Simple OS Question....

TerrorFirmer

WinXP came on my laptop, Sony Vaio, but only on a partition and not an actual disc.

Had to reinstall basically, so installed Win2K instead due to lack of disc for XP.

Want to throw XP back on now, but all I have is a DELL oem cd (Xp home sp2) and my legal cd-key on the bottom of my Sony Vaio....

Can I install using my dell cd and activate with my cd-key that came with my vaio? Don't fancy having to buy a new copy of xp when I should have it already, and I don't want to go messing around with activation bypasses if I can help it.

Thanks

seamus

It should work, though you may not have drivers for some stuff on your laptop.

nuttz

You might not be able to use the key that you received with your laptop, because it has already been activated. AFAIK a key can only be activated once, unless it's from MSDN, where it is limited to 10 activations.

seamus

nuttz wrote:

You might not be able to use the key that you received with your laptop, because it has already been activated. AFAIK a key can only be activated once, unless it's from MSDN, where it is limited to 10 activations.

A key can be activated a number of times before you need to contact microsoft to get your activation code.

If it's an OEM key, you may reactivate it as many times as you like, provided that you're installing it on the same (unchanged) machine you bought it with.

Explosive_Cornflake

Hopefully it'll work. Actually is it illegal to "get" a copy of it, seeing as you already have a licence. I took the restore partition off my dell (which was half empty anyway!), because i wanted the space, and the primary paritions for linux. I ATM have no way to put windows back on it, if i decide to delete my windows partition, or reinstall.

Karoma

Explosive_Cornflake wrote:

Hopefully it'll work. Actually is it illegal to "get" a copy of it, seeing as you already have a licence. I took the restore partition off my dell (which was half empty anyway!), because i wanted the space, and the primary paritions for linux. I ATM have no way to put windows back on it, if i decide to delete my windows partition, or reinstall.

Ghost the drive.

Not sure whether it's entirely "legal". It most likely contradicts the terms of the EULA. However, it's 'fair use' so I can't imagine anyone (Home user especially) getting done for it.

MrVestek

Did you actually delete the partition that contained the WinXP setup files from the Vaio? If not when it's booting up keep hitting F10 and it'll go through the restore process.

TerrorFirmer

seamus wrote:

It should work, though you may not have drivers for some stuff on your laptop.

I'll give it a go anyway - I have all the drivers I need on a seperate disc. Partition is defiantely gone, yes...thanks for the replies lads.

subway

will work as long as there identical versions ,
ie
home disc and key
sp2 disc and key
oem disc and key

anything else and they wont work.
if it wont activate after installing, call the activation centre,
explain that the activation key is printed on a coa on the bottom of your machine and you need a new one as it wont allow you to activate.
advise them that nothing has chjanged on your machine and that your reinstalling due to a system crash.
if asked tell them your installing from a sony disc.
tell them there is no hologram on the disc as it is an oem disc.

SouperComputer

Bah, activation is a farce.

I have to call M$ on average 2-3 times a day and regualrly give a wrong digit or two in the COA to them. Always activates though!

Stephen

What kind of place do you work in? Most companies with enough PC's to have someone rebuilding pc's 2-3 times a day every day would have a volume licence for windows, and thus not have to bother with activation at all.

subway

SouperComputer wrote:

Bah, activation is a farce.

I have to call M$ on average 2-3 times a day and regualrly give a wrong digit or two in the COA to them. Always activates though!

i doubt it.
its not a random process....

SouperComputer

subway wrote:

i doubt it.
its not a random process....

It may not be random, but is is clearly flawed. Possibly through apathy of the callcentre employee. But nonetheless I have often given two incorrect characters from the COA on many occasions to see if they are actually checking. This wasnt a once off btw, im talking 15 or so times here!

I started doing this as soon as I realised that it sounded as if the M$ operator wasnt bothering to note the COA.

Tis a funny system

What kind of place do you work in? Most companies with enough PC's to have someone rebuilding pc's 2-3 times a day every day would have a volume licence for windows, and thus not have to bother with activation at all.

I have a small computer servicing\consulting company. It's not new system builds, typically reinstalls. Big PITA as M$ have decided to blacklist many major brand computers from online activation, so you have to call to activate. Even that is a crapshoot, somtimes it activates online, somtimes you have to call. In any case, I would rather install with the code on the COA of the machine than use a volume licence, even if it is applicable to the situation.

subway

SouperComputer wrote:

It may not be random, but is is clearly flawed. Possibly through apathy of the callcentre employee. But nonetheless I have often given two incorrect characters from the COA on many occasions to see if they are actually checking. This wasnt a once off btw, im talking 15 or so times here!

I started doing this as soon as I realised that it sounded as if the M$ operator wasnt bothering to note the COA.

