Vista - The product ID number you entered is not valid or is not in the co

I'm having real problems with my new Vista pc. I click on "help & support"
and get to a screen where I can submit an email request for help. Then I get
a screen asking for my product id. It offers to find it for me, and then
gives me "The product ID number you entered is not valid or is not in the
correct format." So I type it in myself. And get the same message.

How can this be? I bought the pc from a reputable vendor, Dell.

Ken

Your pc came preinstalled from Dell, hence it is an OEM version of Vista,
and as such, is not entitled to support from Microsoft. OEM installs have a
different Product ID, and it is not recognized by the online Microsoft
support system. Dell is responsible for providing support.

What problems are you having?

--
Jane, not plain 64 bit enabled :-)
Batteries not included. Braincell on vacation ;-)
"Ken Lyon" <ken at lyonhouse.us> wrote in message
newsA0E1A46-35B5-409E-A782-A70DC966596C@microsoft.com...
> I'm having real problems with my new Vista pc. I click on "help &
> support"
> and get to a screen where I can submit an email request for help. Then I
> get
> a screen asking for my product id. It offers to find it for me, and then
> gives me "The product ID number you entered is not valid or is not in the
> correct format." So I type it in myself. And get the same message.
>
> How can this be? I bought the pc from a reputable vendor, Dell.
>
> Ken

Not to be too flippant, Jane, I guess the first problem I'm having is that
the MS msg didn't say what you said so clearly, that for this product id, I
need to go to Dell.

As for what problems am I having, the list is very very long. I've been
working to get my vista pc to do what I was (slowly) doing on my old xp pc
for over a month now, and I'm still running into problems that take hours or
longer to fix. The most recent one is with frontpage 2003 under vista.
Simply adding a hyperlink to a page takes frontpage down. I'm simply
wondering when a fix for this will be available. I've already ordered an xp
disk from dell, and I'm wondering if I'm going to have to use it.

Ken


"Jane C" wrote:

> Your pc came preinstalled from Dell, hence it is an OEM version of Vista,
> and as such, is not entitled to support from Microsoft. OEM installs have a
> different Product ID, and it is not recognized by the online Microsoft
> support system. Dell is responsible for providing support.
>
> What problems are you having?
>
> --
> Jane, not plain 64 bit enabled :-)
> Batteries not included. Braincell on vacation ;-)
> "Ken Lyon" <ken at lyonhouse.us> wrote in message
> newsA0E1A46-35B5-409E-A782-A70DC966596C@microsoft.com...
> > I'm having real problems with my new Vista pc. I click on "help &
> > support"
> > and get to a screen where I can submit an email request for help. Then I
> > get
> > a screen asking for my product id. It offers to find it for me, and then
> > gives me "The product ID number you entered is not valid or is not in the
> > correct format." So I type it in myself. And get the same message.
> >
> > How can this be? I bought the pc from a reputable vendor, Dell.
> >
> > Ken
>

Hi Ken

Free support is what these newsgroups are all about.

Each newsgroup is for specific support for each product. If you are
experiencing problems with Front Page, you need to post your message in that
group. If there are compatibility problems with FP 2003 running on Vista,
the experts there should be aware of them. Here is the link for that group.

http://www.microsoft.com/communities...ontpage.client

Notice the index, on the left side of the web page where you can navigate to
the different groups.

The web interface for these newsgroups can be difficult to use, you might
want to use Windows Mail for this.

Working with Windows Mail:
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Win...71a521033.mspx

--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User


"Ken Lyon" <ken at lyonhouse.us> wrote in message
news:98310E7A-79E2-4BFE-A9C0-695B58F1215C@microsoft.com...
> Not to be too flippant, Jane, I guess the first problem I'm having is that
> the MS msg didn't say what you said so clearly, that for this product id,
> I
> need to go to Dell.
>
> As for what problems am I having, the list is very very long. I've been
> working to get my vista pc to do what I was (slowly) doing on my old xp pc
> for over a month now, and I'm still running into problems that take hours
> or
> longer to fix. The most recent one is with frontpage 2003 under vista.
> Simply adding a hyperlink to a page takes frontpage down. I'm simply
> wondering when a fix for this will be available. I've already ordered an
> xp
> disk from dell, and I'm wondering if I'm going to have to use it.
>
> Ken
>
>
> "Jane C" wrote:
>
>> Your pc came preinstalled from Dell, hence it is an OEM version of Vista,
>> and as such, is not entitled to support from Microsoft. OEM installs
>> have a
>> different Product ID, and it is not recognized by the online Microsoft
>> support system. Dell is responsible for providing support.
>>
>> What problems are you having?
>>
>> --
>> Jane, not plain 64 bit enabled :-)
>> Batteries not included. Braincell on vacation ;-)
>> "Ken Lyon" <ken at lyonhouse.us> wrote in message
>> newsA0E1A46-35B5-409E-A782-A70DC966596C@microsoft.com...
>> > I'm having real problems with my new Vista pc. I click on "help &
>> > support"
>> > and get to a screen where I can submit an email request for help. Then
>> > I
>> > get
>> > a screen asking for my product id. It offers to find it for me, and
>> > then
>> > gives me "The product ID number you entered is not valid or is not in
>> > the
>> > correct format." So I type it in myself. And get the same message.
>> >
>> > How can this be? I bought the pc from a reputable vendor, Dell.
>> >
>> > Ken
>>