Pacard Bell Imedia 5090

This was my first computer. I purchased it from Dixons about a year and a half ago it cost me £1200 I also took out a 5 year cover plan @ £395 but soon saw the error of my ways and canceled it after 7 days (got my money back two months ago but that’s a different story).

The computer specs are - P4 2.2 GHz -Gforce fx 440 64meg - 256 ddr333 ram - generic DVD rom - generic cd writer - 2 channel sis sound - SIS mother board - 56k modem -PSU with 12v output for speakers -win xp home and various other software.
It also came with a 17" crt flat monitor
A Pb 1200 scanner
An Epsom c42 printer
And a Samsung digital camera.

Not bad I thought until about six months ago when I became a little more interested in the inner workings of my pc through installing broadband and a new 256mb NVIDIA FX5600 card.

It was then I decided to build a computer for my son which brought me to the Hexus Forum; well as you can see from my specs below I got a little carried away and ended up building one for myself.

I have now upgraded the Packard Bell with a new ASUS P4S 800 Motherboard because the old Motherboard had only 4 AGP slots but now find Windows XP Home has become deregistered and am unable to re-register the software as it was bought ‘pre installed’ on a partition and because I don’t have a cover plan with Dixon’s I’m finding it very hard to obtain a product key.

I would just like to say with a little reading and help from knowledgeable members of Hexus it is surprisingly easy to build your own computer and get exactly what you want for less money.
Thus cutting out sharks like Dixons and such like

Nice system, That product key crap sucks! I am having the same problem with my system :rant: I have 2 resources who are attempting to help me with that :iloveyou: But if they fail I plan to buy another OEM version of XP PRO for $175.00..... I like your new comp, but I believe raptors would have served you better :p

Even if you had coverplan, they wouldn't help you with the key issue. You have an OEM license, which is non transferable, hence cannot be moved to another PC, which is what a new board practically is.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by myth

Nice system, I believe raptors would have served you better :p

---

Cheers I am more than happy And my Benq 17" tft arrived today beutifull !

A promising responce from microsoft I have to call on monday to obtain a product key

I'd like to know the number you called to get this response from microsoft :)

Might be usefull in the future!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by myth

I'd like to know the number you called to get this response from microsoft :)

Might be usefull in the future!

---

Its a UK number
08706010100

Result got my new key today

Quote:

---

because the old Motherboard had only 4 AGP slots

---

Cor blimey, theres me thinking my motherboard was special.

Hello folks! :)
A little more on the product key item.
I've recently installed xp home (oem) on a friends PC using MY disc (SP2) but THEIR keycode from a Packard Bell Imedia pre installed PC.
(PC WORLD :rant: )
When I reactivated Windows I got through to an automated operator, followed the instructions and reactivated without problem!

Now I'm trying to find out where I can obtain the Mobo drivers for the Columbia 2 board in their Imedia machine so I can do a clean install of Win 2K.
Any ideas?! :cool:

Dave

There should be a product or sieial number on the mother board stick that in google and see what comes up

I'm not going to make any comments either way about anything, however, it is correct that the original copy of windows that you had, was an oem license, and as such should only be used on the computer for which it was intended.. Part of the reason that you cannot use restore disks on another machine is to do with the security that PB put into place, which, can be a real nightmare to deal with (on a daily basis).. you should also be aware that if anybody should be called a shark, it is PB, and not dixons, dixons only act as a distributer for PB machines, and are not directly responsible for their design, setup, or pricing.

at this point I cannot think of more to say, though there is something that I am forgetting to ramble on about, so I will leave it there.