Funny system



I have a small computer servicing\consulting company. It's not new system builds, typically reinstalls. Big PITA as M$ have decided to blacklist many major brand computers from online activation, so you have to call to activate.

seems very unusual.
after activation they give you a confirmation id.

whether the agent is lazy or not the installation id that you gave them,
when entered into the system returns the confirmation id that informs the machine its been activated.
im wondering why your activation doesnt compare those 2 codes and then decide if youve been given the confirmation code for that installation id.

as for the part about manufacturers being blocked from activation,
if you have any evidence id love to se it.
also some indication of how it works would be lovely,
since the activation process would be unlikely to know what brand of pc your running.

TomCo

I'm going to upgrade my Dell soon,

I'm putting in a new mobo, processor, hard drive, ram, gfx card, power supply...............case.

Will the oem cd I got with the Dell in 04 allow me to install XP on the new hard drive?

Sorry for butting in.

SouperComputer

eems very unusual.
after activation they give you a confirmation id.

Yup, and despite the inccorrect COA being given, the code is given from M$'s generator and repeated by the operator.

as for the part about manufacturers being blocked from activation,
if you have any evidence id love to se it.

I read about it a good while back when my head was first starting to get wrecked wiith having to call. They aren't blocked from activation, they just want to to call to confirm the brand and how many other machines it is installed on :rolleyes:

also some indication of how it works would be lovely,
since the activation process would be unlikely to know what brand of pc your running.

One would assume that when you see a COA with a brand specifically mentioned on it (DELL, NEC, Packard Bell etc), it is within a specified range of keys for that vendor. This naturally is stored on M$'s activation database. So when it tries to activate online, it won't and insists that you call as these keys from major brands were often published publically and used to install counterfit software.

tomco wrote:

Will the oem cd I got with the Dell in 04 allow me to install XP on the new hard drive?

It depends on the particlar disk and motherboard. Some Dell disks search for a Dell BIOS before commencing setup. This disks are much less common these days however. Chances are 80% that even if your replacement board is not Dell, the disk will work for you.


[edit] Just as a side note, taking Dell as an example, newer machines seem more likely to cause a problem. A couple of older Dell's activated for me online recently with to drama. NEC\Packard Bell for some reason I always end up having to call M$ for [/edit]

TomCo

Its worth a shot so, do you think the key I have for that cd would work with a retail copy?

SouperComputer

TomCo wrote:

Its worth a shot so, do you think the key I have for that cd would work with a retail copy?

Nope retail key wont work with OEM disk and vice-versa. Just to be clear, the original licence is not valid if you make a major hardware change. It may work, but it is not licenced

TomCo

Oh really?

I better just run out and BUY a copy then

TerrorFirmer

I will install it tonight so and see what happens. Its a dell oem xp sp2 disc, and my vaio came with the same installed so cd-key wise I should be fine.

dell seemed to have stopped using the bios limited disks, I've found several dell cd's now work on any system, including xp home, pro and bundled software that used to only work on dell machines...

on a related note, how lenient are they at activation center? Will they grill me or if I tell them I installed from a sony cd, give them my (100% legal) sony OEM key, will they typically say yeah thats fine, etc?

I was happy with Win 2k until I discovered that alot of the sony drivers for stuff like the integrated wifi and a few others things on my vaio give me an error of "Windows XP only"....don't really like having to use an external usb wifi key when I have the integrated one!

edit: I will be fine, using a dell xp sp2 oem cd with my vaio's oem cd-key for same? I assume oem keys aren't locked into particular vendors oem cds they came from?

SouperComputer

on a related note, how lenient are they at activation center? Will they grill me or if I tell them I installed from a sony cd, give them my (100% legal) sony OEM key, will they typically say yeah thats fine, etc?

You'll be fine, you have a valid licence for the sony. They will ask you if it is installed on another machine. This refers to the licence for the machine, not the media used to install the OS. The answer in your case is no.

BTW, did you try going directly to the hardware makers for the WiFi etc for 2000 drivers? Sony are notoriously slow at getting updates out.

TerrorFirmer

Great, thanks souper.

And yes, I did, no joy. And don't get me started on Sonys driver support...

Firstly, their drivers for the card in my laptop, Geforce 6400, are about a year out of date. And there are restrictions in the laptop that mean it will only accept offical sony released drivers. Didn't matter to me as I used forceware drivers with a modded inf file but what about the average user who knows nothing about computers? Its atrocious support.

As well as that, I downloaded all their available drivers onto a single disc - half the drivers do not come with executables, just all the files needed. Again, what the heck is the average user who knows nothing supposed to do with that?? Several of the drivers don't even work, namely the sound which thankfully I was able to sort due to the problem being common online.

Argh, rant over. But sony online support is possible the worst I've ever seen!

SouperComputer

I had to use a patch to install the latest catalyist ATI drivers on a client's Sony laptop over the weekend. I cant remember the name of the software, but If I come across it ill post a link, im sure there is a NVidia equivilant.

[edit] Bingo: DHModtool [/edit]