Had to phone microsoft to reactivate Vista after BIOS reflash..

[ucjtckc]

Scary moment!

I flashed my BIOS (down from F9 to F7) and upped the overclock on my PC tonight. On rebooting the PC, Vista picked up new hardware (Some Intel PCI communication bridge and Texas Instruments IEEE1394 host controller) - presumably the BIOS flash changed the hardware signature.

As a result Vista (OEM 64bit premium purchased from Scan) said that it needed to be reactivated. I tried the electronic route and it said that key had already been used and I could not use it again

I had to go through phone activation and state that my Vista was only on one machine and then quote 48 digits to the operator to get a new key...

So a word of warning to those of you who plan to flash your BIOS often - you may need to go through activation again...

[ikonia]

still not sure why thats a bad thing, its 20 minutes at worst on the phone, and a free phone number I believe.

I appriciate the information, but I don't personally see this as a negative thing. But there are tons of threads this month alone that cover the whole activation discussion

[DR]

I am shocked how many people are flapping over the Vista re-activation.

[dangel]

20 wasted minutes of your life is ok?

[DR]

The reason for Microsoft putting all of this in place is to protect their buisness, shop keepers put tags on products which go off if you try and steal it - and have security cameras - but it doesn't stop you shopping there.

So many people believe software is free that it makes it tricky for people to support the software without the revenue.

We don't pay enough for half the products we use on a daily basis - and I think to be fair we do get a lot of value.

At the end of the day rather than people being keyboard warriers they should make the switch either to OSX or Linux - Microsoft don't care if you do, and you then don't have to worry about activiation.

If people want to use Vista as such - then there is clear restrictions which are not unreasonable or undocumented - It's not like Microsoft are hiding something

[Nick]

Vista re-activation is actually far better than XP in my experience.

So far I've had to re-install my OEM Vista twice and both times it re-activated fine.

With XP, every time I install that, seeing as I bought a launch copy, I have to ring up... it's a pain but no great hardship.

However, what did nark me greatly was XP and it's overly zealous hardware monitoring... Swap out a couple of sticks of RAM and I'd have to reactivate!

Worse, when I gave a my machine a FULL strip down and clean, even though everything went back exactly as it was XP needed reactivating.

However Vista is much easier... so far I completely swapped out the RAM, lobbed in a new TV card and new SATA drive and it hasn't worried over it at all... XP would have been shining a bright light in my face whilst beating me with rubber hose and asking me to confess to piracy by now...

[ucjtckc]

I wasn't complaining about the need to re-activate as such - in fact the whole process was rather smooth and only took 5 minutes on the phone.

I guess the shocker for me was the need to reactivate after I'd flashed the BIOS. I've done it so many times on Xp without the need to reactivate that it came as a surprise to me that Vista needed it. When it failed automatic online activation becuase my license key was already being used I got a bit worried thinking that a simple BIOS reflash had consituted a new computer and I had go and purchase a whole new OEM copy of Vista.. Thankfully that was not the case but I thought it was worth posting to inform others

[dangel]

The reason for Microsoft putting all of this in place is to protect their buisness,

...and therefore has no benefit to you, the end user, who bough the legit product in the first place. Meanwhile the pirates don't have to deal with it (just like on XP) at all.
Personally I haven't found PA that bothersome on all the PCs running Vista here but I would be rather peeved spending 20 minutes on the phone sorting out a activation clanger (for MS) on my time, for their benefit. For many of us there just isn't the mythic choice you point to - in the business world Windows is a requirement (I stress that word) not an option. As much as I like the product (Vista) I can't say i'm sold on the horribly misnamed "Windows Genuine Advantage" scheme at all - as far as I can see there isn't an advantage (for me)

Reminds me of this: http://www.tuxick.net/pics/piracy2.jpg (don't click if offended by expletives, that's why i didn't put it inline)

[ikonia]

in the business world Windows is a requirement (I stress that word)

Perhaps in your business world, not everyones, but its a fair point.

However in a "business world" most people won't be upgrading and changing their kit very often so activation shouldn't be a problem.

There is also the option of staying on XP while allowing to see how this activation worry pans out for people (for the people it seems to be a worry for).

I believe also for business users of a certain size there is a way to have your own onsite activation server that updates MS's centrally (although I know %0.1 about this) if it is a worry for your business you may want to look into that, but it appears to only be for big business.

20 minutes out of your life on a one off or inconsistant period doesn't seem to bad, but it is an inconvinence, but those are the terms.

This whole discussion appears to have been done to death

http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.p...ad.php?t=97668
http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=101041
(edit) How strange it removed the 3 other links I posted in this thread (/edit)

By discussing it on here we're not going to change Microsofts stance, so I guess the choices are

1.) Buy it and accept the terms of use
2.) Attempt to pirate it
3.) Attempt to break the TOS
4.) Switch to another OS

[iggy]

ive just had to rma a drive to scan which i set up vista on. vista wont reactivate and ive tried phone activation, which basically called me a pirate and then hung up on me. ive also tried to get through to an operator with no joy.

how is this better? this isnt much of an argument for legitimate software tbh.

[THCi]

Last time I phoned up, this is on XP mind, you enter all the numbers on touchtone, then if it fails (which it will, it didnt work when you did it over the net, did it?) it'll put you through to someone in Bangalore, or any other number of hot eastern citys.

I've always found the people on the end of the phone ok to deal with, they hear everything we tell em 500 times a day. "I changed my mobo because it died" "Ok, here is the reactivation code..." Never had a spot of bother.

So, Iggy, you must have had someone who's been having a bad day. Unless it was the automated system which booted you from the system.

[dangel]

WGA/PA has caused plenty of hassle for legit users, and almost none for pirates. Seems perfectly sensible to me

[Splash]

...and the more people pirate the software the more draconian the copy protection will become. I'm not saying the way it works is right, just that Microsoft can and will do everything in their power to protect their revenue.

[dangel]

Sure, but it can go too far - witness the debacle of starforce in the gaming world..

[Fabula]

Sure, but it can go too far - witness the debacle of starforce in the gaming world..

Yup. Had a few starforce games that ran better with a no-cd applied, ie the copy protection removed.

So the people who bought the game and ran off the CD had worse performance than those who copied/downloaded it.

Legit users get penalised and probably pay more for copy protection, while pirates have no inconveniences.

I'm leaving off getting vista until completely necessary, as I am not interested in the hassle of reactivating repeatedly. Having to phone up and explain every time you flash your bios, change keyboard or external drive, is just ridiculous.

[Splash]

I think you're being a little extreme there Fabula. From experience I have changed a graphics card, added 2 hard drives and flashed the BIOS once and no reactivation as yet.

The simple fact is that (as stated above) things are only going to get worse until Microsoft believe they have beaten the pirates.