Any solution to this dilemma?

[Ken90630]

Hey, All,

I'm replacing the motherboard (leaking caps) on a friend's PC. It's a clone, built by PC Club about 5 years ago. They installed an OEM version of XP Home on it at the time.

All my friend got in the way of a disk is what looks like a restoration disk. That means it'll probably have the original mobo drivers included, which won't work on the machine now that it has a new, different motherboard. So I can't use the original restoration disk and she doesn't have another Windows disk.

I tried to install Windows with one of my Windows XP Home disks (retail), but when I entered the original product key (from the OEM version that came with the PC), it was rejected. So the install is hung up at the point where the product key needs to be entered.

Microsoft's product key dept. and cust. service depts. were useless. All I got was bounced around from one rep to another before being disconnected. :roll: And they wanted $59 to transfer me to an actual tech support rep about the sitch. You can guess what I think of that. :disgust:

Is there any way to purchase a new license, at a discounted price, or is the only solution purchasing another copy of XP Home?

 

[Billb2]

Do you have the original OEM key?

If so, use that and do a phone activation. Just say the mobo was bad and an exact replacement wasn't available. They're pretty obliging.

 

[pcgeek11]

Originally posted by: Ken90630
Hey, All,

I'm replacing the motherboard (leaking caps) on a friend's PC. It's a clone, built by PC Club about 5 years ago. They installed an OEM version of XP Home on it at the time.

All my friend got in the way of a disk is what looks like a restoration disk. That means it'll probably have the original mobo drivers included, which won't work on the machine now that it has a new, different motherboard. So I can't use the original restoration disk and she doesn't have another Windows disk.

I tried to install Windows with one of my Windows XP Home disks (retail), but when I entered the original product key (from the OEM version that came with the PC), it was rejected. So the install is hung up at the point where the product key needs to be entered.

Microsoft's product key dept. and cust. service depts. were useless. All I got was bounced around from one rep to another before being disconnected. :roll: And they wanted $59 to transfer me to an actual tech support rep about the sitch. You can guess what I think of that. :disgust:

Is there any way to purchase a new license, at a discounted price, or is the only solution purchasing another copy of XP Home?

There is the rub. The retail version Will Not activate with an OEM Key. Never Has - Never Will.

OEM Keys for OEM Versions.
Retail Keys for Retail Versions.

pcgeek11

 

[Ken90630]

Originally posted by: pcgeek11

Originally posted by: Ken90630
Hey, All,

I'm replacing the motherboard (leaking caps) on a friend's PC. It's a clone, built by PC Club about 5 years ago. They installed an OEM version of XP Home on it at the time.

All my friend got in the way of a disk is what looks like a restoration disk. That means it'll probably have the original mobo drivers included, which won't work on the machine now that it has a new, different motherboard. So I can't use the original restoration disk and she doesn't have another Windows disk.

I tried to install Windows with one of my Windows XP Home disks (retail), but when I entered the original product key (from the OEM version that came with the PC), it was rejected. So the install is hung up at the point where the product key needs to be entered.

Microsoft's product key dept. and cust. service depts. were useless. All I got was bounced around from one rep to another before being disconnected. :roll: And they wanted $59 to transfer me to an actual tech support rep about the sitch. You can guess what I think of that. :disgust:

Is there any way to purchase a new license, at a discounted price, or is the only solution purchasing another copy of XP Home?

There is the rub. The retail version Will Not activate with an OEM Key. Never Has - Never Will.

OEM Keys for OEM Versions.
Retail Keys for Retail Versions.

pcgeek11

Yep, I finally realized that last night. Wish I'd known that before, but hey, live & learn I guess.

I fail to understand why Microsoft can't use the same CDs for both retail and OEM Windows, just with different licensing schemes for each. That way, if the original Windows disk gets scratched or lost, or was an OEM system restoration disk rather than Windows by itself, the owner could use any Windows disk to re-install (same version, of course). And they'd still have to use the original product key, which would keep the integrity of the OEM/retail licensing differences still intact. What do they care? As long as the license was paid for, it was paid for ... and the product key still has to be valid and attached to only one machine, which gets confirmed with Product Activation and/or a phone call to Microsoft anyway. Am I missing something here?

