Dell CD Unique?

[ficom]

I bought a Dell PC with WinXP Pro back in April. I just installed the XP Pro on my wife's Compaq and the whole thing went smoothly right up to the desktop. It then told me I must activate within 30 days (not a surprise), so I tried but it failed (not asking for a COA code until it had already failed).

I didn't put in the Dell COA, I tried a retail one that I hadn't been using and it didn't work either. I understand that may be because of the OEM/Retail difference. I tried the Dell one first because it already had SP2 integrated while the retail didn't.

I'm wondering though, is the specific COA actually on the CD? Is this Dell CD different from my neighbor's in that it has the specific COA code stamped onto it? Or does it just check to see if it's a Dell BIOS when it first starts, and if it doesn't throw the activation error?

Thanks in advance.

 

[mechBgon]

This may not really answer your question, but you could slipstream Service Pack 2 into your retail CD's files, if your main goal is to use that retail license but also have SP2 from the very start. Do a search at Google for autostreamer, I heard good things about it.

Slipstreaming takes the original set of installation files and pre-updates them with the stuff from the Service Pack, if you hadn't seen that term before.

 

[pcgeek11]

Originally posted by: ficom
I bought a Dell PC with WinXP Pro back in April. I just installed the XP Pro on my wife's Compaq and the whole thing went smoothly right up to the desktop. It then told me I must activate within 30 days (not a surprise), so I tried but it failed (not asking for a COA code until it had already failed).

I didn't put in the Dell COA, I tried a retail one that I hadn't been using and it didn't work either. I understand that may be because of the OEM/Retail difference. I tried the Dell one first because it already had SP2 integrated while the retail didn't.

I'm wondering though, is the specific COA actually on the CD? Is this Dell CD different from my neighbor's in that it has the specific COA code stamped onto it? Or does it just check to see if it's a Dell BIOS when it first starts, and if it doesn't throw the activation error?

Thanks in advance.

When you try to use a retail CD Key with an OEM ( Dell CD ) it will not work, the difference between retail and OEM is in the CD Key Scheme. The Key is NOT ON The CD.

What you will need to do is install either a retail version and use an unused Retail CD Key.

or

Install an OEM Version and use an Unused OEM CD Key. The Dell CD doesn't care what system it is on you just need to use a proper Unused OEM CD Key.

pcgeek11