Re: Dell Vista upgrade won't Activate says key is already in use after re-install
- From: "Tom Scales" <tjscales@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2007 20:37:20 -0400
OK, I didn't read it clearly -- just skimmed, but here are my steps.
1) Boot from the DVD
2) Delete the partition on the hard drive and create a new one
3) Install Vista -- when it asks for a product id, don't give it one.
4) It will ask what version you want to install. Pick the proper one, in my case Business (although there was a BusinessN, wonder what that is).
5) Go through the whole process until Vista is running. Do not activate
6) With Vista running, put the DVD back in. Do a CLEAN install.
7) This time, give it the product id. It will be happy as it sees a pre-existing OS, even though that is the same one you're installing.
8) Once you've booted, activate it.
Worked fine for me.
Tom
"Ben Myers" <ben_myers_spam_me_not@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:2rut0317d7tm89d0lbpliqic9a5pnv1ob9@xxxxxxxxxx
Tom,
The procedure you've stated to install a Vista Upgrade is similar to (exactly
like?) the one given by Brian Livingston's & Fred Langa's Windows Secrets
Newsletter... Ben Myers
On Sat, 31 Mar 2007 14:23:49 -0400, "Tom Scales" <tjscales@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Raid didn't cause this. In fact, Vista Business wouldn't install on mine
properly unless it was configured as Raid (even though I only have one
drive).
I saw this problem on my first install. I installed, didn't activate and
then installed on top of itself (Vista twice), to do a clean install. The
second time it took the key.
You didn't need to install MCE. Just format the drive, install Vista and
when it asks for your product key, NEXT past it. Answer properly the
version you bought and get all the way to a working system.
Then, from WITHIN Vista, run the install again -- the whole thing. ONLY
then enter the product key and it should take it.
Tom
"Jupiter Jones" <jones_jupiter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:IrwPh.32656$__3.25432@xxxxxxxxxxx
A. Choose the option to activate by phone.
Call Microsoft at the number listed for your region, normally takes about
5 minutes.
B. Sometimes this happens with no apparent cause.
I am not sure if your RAID changes can cause this.
--
Jupiter Jones
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar
http://www.dts-l.org
"HDRDTD" <HDRDTD@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Z-adnQatnvvsGJPbnZ2dneKdnZydnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dell XPS 410 bought in early December with XP MCE with a free upgrade to
Vista Home Premimum
Has anybody run into this yet when upgrading to Vista using the free
Vista upgrade from Dell?
The only thing that I can think of that 'might' be the cause is that
originally when I got by upgrade, I had two 150gig Raptors in a RAID 0
that I had installed XP Pro on, but I decided to break the RAID 0 so I
could install XP Pro on one and Vista on the other so I could dual-boot
between the two (I have a third drive for data.
I broke the RAID but left RAID enabled in the XPS 410 BIOS. The drives
themselves were left as non-RAID drives.
The installation of XP Pro went just fine, then I installed XP MCE (came
with the 410) on the second Raptor and upgraded it to Vista Home Prem.
using the Dell Vista upgrade.
Everything seemed to be fine, but as I started using Vista, I noticed the
system would freeze for about 20sec every 5 min or so.
I did some research and discovered that it's a known problem/conflict
with the Intel RAID, and Vista but that's another story.
Because of this, I decided that since I wasn't using a RAID array anymore
anyway, I'd just go back into the BIOS and set the RAID to auto-detect
and just used the drives as simple SATA drives.
I Changed the BIOS, then went through the same process again, doing a
clean install of XP Pro on the first Raptor, did a clean install of XP
MCE on the second Raptor and upgraded that again using the Dell Vista
upgrade.
Everything went just fine and the system runs just fine under XP and
Vista.
I did this about a week ago, and a couple of times since, I saw a
momentary popup appear, something about not being able to activate
windows (running Vista at the time) but didn't pay much attention to it.
Last night it popped up again and I clicked on it to see what's up.
It now tells me, 'The product key you typed is already in use'
????
It gives you the chance to enter a new key, so I carefully got out my
magnifying glass so my 54 year old eyes could see the damned key code
clearly, and retyped in the code on the Dell Vista package. No question I
waxs entering the right characters, they were clearly printed and no,
there weren't 8's next to B's, etc...
Same error comes up indicateing the key is already in use.
The only thing I can think of is that back when I had Vista installed the
first time it may have activated itself automatically and now that I've
re-installed Vista it thinks I'm trying tio install it on a second
system???
Note: NONE of the hardware in the system has changed. Not one piece. The
only difference is the HD's used to have RAID enabled, and now they
don't.
I could understand that If I had changed a few components, perhaps
Microsoft would have decided that the changes indicated I was trying to
install on another system, but I haven't changed a darn thing.
Two questions then.....
A. Since this is a Dell OEM version of Vista, do I go to Dell for a
resolution, or because it's a Microsoft issue, do I go to them? Normally
I would guess the since it'a an OEM product, support is provided by the
OEM.
B. Does it make any sense that just re-installing Vista on the same
system (with NO hardware changes) is going to trigger this same
activation issue evry time?
.
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