XP OEM Key problems

M

Mark Carlson

I have 2 COA stickers that are about 6 months old.
Neither of them say OEM version on them.

I have a WinXP Pro CD OEM w/o SP1 incorporated.
I originally had 5 COA and I used 3 of them. They work
fine.

I now have a Win XP Pro OEM CD w/ SP1 already integrated.
I can install with thse keys, but upon activation I get an
error saying the product key is invalid.

I tried both, then got a sticker that had OEM on it and it
worked. My problem is this. I want to use these on
computers that I am not keeping. I have to give the XP CD
to the other people. If I give mine away, my keys won't
work
if I need to re-install. And I can't use the new CD w/SP1
to install with the stickers I have.

What is going on with the activation?
Why won't this work?

Mark
 
D

Donald McDaniel

Mark said:
I have 2 COA stickers that are about 6 months old.
Neither of them say OEM version on them.

I have a WinXP Pro CD OEM w/o SP1 incorporated.
I originally had 5 COA and I used 3 of them. They work
fine.

I now have a Win XP Pro OEM CD w/ SP1 already integrated.
I can install with thse keys, but upon activation I get an
error saying the product key is invalid.

I tried both, then got a sticker that had OEM on it and it
worked. My problem is this. I want to use these on
computers that I am not keeping. I have to give the XP CD
to the other people. If I give mine away, my keys won't
work
if I need to re-install. And I can't use the new CD w/SP1
to install with the stickers I have.

What is going on with the activation?
Why won't this work?

Mark

You must use an "OEM" cd key only with an OEM distribution of XP. You
cannot use an OEM cd key with a retail distribution disk, or vice versa.
 
M

Mark C

Both of the CD Media is OEM purchased as OEM aftermarket.
The only difference I see is SP1 is on one.
Is it possible that the non-OEM is really not an OEM and is
a retail unboxed CD?

Mark C
 
D

Donald McDaniel

Mark said:
Both of the CD Media is OEM purchased as OEM aftermarket.
The only difference I see is SP1 is on one.
Is it possible that the non-OEM is really not an OEM and is
a retail unboxed CD?

Mark C
First, by "non-OEM" you can only mean "Retail", "Volume License", or
"Academic"
It is obvious by your language that the "non-OEM" is, in truth, NOT an OEM.
Therefore, it can only be Retail boxed, Volume license, or Academic, or, God
forbid, a pirated cd.

I really doubt that someone would sell a Retail cd along with an OEM COA,
unless they copied one Retail CD and sold the resulting copies along with a
cheaper OEM COA. If they did that, they surely ripped off bunches of people
who bought it, because none of them will be able to use their OEM COAs with
a Retail CD.

I've never heard of a "retail unboxed cd", since all Retail CD's I've seen
came in a sealed plastic box.

If the Activation process is telling you that some CD keys are invalid, I
would certainly suspect a pirate somewhere in the woodworks.
 
P

Patrick J. LoPresti

Mark C said:
Is it possible that the non-OEM is really not an OEM and is
a retail unboxed CD?

You can find out for sure by looking at the i386\setupp.ini file on
the CD. There will be a line like this:

Pid=55274OEM

Do a Google search on the Pid (or post it here; I have a list
somewhere) and you can find out what type of installation media you
have. As I recall, OEM media always has "OEM" as the last three
characters.

- Pat
 

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