Hardware Changes and Vista

[fireontheway]

Hello everyone! I have been away from quite some time, I have a couple of simple questions so please take it easy on me.

1. I plan on overclocking my E6600, would that mess with my activation?

2. My bro has an acer laptop that he wants to add more ram in to (it came with only 1gb) Would that mess things up for him as for as activation goes? How does OEM or pre-installed operating systems handle small hardware changes (in this case adding memory) ?

Again, hello to all and thanks for the replies.

 

[RebateMonger]

For many high-volume OEMs (like Dell, HP and Acer), you can change ANYTHING (except the motherboard) and you'll never have to re-Activate. Activation is automatic and is based on the BIOS signature on the motherboard.

 

[hclarkjr]

Originally posted by: fireontheway
Hello everyone! I have been away from quite some time, I have a couple of simple questions so please take it easy on me.

1. I plan on overclocking my E6600, would that mess with my activation?

2. My bro has an acer laptop that he wants to add more ram in to (it came with only 1gb) Would that mess things up for him as for as activation goes? How does OEM or pre-installed operating systems handle small hardware changes (in this case adding memory) ?

Again, hello to all and thanks for the replies.

no to the first question and depends on how many changes he has made to his hardware lately for the second question. it usually takes major hardware change to reactivate windows so you should be ok. reactivating doesn't take too long anyhow, usually under 5 minutes

 

[F1shF4t]

1. Clock speeds do not change what cpu is detected. So you should be able to overclock underclock as much as you want without any impacts (Then again I could be wrong, but then we would see threads like, "speedstep is causing me to reactivate windows" etc)

2. Upgrading memory should have no effect on activation.

The only time I've had to reactivate my vista x64 was when I changed mainboards. I've changed graphics cards, ram, cpus and added and removed hdds countless times without having to reactivate.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Dark Cupcake
2. Upgrading memory should have no effect on activation.

Memory quantity IS one of the "voting categories" in the activation engine, AFAIK. So it's theoretically possible that adding or removing RAM could trigger re-activation.

 

[F1shF4t]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

Originally posted by: Dark Cupcake
2. Upgrading memory should have no effect on activation.

Memory quantity IS one of the "voting categories" in the activation engine, AFAIK. So it's theoretically possible that adding or removing RAM could trigger re-activation.

Really? Wasn't sure if that was the case. Wonder why they would bother?

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: Dark Cupcake

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

Originally posted by: Dark Cupcake
2. Upgrading memory should have no effect on activation.

Memory quantity IS one of the "voting categories" in the activation engine, AFAIK. So it's theoretically possible that adding or removing RAM could trigger re-activation.

Really? Wasn't sure if that was the case. Wonder why they would bother?

It is for XP.

There is however no public document on the exact detail of hardware change tolerance for Vista.

 

[Blazer]

activation really isnt a big deal is it ?

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: blazer
activation really isnt a big deal is it ?

People tend to really embellish the so called horror stories on activation. Microsoft has never given me a problem on XP when I had to phone in for activation. I have only had to call once on Vista due to a bug that was caused by Nvidia (surprise surprise) that has since been fixed.

 

[Blazer]

when i loaded vista the only mobo drivers i installed were the intel inf files, all others were vistas, if it works ill leave it, i always felt xp needed to many drivers.