 

[lxskllr]

I generally turn to my peers when I need a installation cd, but have a legitimate coa sticker....

 

[Ken90630]

Originally posted by: Billb2
Do you have the original OEM key?

If so, use that and do a phone activation. Just say the mobo was bad and an exact replacement wasn't available. They're pretty obliging.

Yeah, it's on the sticker on the case, but that's not the problem. The prob is that I have to install Windows first (obviously), and the disk looks like it's a system restoration disk rather than Windows by itself. And a restoration disk will install the original mobo drivers during the installation, which won't work because there's a new motherboard in the machine now. I doubt if it'll even boot up afterwards.

So what I need is an OEM Windows disk just so that once Windows is installed, the original OEM product key will work with it. Luckily, I dug up an old OEM XP Home disk last night, that I didn't even know I had, so I'm gonna try to use that along with the machine's original OEM product key.

Does that all make sense?

 

[Ken90630]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
I generally turn to my peers when I need a installation cd, but have a legitimate coa sticker....

Yeah, that'd be the logical thing to do. Until last night, however, I didn't know what the problem was. Now I know that I'll need separate OEM and retail disks if this ever happens again (or, like you say, at least know someone I can borrow one off). As long as the original product key is available and valid, that should do it.

 

[Bozo Galora]

Actually using oem keys on retail/msdn/ is no prob, or X86 keys on X64 etc.
There is a file on all XP Pro CD's called setupp.ini in either the i386 (32 bit) or AMD64 (64 bit) root folder
If you open it (right click edit) in notepad you will see 8 numers/letters
This is the PID (product ID): the first five numbers are the O/S vers and the last three are mode
For example in XP SP2 home MPC is 55277
CD Volume label is VRMHFPP_EN
http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=342
http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=422
For the last three numers/letters 270 is corp, 335 is ret., 296 is MSDN, and OEM is OEM etc.
So PID should be 55277 335
My latest purchased SP3 32 bit retail PID is 76487 000 (000 is a special retail), CD Vol label GRTMPFPP_en
You have orig OEM CD so you can check its correct PID and Vol label by looking into its own setupp.ini file.
Then you can just open your XP Home CD in UltraIso and reburn XP Home as an OEM after editing OEM PID into setupp.ini and then typing in EXACT OEM vol name label and all dialogue info in label tab
All XP Pro discs have basically the same "core" (but not home)
This is not illegal - you are basically changing an alternate CD to fit your paid for key

Corp is a little dif, it has 7 setup files that total 32mb. and non corp also have same NAMED files, but they are not the same
If you know what to do you can switch around these 7 files to use any Corp XP Pro CD as Vol lic or OEM/retail. I assume this would be legal if used to CHANGE retail CD into corp if you had a legit VolLicKey.
In other words, the meat of the disc is the same, you are only changing the condiments.

In your case, you have two big probs. Home is different from Pro (networking stuff etc) and I'm not sure if that would wreck things.
I have never employed home - it never seemed relevant to me.
More importantly, you have changed the MAJOR component of the MS computed hardware hash that is associated with your PC/key. In other words, you could prob install OK but the minute you went to MS update, your hash check would fail and either immediately or 30 days later, you would be getting WGA fail and that little blue star.
Back to that phone call to MS.

So, I would say you are out of luck even after customizing your XP Home

 

[Ken90630]

Wow, thanks for all that, Bozo Galora. I'm gonna have to read thru it a few times to wrap my head around it. I can't believe how convoluted Microsoft's licensing schemes are. Surely a better way could be devised.

 

[lxskllr]

Since you made a warranty repair, you're fully within your rights to reuse the key. You'll almost certainly have to call MS, but they should(and are obligated) to activate your installation.