Reactivation required for turning off onboard sound!

Hello,

I'm feeling somewhat confused about product activation lately. I'm a system
builder and purchased an OEM edition of Vista Home Premium 32-bit for
installation on a system that I built at the end of January. I activated the
product with the supplied key no problem at that time.

However, last night Windows announced to me that my hardware had changed and
that I needed to activate again within 3 days. I proceeded immediately, but
it then told me that my key was "already in use" and gave me four options to
proceed. First, I could buy a new key. Second, I could enter another key
that I already had. Third, I could activate by telephone. Fourth, I could
"Contact Microsoft to resolve this". It being late at night, and me wanting
to sort this out, I chose option 3 (am now wishing I'd done option 4 and
spoken to somebody). After going through a lengthy procedure involving just
about 100 numbers, my activation was successful again.

What worries me is what prompted this sudden announcement of "changed
hardware" and what may cause it again in the future. Since activation, I've
made only token changes to this machines hardware, namely:

1) I replaced the floppy disk drive - the original one was faulty. (within 1
week of activation)
2) I installed a 9 year old PCI soundcard into the machine (about 3 weeks ago)
3) I switched off the onboard audio solution on the motherboard (the same
day as this sudden notification that my hardware had changed!)

This would seem to suggest that my turning off the onboard sound was
responsible somehow? (however, I do recall returning from being away a few
days ago to find that the Vista assessment was claiming that I'd installed
new hardware and it needed to be refreshed - before I deactivated the onboard
sound)

I've tried to find a means of reporting this problem officially, but I can't
seem to find one.

As I say, my worry is to the future. If I decide to install more RAM,
replace the graphics card, install another HDD or two, upgrade the CPU etc.
(all of these are reasonable possibilities at some point or another), what is
likely to happen? I almost feel like I daren't upgrade my hardware for fear
that product activation will fail (and not work by telephone this time).

Does anybody have any insight?

You can install/activate Windows Vista an unlimited # of times on the
same computer.
There is nothing to worry about, you just experienced the worst case
of needing to activate again.

--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar
http://www.dts-l.org


"tcn" <tcn@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:E163FDF4-AECF-43CD-A5B8-93E2E446132F@microsoft.com...
> Hello,
>
> I'm feeling somewhat confused about product activation lately. I'm
> a system
> builder and purchased an OEM edition of Vista Home Premium 32-bit
> for
> installation on a system that I built at the end of January. I
> activated the
> product with the supplied key no problem at that time.
>
> However, last night Windows announced to me that my hardware had
> changed and
> that I needed to activate again within 3 days. I proceeded
> immediately, but
> it then told me that my key was "already in use" and gave me four
> options to
> proceed. First, I could buy a new key. Second, I could enter
> another key
> that I already had. Third, I could activate by telephone. Fourth,
> I could
> "Contact Microsoft to resolve this". It being late at night, and me
> wanting
> to sort this out, I chose option 3 (am now wishing I'd done option 4
> and
> spoken to somebody). After going through a lengthy procedure
> involving just
> about 100 numbers, my activation was successful again.
>
> What worries me is what prompted this sudden announcement of
> "changed
> hardware" and what may cause it again in the future. Since
> activation, I've
> made only token changes to this machines hardware, namely:
>
> 1) I replaced the floppy disk drive - the original one was faulty.
> (within 1
> week of activation)
> 2) I installed a 9 year old PCI soundcard into the machine (about 3
> weeks ago)
> 3) I switched off the onboard audio solution on the motherboard (the
> same
> day as this sudden notification that my hardware had changed!)
>
> This would seem to suggest that my turning off the onboard sound was
> responsible somehow? (however, I do recall returning from being
> away a few
> days ago to find that the Vista assessment was claiming that I'd
> installed
> new hardware and it needed to be refreshed - before I deactivated
> the onboard
> sound)
>
> I've tried to find a means of reporting this problem officially, but
> I can't
> seem to find one.
>
> As I say, my worry is to the future. If I decide to install more
> RAM,
> replace the graphics card, install another HDD or two, upgrade the
> CPU etc.
> (all of these are reasonable possibilities at some point or
> another), what is
> likely to happen? I almost feel like I daren't upgrade my hardware
> for fear
> that product activation will fail (and not work by telephone this
> time).
>
> Does anybody have any insight?

