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n00b question about WinXP reactivation

M

Maverick2002

Diamond Member
A few months back I installed WinXP Pro on my machine. Well, I'm about to swap hardware, thus changing my configuration, for the 3rd time (or is it the 4th that matters?). So I assume WinXP is going to go into some sort of safe mode until I call up Microsoft (?) and get a reactivation code.

Anyone here done this? How do you do it? Is it a long process?
 
Its pretty simple, it took me about 10 minutes on the phone with MS. 1st a recorded message asks you to enter in the number on the screen and it is a long number sequence, then it tells you your registration is not valid and sends you to customer support, there you are asked to read the number sequence again to them, then they give you your new activation number sequence.

 
Just to follow up a bit, you will have 30 days in which to activate your copy of XP. No "safe mode" or whatever; just an annoying little balloon reminder that will pop up way too often. :frown: Then, as was mentioned, when you try to activate, you may have to make a phone call and actually talk to a "real" person. You will just tell them what you did (upgrade) and they will read off a set of numbers for you to punch in. Wham-Bam, you're done. Nothing to it. BTW, you may not even have to go through this either. It will depend upon what hardware you changed. I recently rebuilt a system w/XP Home, new MB and CPU, new NIC (which I thought was a "key" in this) and RAM. I just KNEW I was going to have to go through the phone call process but the activation went through via internet the first try. YMMV of course! Maybe it was just my lucky day! 😉
 
Sounds easy enough. So you can reactivate it on the net sometimes as well? So far I've swapped some RAM and a video card (about a month apart each). This was also about a month ago. I'm going to add another DVD drive. Then in a few weeks I'm most likely going to swap mobos and go with a new proc.

And I'm going to have the same "issues" on my laptop. Right now I have 640mb RAM (512mb SODIMM + stock 128mb). I'm going to test the 512mb chip alone (change #1), then the 128mb chip (change#2), then another 512mb stick (change #3) and I'll end up with 1gb RAM (change #4). All in about a month's time. Think it'll be a problem?
 
Adding RAM, DVD drive and even a video card will not trigger the "gotta make a call to MS" activation. You can just do it via the internet. If you modem is installed when you reload XP (if you do), you will be presented with the option to activate via their online service. It all happens in the background; you never see what is going on. You just click on the option to activate and after a minute it will say something like "Thank you, Activation successful" and that will be it. Now, keep in mind that this only happens when you reload XP. If you just add an optical drive or some other piece of hardware, no matter how many times, you will NOT have to reactivate XP. It's only upon a reload of the OS that you will need to go through this. When you change out the MB and processor you will need to reload and there is a good chance that this will come up then. As far as I can see from your post, this will be the only time that this will happen. You might have to call MS that time. The phone number (toll free) will be displayed on the screen along with a set of numbers that they will need to give you the code to activate.
 
Originally posted by: Buz2b
Just to follow up a bit, you will have 30 days in which to activate your copy of XP. No "safe mode" or whatever; just an annoying little balloon reminder that will pop up way too often. :frown: Then, as was mentioned, when you try to activate, you may have to make a phone call and actually talk to a "real" person. You will just tell them what you did (upgrade) and they will read off a set of numbers for you to punch in. Wham-Bam, you're done. Nothing to it. BTW, you may not even have to go through this either. It will depend upon what hardware you changed. I recently rebuilt a system w/XP Home, new MB and CPU, new NIC (which I thought was a "key" in this) and RAM. I just KNEW I was going to have to go through the phone call process but the activation went through via internet the first try. YMMV of course! Maybe it was just my lucky day! 😉
Click to expand...

My experience when I changed hardware was INSTANT requirement for reactivation. You only get 30 days after install, I think. Anyway, it just takes a few minutes to do it.
 
My experience when I changed hardware was INSTANT requirement for reactivation.
Click to expand...
Not to be argumentative but I must strongly disagree here. You can change out many pieces of hardware, within reason of course, without having to reactivate your copy of XP. You can take that to the bank. Yes, if you do a major change like MB and processor or even the HDD, then you will most likely have to reactivate. However, you can change RAM, video cards, NIC's, modems, sound cards, optical drives, floppy drives, with no "reactivation" needed. One caveat though is the NIC. There have been some instances where changing that has triggered the necessity of a reactivation; but it is rare and not a consistant occurance.
 
XP resets every 120 days. A reinstall will reactivate online w/o question after 120 days. No call, no hassle!
 
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