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Thread: Vista Activation/De-Activation and Mobos

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    Anthropomorphic Personification shaithis's Avatar
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    Vista Activation/De-Activation and Mobos

    How does Vista generate its key/seed/crc/whatever-the-hell-it-is that it uses to decide whether the mobo has been replaced or not?

    Would fitting an identical board trigger it for example?

    Or is the same board/same chipset enough to keep it happy and playing nice?


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    Senior Member this_is_gav's Avatar
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    Updating the BIOS can trigger the reactivation - even just changing a couple of BIOS settings - so the answer's generally going to be 'nope', sorry.

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    Comfortably Numb directhex's Avatar
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    why do people fear reactivation so much?

    there are *no* limits on how many times you can activate your software - you may however have to phone up to do it after a while.

    the question is whether the software is licensed - and if you're changing motherboards on OEM windows for anything other than direct replacement of failed hardware (e.g. s754->s754) then you're not licensed, so the activation implementation doesn't really matter

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    Anthropomorphic Personification shaithis's Avatar
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    Its not a matter of fearing it, its the hassle of jumping through the hoops.

    I have a feeling my motherboard is dying and I cba to sit on the phone to yet another Indian call centre trying to plead my case.

    If a direct swap will solve that, then great. If I can choose a board with the same chipset and forgo re-activation, then even better as it gives me more choice.

    Heard enough stories of people being told no, even after only replacing the hard drive, makes you not want to risk de-activating if you don't have to.
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    Senior Member Dreaming's Avatar
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    gulp. I'm hoping my OEM will activate 64 bit in the future - I'll borrow someone elses cd. I've heard from reviews and articles that Microsoft are really leniant, so you could basically install it on another computer altogether, and as long as you weren't using the old one anymore they'd let you reactivate, even the OEM.

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    Is there actually any difference in he whole activation thing in vista compared to that of XP, because i activated xp three times in xp! 1st activation after 30days, then i upgraded and the again cause hard drive died and i never had a problem i just spoke to someone in a call centre! lol

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    I'd have a double vodka over a lager anyday
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    just to check- if I'm in the process of overclocking a CPU then it would ask me to re-activate while I do my tweaking?

    What about if I flash my bios?

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    Agent of the System ikonia's Avatar
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    jumping through hoops seems an overstatment.

    Either clicking the activation button - phoning the free phone number for 10 minutes
    It is Inevitable.....


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    Anthropomorphic Personification shaithis's Avatar
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    Its BS pure and simple that I should even HAVE to phone MS when I change some hardware.

    As usual, its only the people that pay for the software that get shafted, I am sure if I used the activation crack that's now doing the rounds, I wouldn't even have to worry about this...
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    is there a crack already, well that just proves how f..... useless the whole anti piracy thing is, why can't we just have a normal windows without all this c... i bet the thing would work 10x better then with out the code in!

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    Senior Member this_is_gav's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by shaithis View Post
    Its BS pure and simple that I should even HAVE to phone MS when I change some hardware.

    As usual, its only the people that pay for the software that get shafted, I am sure if I used the activation crack that's now doing the rounds, I wouldn't even have to worry about this...
    Agreed with the statement of the genuine users getting the raw deal, but likewise, I'm sure you can see why they're asking you to do this.

    You've taken a shortcut (an entirely legal one of course) in getting OEM, which is to be used on 1 PC (motherboard) only. They have to protect themselves from everyone buying the OEM version and using it as a retail version (the one designed for normal home use, and not for sale with a system). It's not anti-piracy measures that's causing you the issues, it's simple common sense on Microsoft's part.

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    Banhammer in peace PeterB kalniel's Avatar
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    I have to admit I've changed loads of components in the case and I've never had to reactivate. I've changed gfx card twice. Added PCI-wireless cards, added USB wireless, removed USB wireless, added sound card, changed sound card, added hard drive, changed all the PCI slots around, disabled wired network, updated Bios several times.

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    ɯʎɔɐɹsɐʌʍ mycarsavw's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by this_is_gav View Post
    Agreed with the statement of the genuine users getting the raw deal, but likewise, I'm sure you can see why they're asking you to do this.

    You've taken a shortcut (an entirely legal one of course) in getting OEM, which is to be used on 1 PC (motherboard) only. They have to protect themselves from everyone buying the OEM version and using it as a retail version (the one designed for normal home use, and not for sale with a system). It's not anti-piracy measures that's causing you the issues, it's simple common sense on Microsoft's part.
    Quote Originally Posted by kalniel View Post
    I have to admit I've changed loads of components in the case and I've never had to reactivate. I've changed gfx card twice. Added PCI-wireless cards, added USB wireless, removed USB wireless, added sound card, changed sound card, added hard drive, changed all the PCI slots around, disabled wired network, updated Bios several times.
    The bold bit above is why you've never had to reactivate.
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    Senior Member this_is_gav's Avatar
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    Vista's a lot more intelligent than XP then, as with XP (OEM at least) I think it was 3 major components (of which kalniel's would apply I guess) would need changing before it asked for a reactivation. The license was tied to the motherboard, but it wasn't necessarily the motherboard which needed changing (obviously in such a case your license would still be valid) for it to trigger a request.

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    Moderator chuckskull's Avatar
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    Never had any trouble re-activating, went through 2 sockets and about 6 boards on my XP OEM. I'm presuming vista will be the same. I might be swapping motherboards next week if funds allow so I'll let you know.

    The only thing you need to remember is that everyone in the call centre is reading from a script, they don't really care what you're doing with your OEM licence. So long as they follow the script they don't get fired.

    All they need to hear is, the old motherboard failed and was replaced and then they will ask if the licence is only being used on one machine at a time, you say yes. Then they can give you a the ridiculously long activation key.

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    cat /dev/null streetster's Avatar
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    I re-installed XP a couple of weeks ago, and had to phone up microsoft. freephone number, didnt have to speak to anyone "1. it came pre-installed, 1. its only installed on one machine, 1. no significant hardware changes, bang here is the code"

    Didnt have to plead my case with anyone, just had to enter 30-ish numbers into my phone, piece of cake really.. I dont understand what the big deal about this is?

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