"tcn" <tcn@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:E163FDF4-AECF-43CD-A5B8-93E2E446132F@microsoft.com...
> Hello,
>
> I'm feeling somewhat confused about product activation lately. I'm a
> system
> builder and purchased an OEM edition of Vista Home Premium 32-bit for
> installation on a system that I built at the end of January. I activated
> the
> product with the supplied key no problem at that time.
>
> However, last night Windows announced to me that my hardware had changed
> and
> that I needed to activate again within 3 days. I proceeded immediately,
> but
> it then told me that my key was "already in use" and gave me four options
> to
> proceed. First, I could buy a new key. Second, I could enter another key
> that I already had. Third, I could activate by telephone. Fourth, I
> could
> "Contact Microsoft to resolve this". It being late at night, and me
> wanting
> to sort this out, I chose option 3 (am now wishing I'd done option 4 and
> spoken to somebody). After going through a lengthy procedure involving
> just
> about 100 numbers, my activation was successful again.
>
> What worries me is what prompted this sudden announcement of "changed
> hardware" and what may cause it again in the future. Since activation,
> I've
> made only token changes to this machines hardware, namely:
>
> 1) I replaced the floppy disk drive - the original one was faulty. (within
> 1
> week of activation)
> 2) I installed a 9 year old PCI soundcard into the machine (about 3 weeks
> ago)
> 3) I switched off the onboard audio solution on the motherboard (the same
> day as this sudden notification that my hardware had changed!)
>
> This would seem to suggest that my turning off the onboard sound was
> responsible somehow? (however, I do recall returning from being away a
> few
> days ago to find that the Vista assessment was claiming that I'd installed
> new hardware and it needed to be refreshed - before I deactivated the
> onboard
> sound)
>
> I've tried to find a means of reporting this problem officially, but I
> can't
> seem to find one.
>
> As I say, my worry is to the future. If I decide to install more RAM,
> replace the graphics card, install another HDD or two, upgrade the CPU
> etc.
> (all of these are reasonable possibilities at some point or another), what
> is
> likely to happen? I almost feel like I daren't upgrade my hardware for
> fear
> that product activation will fail (and not work by telephone this time).
>
> Does anybody have any insight?


Hmm... if you think changing the onboard sound setting in your BIOS caused
the activation robot to kick off, you might want to see if simply making
changes in your BIOS prompts Vista to force you to reactivate. Of course,
I'd do it when I had time to spend on the phone to reactivate in case
that -is- the cause.

As to hw upgrades... as someone else already posted... have at it. I might
consider trying to do as many updates concurrently to cut down on the number
of calls into MS to reactivate.

Lang

Jupiter - my worry is, at what stage does Vista think this is not the same
computer? If it's that sensitive to something simple like turning off the
onboard sound, a change in CPU, increase in memory and change in GPU all in
quick succession might convince it that it is no longer the same computer and
that I've imaged the hard disk drive elsewhere or something.

Lang - I've changed plenty of things in the BIOS prior to this, none of
which have kicked off product activation before now. I certainly don't much
fancy the idea of deliberately trying to force it to reactivate, since
presumably every reactivation is noted at MS's end and too many will look
suspicious.

Regarding the cause of it all, I know turning off the sound is an unlikely
candidate, but at the moment it's the only one I've got - I've certainly not
changed anything else.

"tcn" <tcn@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5241C97B-9FE6-4E34-93FD-822C5F60CC3C@microsoft.com...
> Jupiter - my worry is, at what stage does Vista think this is not the same
> computer? If it's that sensitive to something simple like turning off the
> onboard sound, a change in CPU, increase in memory and change in GPU all
> in
> quick succession might convince it that it is no longer the same computer
> and
> that I've imaged the hard disk drive elsewhere or something.
>
> Lang - I've changed plenty of things in the BIOS prior to this, none of
> which have kicked off product activation before now. I certainly don't
> much
> fancy the idea of deliberately trying to force it to reactivate, since
> presumably every reactivation is noted at MS's end and too many will look
> suspicious.
>
> Regarding the cause of it all, I know turning off the sound is an unlikely
> candidate, but at the moment it's the only one I've got - I've certainly
> not
> changed anything else.


I understand your reticence at attempting to force reactivation. Just
thought it might narrow down the cause of the reactivation kicking off. If
you've make other BIOS changes, and if I missed that in your previous post I
apologize, then one would think that, no, changing settings in your BIOS
isn't what woke the reactivation robot.

Lang

"tcn" <tcn@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>news:E163FDF4-AECF-43CD-A5B8-93E2E446132F@microsoft.com...
> Hello,
>
> I'm feeling somewhat confused about product activation lately. I'm a
> system
> builder and purchased an OEM edition of Vista Home Premium 32-bit for
> installation on a system that I built at the end of January. I
> activated the
> product with the supplied key no problem at that time.
>
> However, last night Windows announced to me that my hardware had
> changed and
> that I needed to activate again within 3 days. I proceeded
> immediately, but
> it then told me that my key was "already in use" and gave me four
> options to
> proceed. First, I could buy a new key. Second, I could enter another
> key
> that I already had. Third, I could activate by telephone. Fourth, I
> could
> "Contact Microsoft to resolve this". It being late at night, and me
> wanting
> to sort this out, I chose option 3 (am now wishing I'd done option 4 and
> spoken to somebody). After going through a lengthy procedure
> involving just
> about 100 numbers, my activation was successful again.
>
> What worries me is what prompted this sudden announcement of "changed
> hardware" and what may cause it again in the future. Since
> activation, I've
> made only token changes to this machines hardware, namely:
>
> 1) I replaced the floppy disk drive - the original one was faulty.
> (within 1
> week of activation)
> 2) I installed a 9 year old PCI soundcard into the machine (about 3
> weeks ago)
> 3) I switched off the onboard audio solution on the motherboard (the same
> day as this sudden notification that my hardware had changed!)
>
> This would seem to suggest that my turning off the onboard sound was
> responsible somehow? (however, I do recall returning from being away
> a few
> days ago to find that the Vista assessment was claiming that I'd
> installed
> new hardware and it needed to be refreshed - before I deactivated the
> onboard
> sound)
>
> I've tried to find a means of reporting this problem officially, but I
> can't
> seem to find one.
>
> As I say, my worry is to the future. If I decide to install more RAM,
> replace the graphics card, install another HDD or two, upgrade the CPU
> etc.
> (all of these are reasonable possibilities at some point or another),
> what is
> likely to happen? I almost feel like I daren't upgrade my hardware
> for fear
> that product activation will fail (and not work by telephone this time).
>
> Does anybody have any insight?

