My OEM upgrade legal copy of Vista Home Premium shows that it has been
activated, but, when I try to validate I get the window that says I must
activate first. I get this code at the bottom of the page. 0xC004C4A6.

This is my third time through this. The first validation went smoothly. Then
I change hard drive and added memory. I spent 2 weeks working with microsoft
support to get my machine to validate. I thought my troubles were over.


About a month has passed and it get the one day left to activate message. I
could not activate on line so I call the phone support and activated. My
System properties says I'm activated. I pass the diagnostic tests but can't
validate.

"Bob Belden" <Bob Belden@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:8763B21A-5B3F-4D15-A9CF-DC9F0C8118DA@microsoft.com...
> My OEM upgrade legal copy of Vista Home Premium shows that it has been
> activated, but, when I try to validate I get the window that says I must
> activate first. I get this code at the bottom of the page. 0xC004C4A6.
>
> This is my third time through this. The first validation went smoothly.
> Then
> I change hard drive and added memory. I spent 2 weeks working with
> microsoft
> support to get my machine to validate. I thought my troubles were over.
>
>
> About a month has passed and it get the one day left to activate message.
> I
> could not activate on line so I call the phone support and activated. My
> System properties says I'm activated. I pass the diagnostic tests but
> can't
> validate.

Yeah, OEM, if you activate your copy of Vista, then you upgrade or change
the hardware, usually your "legal copy" of Vista won't validate.

Call the 888 number you get when you try to activate, it'll ask you for that
long number, it'll fail and they will transfer you to an operator who will
ask if the key is being used on another system, you say, "No", and they'll
activate it for you.

Of course Legally they can say "No", because once you use the OEM key, it's
supposed to be locked to that hardware, but they rarely enforce it, just
gotta say you did an upgrade or something like that.

Good luck.
-A.