- Jul 18, 2003
- 12,396
- 1,068
- 126
Sorry, but just have to vent a bit here.
I installed a new motherboard, CPU, and extra video card (yea Crossfire with dual core 920 OCed to 3.73Ghz!) last night without reinstalling the OS (same motherboad chipset so no biggie I figured). Well, M$ in it's infinite wisdom decides to keep me from installing ethernet drivers, so I can't update my product ID over the Net (new motherboard and new NIC chipset) by locking me out due to product activation. If you're going to lock me out, at least have the courtesy to chime Windows Update and get the drivers for me please, so I never have to do the telephone thing again.
Speaking of the telephone thing, I would've loved to do the telephone thing, but XP never would come up with a product ID for me. Meanwhile, in the background I can see signs (winky blinky lights showing HD activity) of XP installing all the motherboard resources back in, so I wait for things to settle down and reboot a few times. Finally, after four reboots, it comes up with a product ID (after the third reboot, I have my PDA out looking for my old school's "no activation edition" key...I have friends in IT). By this point I am red in the face and swearing silently because the boy and wife are sleeping silently and I would be too except for this fiasco. So I call up the automated thingy with handy dandy product ID in hand, rattle off nearly 50 numbers to a computer, then after they aren't accepted by the computer, I have to rattle these off again to a human being (she was asian, so I will refer to her as Lik Sak from here on out). Now the computer just transferred me to Ms. Lik Sak, so why in God's name couldn't it also transfer the product ID I just meticulously rattled off like a robot so the computer could "understand" me to her as well?! We do live in the 21st century and last I checked M$ could afford such things for it's paying customers if they actually gave two $hits about them! Anyway, Lik Sak casually asks me if this is a new installation of XP (I'm thinking, no, if it was I would've had 30 damn days to install ethernet drivers and we wouldn't be having this conversation you gimp) and I was polite to her (I blame MS and most likely she is just a drone working 16hour days for rice in some sweatshop, so why add to her misery I say) explaining the hardware upgrade. In our passing conversation I mention the words "retail boxed WinXP Professional Edition" at least a couple of times. Her next question is (I imagined her looking directly down at a M$ training manual), "Did your Windows come with your computer, or did you buy it at a store?"...sigh, she doesn't understand english apparently. Next question. How many computers is this program installed on (I so wanted to say zero, since this was true ATM I was talking to her)? Like I'm going to say anything other than 1 if I'm pirating...morons (MS not Ms. Lik Sak...she was there to provide excellent "service" to me and was quite friendly)!
So I'm feeling good about myself for controlling my temper for nearly an hour now, not cussing Lik Sak up and down (she would'nt have understood me anyway), and for having a legitimate install of Windows XP Professional on my computer after hanging up the phone. I get into Windows and am immediately greeted by AVG product activation (installed ethernet drivers and activated within 30sec instead of 30min with MS), Alcohol 120% activation (even easier, it gives me a new product key from the get go. I log into their website to switch from old key to new one and everything is hunky dory again), and MS Office (easiest of all, "do you want to activate?"...click yes...done). So MS isn't collecting any personal information about their clients (on the phone anyway) and anyone with the ability to use a pay phone and lie can activate their copy of XP...nice anti-piracy scheme MS. The only thing their activation scheme accomplishes in my eXPerience is to make me think twice before accepting even more draconian measures when Vista is out. /vent
Moral of the story - I could probably get excellent personalized "service" from Ms. Lik Sak, while activating my pirated copy of WinXP Pro from the motel's phone for about the same price as a legal copy. Any way you look at it, someone is going to get screwed when M$ is involved.
Laptop Update (27 April 2006) - So I installed a new hard drive in my laptop (4200rpm 60GB to 7200rpm 80GB) and I get the Windows needs to be activated dialog. Chose Internet, clicked do not register with M$ at this time...done. Again, nice anti-piracy scheme MS :roll:. For some reason M$ decided to give me 3days to activate this time and I've had this copy activated since December 2005. How do they come up with this number? I'd also like to know why it took a whole new motherboard, CPU, and extra video card (plus a whole slew of other upgrades, which included reimaging a 500GB RAID0 to a 640GB RAID0) to trigger it on my desktop, but all it took was a single hard drive upgrade to trigger it on my laptop? Perhaps because it is an OEM install?
I'm b1tching because I have to go through the process in the first place. I'm also b1tching because the process is inconsistent (locked out completely, locked out after 3days, roll the dice?) and absolutely ineffective. Finally, I'm b1tching because I'm a paying customer and I have a more difficult time getting my software to work than someone who pirates it.
P.S. The laptop was wiped clean when I first set it up. The OEM install was XP Home and I used a retail upgrade to get XP Pro on there. Perhaps XP can now detect whether or not the hardware is OEM or self built, which might explain the difference between locked out totally on my desktop vs. 3days to activate on my laptop. If M$ gave two sh1ts about their customers, there would be at least a 24hour grace period for reactivation so I could get the stinkin' ethernet drivers installed and reactivate over the web.
"Secondly if you enter the product key with your telephone touchpad you eliminate the problem all together."
Oh and for what it's worth, the recording on Microsoft's telephone activation does not tell you about the telephone touchpad unless you screw up several times by voice. It never gave me an error when doing it by voice so either the system is flawed, doesn't transfer it over to the live person, or (conspiracy theory time) reads the ID as a retail version, which is the most likely source of casual piracy and gets you on the phone with their representative to see if you'll admit (while being recorded) to trying to install the copy on more than one machine.
