Activation of XP Home (OEM) on an assembled PC (not branded.)

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Recently had a problem "NTLDR Missing". Formatted the disk, reloaded XP and
activated successfully. Subsequently Installed additional HDD 200 GB Seagate
and upgraded to Liteon DVD writer from Samsung CD writer. Had to take help
from technical support of Seagate for XP to recognise the HDD. Was working.
At times while booting, get a BIOS message RAM test failed press F4 to
continue.

Though no subsequent hardware changes were made got a message on
03/05/2006 " .... detected a major change in hardware have to activate
within 3 days....." . Was able to activate via the net. Then again today, I
have got the same message. When I tried to activate via the net, got a
reply, " .... No of times used has exceeded..... " Tried to contact
technical support from MS. Was not able to proceed as it was asking for a
PID. Where do I find it. Is any of the new hardware giving problem. What is
to be done? Thanks in advance.
 
Manjunatha said:
Recently had a problem "NTLDR Missing". Formatted the disk, reloaded XP and
activated successfully. Subsequently Installed additional HDD 200 GB Seagate
and upgraded to Liteon DVD writer from Samsung CD writer. Had to take help
from technical support of Seagate for XP to recognise the HDD. Was working.
At times while booting, get a BIOS message RAM test failed press F4 to
continue.

Though no subsequent hardware changes were made got a message on
03/05/2006 " .... detected a major change in hardware have to activate
within 3 days....." . Was able to activate via the net. Then again today, I
have got the same message. When I tried to activate via the net, got a
reply, " .... No of times used has exceeded..... "
Click to expand...


The error message you received is misleading. What it really means
is that you've activated "too many times within the last 120 days." I
think Microsoft should fix this message, but it is, in reality, a
relatively minor "cosmetic" issue, so they're probably giving more
weight to some silly cost-benefit analysis more than they are their
customers' confusion.

There's no limit to the number of times you can reinstall and
activate the same WinXP license on the same PC. Nor is there ever a
charge. Nor does a Product Key (so long as it's not an evaluation
license) ever expire. If it's been more than 120 days since you last
activated that specific Product Key, you'll most likely be able to
activate via the Internet without problem. If it's been less, you
might have to make a 5 minute phone call.

Here are the facts pertaining to activation:

Piracy Basics - Microsoft Product Activation
http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/basics/activation/

Windows Product Activation (WPA)
http://www.aumha.org/a/wpa.htm


Tried to contact
technical support from MS. Was not able to proceed as it was asking for a
PID. Where do I find it.
Click to expand...


The Product ID is created during the installation process and is
prominently displayed on the General Properties tab of the My Computer
icon. (Right-click My Computer > Properties)

Is any of the new hardware giving problem. What is
to be done? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...


It certainly sounds like it; the intermittent RAM failures might well
be read as hardware changes. Have you tested the RAM after receiving
the very clear and specific error message? Have you verified that the
RAM modules are properly seated? You might try MemTest86:
http://www.memtest86.com/ It's free.


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Bruce Chambers

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Manjunatha said:
Recently had a problem "NTLDR Missing". Formatted the disk, reloaded XP and
activated successfully. Subsequently Installed additional HDD 200 GB Seagate
and upgraded to Liteon DVD writer from Samsung CD writer. Had to take help
from technical support of Seagate for XP to recognise the HDD. Was working.
At times while booting, get a BIOS message RAM test failed press F4 to
continue.

Though no subsequent hardware changes were made got a message on
03/05/2006 " .... detected a major change in hardware have to activate
within 3 days....." . Was able to activate via the net. Then again today, I
have got the same message. When I tried to activate via the net, got a
reply, " .... No of times used has exceeded..... " Tried to contact
technical support from MS. Was not able to proceed as it was asking for a
PID. Where do I find it. Is any of the new hardware giving problem. What is
to be done? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...


Yes I have activated XP quite a no. of times (forgot the count) over the net
when I was trying to make the 200 GB HDD work. Tried to use the "Create
Partition " which comes up when loading XP. Finally succeeded with help as
mentioned earlier.

When I tried to activate the XP on 03/05/2006, I intially got the
"........exceeded........." message. But when I tried about 15 minutes later,
it was successfully activated, and the " .....Thank You..." message was
displayed. But today I am not able to. I will have to wait till Monday here
to activate via the phone. And subsequently I will check the RAM as
suggested.

Out of curiosity:
When there is no change in the mother board, processor type and serial
number, Hard drive volume serial number (I presume it is same as the drive's
serial number) why does MS consider change in RAM (intentionally made or
problematic RAM) as a major hardware change?

Thanks for the replies.
 
Could not connect to
http://www.memtest86.com/ it gave the web page not found message.

So after Googling downloaded the memory test software from
http://www.memtest86.com/#download0. After extrating the files and while
reading the readme.txt, got an iexplore.exe application error

The instruction at "0x6c371351" referenced memory at "0x00000004". The
memory could not be "read" Click on OK to terminate the program.

May be the RAM has gone bad and it fails inbetween. So I think it is better
for me to change the RAM and then activate.

Thanks.
 
Manjunatha said:
Could not connect to
http://www.memtest86.com/ it gave the web page not found message.

So after Googling downloaded the memory test software from
http://www.memtest86.com/#download0. After extrating the files and
while reading the readme.txt, got an iexplore.exe application error

The instruction at "0x6c371351" referenced memory at "0x00000004".
The memory could not be "read" Click on OK to terminate the program.

May be the RAM has gone bad and it fails inbetween. So I think it is
better for me to change the RAM and then activate.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I clicked on the url in your post and it worked for me. A newer program
based on memtest86 can be found here:

http://www.memtest.org/
 
Successfully activated via the net today (07/05/5006).
I will change the suspected RAM if I run into this problem again.
Thanks for the replies.
 
Thank you for the information.

Succesfully activated on 07/05/2006 via the net. To confirm that the RAM
was seated properly, I pulled out the module and plugged it in firmly with
power off. On powering up the PC the problem of " .... detected a major
change in hardware have to activate ...." returned.

Installed a fresh set of RAMs (2 nos of 256MB). Successfully tested them
with two memory tester softwares downloaded from Microsoft and from >
http://www.memtest86.com/#download0. Activated about 30 minutes back
(09/05/2006) through the telephone.

Could you kinldy give some information on the following two points.

1. Is there any way of knowing in which portion of the hardware XP is
detecting the change.

2. Why is a change in amount of RAM considered a major change in hardware
though the motherboard, processor and hard disk are the same?

Thank you.
With regards
Manjunatha.
 
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