The Real Problem

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G

Guest

After changing the motherboard and hard drive on a gateway 310, win xp will
not
activate. The activation balloon pops up after start up,counting down the
days untill lockout. Clicking the activation balloon opens the activation
screen that says "Windows is already activated. Click OK to exit".
That's all it says, nothing more. No options for activation, No Phone
numbers to call. No "Sorry, you lose, please play again." But after every
restart the activation balloon pops up again. After looking at this board,
this seems to be a very widespread problem.

Now for the real Problem...
Gateway says that since this is an activation problem, Microsoft will have
to fix it.
But... Microsoft says that since it is an oem install, Gateway has to handle
the problem. After searching www.microsoft.com for the last 3 days and trying
every hint, tip and fix I can find, NOTHING HAS WORKED. Including
re-formatting and re-installing, regsvr32, deleting the registry keys (which
don't even exist on my system) and re-naming "wpa.dbl" to force a new
activation. So in 26 days I'll have to re format and re-install again.

I understand the problem with piracy and all the money microsoft loses
because of it, but now they have fixed that problem so well that legally
licsensed users are being ripped-off because they are loosing access to their
operating system.

So, is Gateway selling pirated software on their brand new systems or is
microsoft just giving everyone the shaft? Either way winXP won't work and I
can't run the other $2000 worth of software I own.

Any new ideas would be greatly appreciated.
 
In doing some research, I came across someone else who resolved this by
upgrading their bios on the MOBO. It too was a Gateway system, so it may be
worth a shot.
 
Hi,

The "real" problem is your changing the motherboard. When you purchased the
Gateway system, you got an OEM version of the operating system. This is not
transferable to other hardware, as this is a limitation of an OEM license.
Their version of the operating system is locked to the hardware it came
with, so you will need a retail version to install on other hardware.

By the way, the OEM agreement is that the seller is solely responsible for
support of the operating system, so this is not a Microsoft problem, it is a
Gateway problem. That is one of the reasons they pay far less for it, and
sell it to you for less than the regular retail price.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
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