Hardware changes

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legionserial

legionserial

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Anyone had to unlock windows because of hardware changes? I'm aware that if you make more than 5 hardware changes windows tells you that you need to reactivate it. What is involved in this? Is it a relatively simple process or do I have to call Microsoft during their office hours and piss around?

I've just been given a new mobo, chip, RAM and videocard, and I have the option of putting it all in the system that I have now, or waiting till the end of the month to buy a new case and a new copy of windows, so I'm wondering how much hassle it would be on the windows front if I just swapped it all out today. Am I going to be left with no computer for the rest of the weekend if I do this?
 
legionserial said:
Anyone had to unlock windows because of hardware changes? I'm aware that if you make more than 5 hardware changes windows tells you that you need to reactivate it. What is involved in this? Is it a relatively simple process or do I have to call Microsoft during their office hours and piss around?

I've just been given a new mobo, chip, RAM and videocard, and I have the option of putting it all in the system that I have now, or waiting till the end of the month to buy a new case and a new copy of windows, so I'm wondering how much hassle it would be on the windows front if I just swapped it all out today. Am I going to be left with no computer for the rest of the weekend if I do this?
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Hi...
is this Vista or something?:confused:
I must say I've never heard of such a thing.:eek:
The closest thing might be DVD region code changes, but never heard of your particular case.....(I've asked some friends this too)....BLOODY MS!:mad:
Hopefully we'll find out soon!:)
 
It's XP. Something to do with WPA. A bit of reading has told me it might not be an issue as it can do it all itself over the net since SP1. I'm going to do it anyway. The state my current compuer is in, it really makes no difference if I'm computerless for a short amount of time.
 
I've just been given a new mobo, chip, RAM and videocard
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umm... i hope this isnt a downer, but to most folks, and especially to windows, this is a *new* computer. the motherboard is the deal-breaker.

still, you may be able to get another activation code from M$. you will have to call them up, and speak with their indian chapter of CS (indian indian, not american indian). M$ allows two computers on one license if you bought hte software, but i am not sure how that works if your software came with a pre-built system.

can the new proc, RAM, and GPU be used in your current mobo? even if you do a fresh install, windows should still recognize that it is the same 'puter and allow activation with no issue.

a
 
toobalicious said:
u M$ allows two computers on one license if you bought hte software, but i am not sure how that works if your software came with a pre-built system.
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um, no. Have you even bothered to read it? One machine ONLY

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/eula.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2/proeula.mspx

XP EULA said:
1.1 Installation and use. You may install, use, access, display and run one copy of the Software on a single computer, such as a workstation, terminal or other device ("Workstation Computer"). The Software may not be used by more than one processor at any one time on any single Workstation Computer.
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legionserial said:
It's XP. Something to do with WPA. A bit of reading has told me it might not be an issue as it can do it all itself over the net since SP1. I'm going to do it anyway. The state my current compuer is in, it really makes no difference if I'm computerless for a short amount of time.
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Just call them and have it reactivated, they will walk you through it. The XP EULA allows you to do this as many times as you want provided that XP is running on only ONE machine. I have done this with my registered license at least a dozen times on three different machines over 5 years (i.e. every time I replace my machine). If it is a same model chipset (i.e. intel) you should be ok changing out the mainboard and windows might still work without a rebuild
 
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As Long as you own a Legit copy of XP you can activatate it as many times as you want... If you have allready activated your copy more than twice then you will have to go through Phone activation but if less than 2 times you should be able to do it over the Net.....
I have activated my XP so many times that i now just use a simple Patch that bypasses the activation procedure but you still need a Valid Serial number for it to work so it isn"t a Crack but more of a shortcut that just bypasses the hasle of dealing with Microsoft over the Phone...

I warn you in advance that switching out these parts (especially the mother board) could very well cause you a Lot of Grief with Drivers and such, The few times I have done this I ended up just doing a full reinstall of XP because of the Problems it caused ,So I suggest that before you try this that you back up all Valuable information on to Disk or to a seperate Drive.....


Cheers
 
well, we cant have that on there now, can we.

a
 
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to use the same install w/ a new mobo you need to first uninstall the old drivers. go to devices and install anything associated with the mobo ide,usb,nic(if its built in)vid(if its built in)chipset, what ever is from your mobo.Most of these uninstalls require a reboot. You'll Know you've done it right wene windows looks and act like it in safe mode. every time you reboot windows will valiently try to reinstall those devises you need to cancel those attempts. Then you just swap mobos and use the install disk for the mobo to intall drivers for new hardware. Or better yet make sure youve down loaded the latest driver for your mobo and have them ready. Then you will probably have to call Microsoft to reactivate but I have never heard of them refusing to reactivate over the phone. (the Microsoft telephonic hole) I've done this a couple of times and it works great.
 
From what I'm reading, and have always applied....... the use of seperate hard drives (or at least partitioning!) for M$Windows and your music is a very good thing!!..(that and a spare computer!! lol)
As for the re-ac of windows?...what a faaarking hassle!
 
I wasn't planning on keeping the same installs of windows. I was just going to format and reinstall everything, so I'm not worried about any hassle in that respect. All my audio projects are on their own hard drive with no windows installs anyway. That said, I never even knew you could keep the same installs of windows. Maybe I'll give that driver thing a try first. Would save me a lot of time.

It's more just not being able to use my computer at all because of these activation hassles. Especially if you can only do it during office hours, which leaves me kinda fucked because I'm...well...in the office during office hours. Which isn't where my computer is. If it's going to be a massive hassle to get it sorted then I'll just wait and buy another windows, a new case, and build an entirely new pc.
 
legionserial said:
I wasn't planning on keeping the same installs of windows. I was just going to format and reinstall everything, so I'm not worried about any hassle in that respect. All my audio projects are on their own hard drive with no windows installs anyway. That said, I never even knew you could keep the same installs of windows. Maybe I'll give that driver thing a try first. Would save me a lot of time.

It's more just not being able to use my computer at all because of these activation hassles. Especially if you can only do it during office hours, which leaves me kinda fucked because I'm...well...in the office during office hours. Which isn't where my computer is. If it's going to be a massive hassle to get it sorted then I'll just wait and buy another windows, a new case, and build an entirely new pc.
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Who said you could do it only during office hours? I have done it at all times of day. MS call centers are 24/7 (they are all in India mind you) and the reactivate literally takes 10 min tops.
 
It's all good. All I did was activate as normal and everything is running fine.

I only asked about the office hours thing because I'm so used to other shit being office hours only.
 
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