Vista - RMA'd one of my RAM sticks, Windows deactivating.

Sent one of my two 1GB DIMMs back to the manufacturer this week, Windows says
I need to reactivate due to hardware changes.

The problem is, I have already installed Vista 3 times on this system
because of poor NVIDIA drivers so I think I have no reactivations left.

2 questions:

1. How can I get through to an actual person at Microsoft without paying the
$59 tech support charge (installed Vista on Jan 31 so 90 days support is up)?

2. When I get the RAM stick back, will it reactivate itself or will I have
to do it all over again?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Transa <Transa@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
news:B7B0ABC4-20DD-4D6B-A7E6-8C7B47627CC1@microsoft.com:

> Sent one of my two 1GB DIMMs back to the manufacturer this week,
> Windows says I need to reactivate due to hardware changes.
>
> The problem is, I have already installed Vista 3 times on this system
> because of poor NVIDIA drivers so I think I have no reactivations
> left.
>
> 2 questions:
>
> 1. How can I get through to an actual person at Microsoft without
> paying the $59 tech support charge (installed Vista on Jan 31 so 90
> days support is up)?
>
> 2. When I get the RAM stick back, will it reactivate itself or will I
> have to do it all over again?

That's weird. I wouldn't think taking out a stick of ram would make any
difference. I added a gig of ram to mine and it didn't complain.

--
--- Long live Fat32! ---

> That's weird. I wouldn't think taking out a stick of ram would make any
> difference. I added a gig of ram to mine and it didn't complain.
>
> --
> --- Long live Fat32! ---
>

The only other thing I have changed lately is the motherboard BIOS...does
that do it?

Transa wrote:
> Sent one of my two 1GB DIMMs back to the manufacturer this week,
> Windows says I need to reactivate due to hardware changes.
>
> The problem is, I have already installed Vista 3 times on this system
> because of poor NVIDIA drivers so I think I have no reactivations
> left.
>
> 2 questions:
>
> 1. How can I get through to an actual person at Microsoft without
> paying the $59 tech support charge (installed Vista on Jan 31 so 90
> days support is up)?
>
> 2. When I get the RAM stick back, will it reactivate itself or will
> I have to do it all over again?
>
> Thanks in advance for the help.

There are no limits on how many times you can activate a system. When the
activation prompt comes up, use the activate by phone option if it won't
activate over the Internet and just tell them what's going on and they'll
activate for you.

--
Michael Solomon

> There are no limits on how many times you can activate a system. When the
> activation prompt comes up, use the activate by phone option if it won't
> activate over the Internet and just tell them what's going on and they'll
> activate for you.
>
> --
> Michael Solomon

Thanks for the help Michael, that did it. Once I got through to the
representative it was easy to fix.

Should have tried that first, was freaking out because I can't afford
another OS right now and I still have papers due for school.

Will likely have to do it again when I get my RAM back, but it only took 10
minutes so it will be a minor inconvenience at worst.

"Transa" <Transa@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:66D52618-255D-45B5-8D2E-FDF275CD0E78@microsoft.com...
>
>> That's weird. I wouldn't think taking out a stick of ram would make any
>> difference. I added a gig of ram to mine and it didn't complain.
>>
>> --
>> --- Long live Fat32! ---
>>
>
> The only other thing I have changed lately is the motherboard BIOS...does
> that do it?

I have seen other posts where users have had to re-activate after a BIOS
upgrade.

Transa wrote:
>> There are no limits on how many times you can activate a system.
>> When the activation prompt comes up, use the activate by phone
>> option if it won't activate over the Internet and just tell them
>> what's going on and they'll activate for you.
>>
>> --
>> Michael Solomon
>
> Thanks for the help Michael, that did it. Once I got through to the
> representative it was easy to fix.
>
> Should have tried that first, was freaking out because I can't afford
> another OS right now and I still have papers due for school.
>
> Will likely have to do it again when I get my RAM back, but it only
> took 10 minutes so it will be a minor inconvenience at worst.

You're welcome, good luck.

--
Michael Solomon

"Michael Solomon" <user@#notme.com> wrote in
news:#XB32LihHHA.588@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl:

> There are no limits on how many times you can activate a system. When
> the activation prompt comes up, use the activate by phone option if it
> won't activate over the Internet and just tell them what's going on
> and they'll activate for you.

That's good to know. I've already had to do it once when I changed
motherboards. Then the next time I tried to do a registry hack to allow mw
to install drivers for a Mustek A3 scanner. It worked fine but the next
time I rebooted it couldn't load my profile and the default profile it gave
me was useless. I finally wiped and reinstalled. This time I'm waiting till
my 30 days is near about up before I reactivate again.
This time I'm cloning the hard drive every night so I won't lose over one
day's installing stuff in case I crash it again. In a couple more days, I
should have it pretty well loaded and then I'll stop doing that!

--
--- Long live Fat32! ---

In message <66D52618-255D-45B5-8D2E-FDF275CD0E78@microsoft.com> Transa
<Transa@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>The only other thing I have changed lately is the motherboard BIOS...does
>that do it?

BIOS upgrades are fairly significant, since it gives the impression of a
new motherboard in some cases. Second, it can upgrade the drive
controller, which pretty much will guarantee you a reactivation.

--
I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.

Transa wrote:

>
>> That's weird. I wouldn't think taking out a stick of ram would make any
>> difference. I added a gig of ram to mine and it didn't complain.
>>
>> --
>> --- Long live Fat32! ---
>>
>
> The only other thing I have changed lately is the motherboard BIOS...does
> that do it?

Don't feel bad. I put a different floppy into the drive and that required
reactivation. Now I'm afraid to try another floppy.

Love and Kisses,
Doris

--
My Microsoft Hero (he loves this company!) ... http://tinyurl.com/yp9cn2
Get SP3 for XP here! .... http://tinyurl.com/374p49
Title Says It All ... http://tinyurl.com/2ssodl