Long story short, he installed crap that made it BSOD concistently so
I decided to recover.
Recovery procedure worked but system wasn't stable at all.
I got an MSDN subscription at work so I reinstalled with a CD from it,
hopping to use his key.
It didn't work (invalid key) so I figured its not the same flavor of
XP MCE2005 (oem vs retail?).
Anyways I used my MSDN key to see if the system would be stable.
It is.

So finally, my question is:
Is there any hope that I can change the installed key (from my office
MSDN subscription) with my relative's own legitimate key?

Have you tried the magical jellybean keyfinder?

Failing that, I can't help you.

http://magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/

 

[Etienne C.]

No luck here neither.

When I try to change it to my relative's key, its says the there was an
error performing the operation, that the key might be invalid or mistyped.

That's with keyfinder 1.51

Correct me if I am wrong, but version 2.01 doesn't the "change key" feature
anymore right?

Thanks

Etienne

 

[Dustin Cook]

No luck here neither.

When I try to change it to my relative's key, its says the there was
an error performing the operation, that the key might be invalid or
mistyped.

That's with keyfinder 1.51

Correct me if I am wrong, but version 2.01 doesn't the "change key"
feature anymore right?

I really dont know, I haven't tried the latest and greatest. The error your
getting confirms my suspicion however. You must reinstall her copy of
windows mce over your installation in order to be able to enter the proper
key.

 

[Etienne C.]

Yeah, by reading other posts, I got into thinking that I could probably
"build" a cd with the i386 folder I can find in the recovery partition, and
then do a repair install using that CD.

In an other post, somebody mentionned that a repair install would ask for
the CD key, and in yet another post, somebody said a repair install did not
screw-up its installed programs.

By doing that, I hope to be able to use the laptop's own CD key and bypass
all the Acer crap thats being "recovered" by the recovery tool.

I'll probably try that next week and will post back results here.

Any other suggestions are welcome though.

Thanks

Etienne

 

[Dustin Cook]

Yeah, by reading other posts, I got into thinking that I could
probably "build" a cd with the i386 folder I can find in the recovery
partition, and then do a repair install using that CD.

In an other post, somebody mentionned that a repair install would ask
for the CD key, and in yet another post, somebody said a repair
install did not screw-up its installed programs.

By doing that, I hope to be able to use the laptop's own CD key and
bypass all the Acer crap thats being "recovered" by the recovery tool.

The OEMBIOS files present in the i386 folder will allow the acer to load
without asking for its key.