Vista - Activation request on new HP desktop with Vista pre-installed

My HP slimline s7700n PC came with Vista Home Premium pre-installed. It is
now 3 months old. Last week a message appeared asking me to validate my copy
of vista. I closed it and hoped it would go away but it has not. So, today I
tried to activate the copy using the activation code on the sticker on the
machine. It tells me that number is already taken. I assume that is because
it is already taken by itself. This is an amusing catch 22. I cannot find any
notes about this. Can anyone help?
Thanks.

That can happen if you make changes to hardware, or flash the BIOS. I
would just call and activate by phone after they ask you some questions.

Cheers,
Chris

CJO wrote:
> My HP slimline s7700n PC came with Vista Home Premium pre-installed. It is
> now 3 months old. Last week a message appeared asking me to validate my copy
> of vista. I closed it and hoped it would go away but it has not. So, today I
> tried to activate the copy using the activation code on the sticker on the
> machine. It tells me that number is already taken. I assume that is because
> it is already taken by itself. This is an amusing catch 22. I cannot find any
> notes about this. Can anyone help?
> Thanks.

"CJO" <CJO@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news8EC0706-7E33-4769-A342-8932D93FC593@microsoft.com...
> My HP slimline s7700n PC came with Vista Home Premium pre-installed. It is
> now 3 months old. Last week a message appeared asking me to validate my
> copy
> of vista. I closed it and hoped it would go away but it has not. So, today
> I
> tried to activate the copy using the activation code on the sticker on the
> machine. It tells me that number is already taken. I assume that is
> because
> it is already taken by itself. This is an amusing catch 22. I cannot find
> any
> notes about this. Can anyone help?
> Thanks.
When you invoke activation, use the activate by phone option.
--
Michael Solomon
Backup is a PC user's best friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

I've had my share of issues with Windows Vista and there are a list of
problems I've experienced including activation issues such as this one. Once
you get it going though, I generally like Vista. Thanks for the information
regarding the phone activation, I'll try that next.

I've got to wonder, why Alias is on this site and being so rude. It's a bad
way to represent Ubuntu.

On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:16:55 -0600, "NotMe"

>Interesting, I was under the impression that an OS installed & BIOS locked
>by the manufacturer wouldn't have to be reactivated like that.

That was the old approach in XP:
- royalty OEMs lock to BIOS
- generic OEMs monitor multiple components

I see that Vista now includes BIOS as a heavily-weighted monitored
component, which implies they may use the same model for both royalty
OEMs (who typically build masses of identical PCs, facilitating
license-hopping between these) and generic OEMs (who are more likely
to build small runs of similar PCs, or custom-build unique systems).

>Apparently MS doesn't even trust their partners.

Would you, with partners like "rootkit" Sony?

>Unless the MB or BIOS was changed, I'd scream about that one!
>I would call HP and tell them what I thought about it.
>The only way things will change is if enough people/companies pressure MS to
>back off their draconian ways.

Yep. It's said that the market allows us to "vote with our feet", but
we're dependent on Windows if we want to use apps that run on it (yes,
there's WINE and emulation on Mac, but...) and more to the point, the
closed nature of MS-OEM relations make it nearly impossible to spot
traps like the dreaded "recovery disk" or disk-less "recovery
partition" that royalty OEMs are likely to inflict on you.

I expect a phone call to MS's activation center will get you activated
again, but if this happened out of the blue (no hardware change) then:
- insist they note this for thier records
- extract an explanation of why this happened to you
- if offered to escalate, do so
- feed back to this thread

I'm seeing a lot of "my PC demands activation for no reason and I
haven't changed anything" posts here, and I suspect there's something
burning under all the smoke. Trouble is, once posters get activated,
they lose interest and the root causes never get chased up. See...

http://cquirke.spaces.live.com/blog/...ry?_c=BlogPart



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