Activation suddenly vanished....

Been using my (expensive) Vista Utimate Full retail copy for 3 months, fully
activated.

Today, I startup to be informed that as a result of a recent hardware
change, I must now RE-ACTIVATE. WTF??????

I HAVE MADE *NO* HARDWARE CHANGES WHATSOEVER. So what is going on? The only
thing I changed recently was to update the Intel RAID Storage Driver
(IASTOR.SYS instead of IASTORV.SYS). HELLO! MICROSOFT!! This is SOFTWARE NOT
HARDWARE.

This activation cr*p is beginning to p*ss me off.......................

NigelS

Updating the Raid drivers will do this (in some instances). After the
upgrade and a subsequent reboot, the operating system detects the hard drive
as being different (new). To the O/S - it is. Therefore the O/S thinks it is
on a different computer and asks you to reactivate. The on-line activation
will likely fail and you will have to use the phone in option.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)



"nrms" <nrms@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:AB6DDD4E-E2A6-47A5-8397-E0B65D178D36@microsoft.com...
> Been using my (expensive) Vista Utimate Full retail copy for 3 months,
> fully
> activated.
>
> Today, I startup to be informed that as a result of a recent hardware
> change, I must now RE-ACTIVATE. WTF??????
>
> I HAVE MADE *NO* HARDWARE CHANGES WHATSOEVER. So what is going on? The
> only
> thing I changed recently was to update the Intel RAID Storage Driver
> (IASTOR.SYS instead of IASTORV.SYS). HELLO! MICROSOFT!! This is SOFTWARE
> NOT
> HARDWARE.
>
> This activation cr*p is beginning to p*ss me off.......................
>
> NigelS
>

Well I am now 100% positive that it was updating the RAID "SOFTWARE" driver,
because I returned my system to a pre-update Ghost image, and it was still
activated. I then reinstalled the Intel Raid driver and after reboot the
activation was gone.

Clearly this gives the lie to the MS$ claim that Vista was similar to XP in
its activation "rules" - I NEVER once had to re-activate XP due to changes in
software drivers (or even genuine hardware changes, come to that). I can
understand the need for Vista to detect TRUE hardware changes; but it NEEDS
to be KEYED to hardware ID's in a way that changing driver support does not
trigger a re-activation event.

My beef is this. The Raid software driver had to be updated because the one
that shipped with Vista is (frankly) not fit for service. Many manufacturers
are currently revising their hardware drivers on a regular basis. If I have
to go through the hassle of convincing Microsoft that I am not a pirate every
few weeks until the software base matures, then I will NOT be best pleased.

As it happens I am advising my client base NOT to buy, install or upgrade to
Vista for at least a year, until the software driver support matures.

I have bought 3 Vista licenses for 3 PC's (2 OEM & 1 Full Retail; all
Ultimate). For this I shelled out the US$ equivalent of nearly $1100 (as I
live in rip off Britain); I *shouldn't* have to go through all this hassle.
If Microsoft does not improve this situation with Vista SP1; my next OS will
be Linux for sure.

"Richard Urban" wrote:

> Updating the Raid drivers will do this (in some instances). After the
> upgrade and a subsequent reboot, the operating system detects the hard drive
> as being different (new). To the O/S - it is.

The activation is very similar. It is just that the lions share of
determining validity has now been shifted to hard drive identification.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)



"nrms" <nrms@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:E46D880A-73E9-4004-A016-C92EF59ECF8E@microsoft.com...
> Well I am now 100% positive that it was updating the RAID "SOFTWARE"
> driver,
> because I returned my system to a pre-update Ghost image, and it was still
> activated. I then reinstalled the Intel Raid driver and after reboot the
> activation was gone.
>
> Clearly this gives the lie to the MS$ claim that Vista was similar to XP
> in
> its activation "rules" - I NEVER once had to re-activate XP due to changes
> in
> software drivers (or even genuine hardware changes, come to that). I can
> understand the need for Vista to detect TRUE hardware changes; but it
> NEEDS
> to be KEYED to hardware ID's in a way that changing driver support does
> not
> trigger a re-activation event.
>
> My beef is this. The Raid software driver had to be updated because the
> one
> that shipped with Vista is (frankly) not fit for service. Many
> manufacturers
> are currently revising their hardware drivers on a regular basis. If I
> have
> to go through the hassle of convincing Microsoft that I am not a pirate
> every
> few weeks until the software base matures, then I will NOT be best
> pleased.
>
> As it happens I am advising my client base NOT to buy, install or upgrade
> to
> Vista for at least a year, until the software driver support matures.
>
> I have bought 3 Vista licenses for 3 PC's (2 OEM & 1 Full Retail; all
> Ultimate). For this I shelled out the US$ equivalent of nearly $1100 (as I
> live in rip off Britain); I *shouldn't* have to go through all this
> hassle.
> If Microsoft does not improve this situation with Vista SP1; my next OS
> will
> be Linux for sure.
>
> "Richard Urban" wrote:
>
>> Updating the Raid drivers will do this (in some instances). After the
>> upgrade and a subsequent reboot, the operating system detects the hard
>> drive
>> as being different (new). To the O/S - it is.
>

"nrms" <nrms@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:AB6DDD4E-E2A6-47A5-8397-E0B65D178D36@microsoft.com...
> Been using my (expensive) Vista Utimate Full retail copy for 3 months,
> fully
> activated.
>
> Today, I startup to be informed that as a result of a recent hardware
> change, I must now RE-ACTIVATE. WTF??????
>
> I HAVE MADE *NO* HARDWARE CHANGES WHATSOEVER. So what is going on? The
> only
> thing I changed recently was to update the Intel RAID Storage Driver
> (IASTOR.SYS instead of IASTORV.SYS). HELLO! MICROSOFT!! This is SOFTWARE
> NOT
> HARDWARE.
>
> This activation cr*p is beginning to p*ss me off.......................
>
> NigelS
>

look at the bright side.
you get to enjoy that warm-n-fuzzy feeling you get by doing your part to
combat software piracy, by being forced at gunpoint to provide proof, over
and over and over and over again, that you are not a thief.


--
=======================================
"We will make our products work out of the box."
- Steve Ballmer
=======================================