Yet another example that WPA only inconveniences paying customers and
does not stop piracy.

--
Priceless quotes in m.p.w.vista.general group:
http://protectfreedom.tripod.com/kick.html

Most recent idiotic quote added to KICK (Klassic Idiotic Caption Kooks):
"It would be nice if there was a check to see if you were running an
activated/validated version of Windows before you were allowed to post
in any of these news groups. If you're not activated/validated your post
automatically gets deleted.
That would get rid of the Linsux Luzzzzzzzzers once and for all."

"Good poets borrow; great poets steal."
- T. S. Eliot

In message <f0lgdf$i7q$3@aioe.org> Nina DiBoy <nin@di.boy> wrote:

>Yet another example that WPA only inconveniences paying customers and
>does not stop piracy.

It may not stop hardcore piracy, but it does stop casual "buy one
license, install on all my machines" piracy.

--
Ah, the miracle mile, where value wears a neon sombrero and there's
not a single church or library to offend the eye.
-- Homer

And that is what it is intended to do.
It was not intended to stop a determined thief, just the casual pirate
who often did not realize what they did violated the agreement they
had previously agreed.

--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar
http://www.dts-l.org


"DevilsPGD" <spam_narf_spam@crazyhat.net> wrote in message
news:rdls23t3blh2rhtqhv4j4gprpc47l7j8vj@4ax.com...
> It may not stop hardcore piracy, but it does stop casual "buy one
> license, install on all my machines" piracy.
>
> --
> Ah, the miracle mile, where value wears a neon sombrero and there's
> not a single church or library to offend the eye.
> -- Homer

On Tue, 24 Apr 2007 12:57:04 -0500, Nina DiBoy <nin@di.boy> wrote:

>> to sort this out, I chose option 3 (am now wishing I'd done option 4 and
>> spoken to somebody). After going through a lengthy procedure
>> involving just
>> about 100 numbers, my activation was successful again.
I've been thru this with XP. From now on until you replace the OS, any major
changes will also bring this crap up.
Oh yeah, you'll NEVER get the chance to contact a human. And from the contact I
did have, you're just as well off. He couldn't solve the problem. Even with
full remote access. several hours, and I threw in the towel..

>> I've tried to find a means of reporting this problem officially, but I
>> can't seem to find one.
Not going to happen. Cheaper to buy a new CD.
Who else charges you from day one for support ? The FREE support was useless.
Not a great selling point for PAY support.

>> As I say, my worry is to the future. If I decide to install more RAM,
not a problem
>> replace the graphics card,
guaranteed activation
>install another HDD or two,
only if you move the OS to another drive
>upgrade the CPU
guaranteed activation

>> etc.
>> (all of these are reasonable possibilities at some point or another),
>> what is
>> likely to happen? I almost feel like I daren't upgrade my hardware
>> for fear
>> that product activation will fail (and not work by telephone this time).
you're kidding, you're worried about phone activation ? Wait till phone
activation fails, and your only recourse is to repeat those hundred numbers to
someone in their 2nd week of Berlitz 101. You can't understand them, and they
can't understand you.
Once phone activation fails, person to person is your only recourse.

>> Does anybody have any insight?
Everything I mentioned above. You best hope you never elevate to voice
activation. Phone activation is just a time waster. Voice is a killer.
>
>Yet another example that WPA only inconveniences paying customers and
>does not stop piracy.
Probably right, but my XP machine died before I had a chance to test that
theory.

If you have a CD/DVD OS, do NOT install it to ANOTHER DRIVE.
Another drive = another machine. 1 license = 1 machine.

BTDT All the above. Why do I still use M$ ? other than MAC, suggest an
alternative with as much software & hardware support ! Can't be done.

--
more pix @ http://members.toast.net/cbminfo/index.html

In message <31us239objcnrv8afnuita7oqmneupm0ou@4ax.com>
keepout@yahoo.com.invalid wrote:

>Who else charges you from day one for support ?

Well, that's the entire open source business model, for one.

--
Ah, the miracle mile, where value wears a neon sombrero and there's
not a single church or library to offend the eye.
-- Homer