Overall, the whole experience just leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and that sir, is why I'm b1tching!
I installed a new motherboard, CPU, and extra video card (yea Crossfire with dual core 920 OCed to 3.73Ghz!) last night without reinstalling the OS (same motherboad chipset so no biggie I figured). Well, M$ in it's infinite wisdom decides to keep me from installing ethernet drivers, so I can't update my product ID over the Net (new motherboard and new NIC chipset) by locking me out due to product activation. If you're going to lock me out, at least have the courtesy to chime Windows Update and get the drivers for me please, so I never have to do the telephone thing again.
Speaking of the telephone thing, I would've loved to do the telephone thing, but XP never would come up with a product ID for me. Meanwhile, in the background I can see signs (winky blinky lights showing HD activity) of XP installing all the motherboard resources back in, so I wait for things to settle down and reboot a few times. Finally, after four reboots, it comes up with a product ID (after the third reboot, I have my PDA out looking for my old school's "no activation edition" key...I have friends in IT). By this point I am red in the face and swearing silently because the boy and wife are sleeping silently and I would be too except for this fiasco. So I call up the automated thingy with handy dandy product ID in hand, rattle off nearly 50 numbers to a computer, then after they aren't accepted by the computer, I have to rattle these off again to a human being (she was asian, so I will refer to her as Lik Sak from here on out). Now the computer just transferred me to Ms. Lik Sak, so why in God's name couldn't it also transfer the product ID I just meticulously rattled off like a robot so the computer could "understand" me to her as well?! We do live in the 21st century and last I checked M$ could afford such things for it's paying customers if they actually gave two $hits about them! Anyway, Lik Sak casually asks me if this is a new installation of XP (I'm thinking, no, if it was I would've had 30 damn days to install ethernet drivers and we wouldn't be having this conversation you gimp) and I was polite to her (I blame MS and most likely she is just a drone working 16hour days for rice in some sweatshop, so why add to her misery I say) explaining the hardware upgrade. In our passing conversation I mention the words "retail boxed WinXP Professional Edition" at least a couple of times. Her next question is (I imagined her looking directly down at a M$ training manual), "Did your Windows come with your computer, or did you buy it at a store?"...sigh, she doesn't understand english apparently. Next question. How many computers is this program installed on (I so wanted to say zero, since this was true ATM I was talking to her)? Like I'm going to say anything other than 1 if I'm pirating...morons (MS not Ms. Lik Sak...she was there to provide excellent "service" to me and was quite friendly)!
So I'm feeling good about myself for controlling my temper for nearly an hour now, not cussing Lik Sak up and down (she would'nt have understood me anyway), and for having a legitimate install of Windows XP Professional on my computer after hanging up the phone. I get into Windows and am immediately greeted by AVG product activation (installed ethernet drivers and activated within 30sec instead of 30min with MS), Alcohol 120% activation (even easier, it gives me a new product key from the get go. I log into their website to switch from old key to new one and everything is hunky dory again), and MS Office (easiest of all, "do you want to activate?"...click yes...done). So MS isn't collecting any personal information about their clients (on the phone anyway) and anyone with the ability to use a pay phone and lie can activate their copy of XP...nice anti-piracy scheme MS. The only thing their activation scheme accomplishes in my eXPerience is to make me think twice before accepting even more draconian measures when Vista is out. /vent
Moral of the story - I could probably get excellent personalized "service" from Ms. Lik Sak, while activating my pirated copy of WinXP Pro from the motel's phone for about the same price as a legal copy. Any way you look at it, someone is going to get screwed when M$ is involved.
Laptop Update (27 April 2006) - So I installed a new hard drive in my laptop (4200rpm 60GB to 7200rpm 80GB) and I get the Windows needs to be activated dialog. Chose Internet, clicked do not register with M$ at this time...done. Again, nice anti-piracy scheme MS :roll:. For some reason M$ decided to give me 3days to activate this time and I've had this copy activated since December 2005. How do they come up with this number? I'd also like to know why it took a whole new motherboard, CPU, and extra video card (plus a whole slew of other upgrades, which included reimaging a 500GB RAID0 to a 640GB RAID0) to trigger it on my desktop, but all it took was a single hard drive upgrade to trigger it on my laptop? Perhaps because it is an OEM install?
I'm b1tching because I have to go through the process in the first place. I'm also b1tching because the process is inconsistent (locked out completely, locked out after 3days, roll the dice?) and absolutely ineffective. Finally, I'm b1tching because I'm a paying customer and I have a more difficult time getting my software to work than someone who pirates it.
P.S. The laptop was wiped clean when I first set it up. The OEM install was XP Home and I used a retail upgrade to get XP Pro on there. Perhaps XP can now detect whether or not the hardware is OEM or self built, which might explain the difference between locked out totally on my desktop vs. 3days to activate on my laptop. If M$ gave two sh1ts about their customers, there would be at least a 24hour grace period for reactivation so I could get the stinkin' ethernet drivers installed and reactivate over the web.
"Secondly if you enter the product key with your telephone touchpad you eliminate the problem all together."
Oh and for what it's worth, the recording on Microsoft's telephone activation does not tell you about the telephone touchpad unless you screw up several times by voice. It never gave me an error when doing it by voice so either the system is flawed, doesn't transfer it over to the live person, or (conspiracy theory time) reads the ID as a retail version, which is the most likely source of casual piracy and gets you on the phone with their representative to see if you'll admit (while being recorded) to trying to install the copy on more than one machine.
Overall, the whole experience just leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and that sir, is why I'm b1tching!
Facebook
Twitter