Has anyone encountered this type of Win 10 activation error

nheather · 26 Dec 2018 at 12:53

Has anyone been through this scenario

1) Started with genuine, legitimate Windows 7 (have Product Key for that)
2) Updated to Windows 10 (issued with new Product Key)
3) Some years later upgraded hardware (Motherboard, RAM and CPU in this case)
4) Prompted to re-activate because of new hardware (fair enough, was expecting that)
5) Activation failure suggesting Product Key that has been working fine for many years and was issued by Microsoft is invalid

Suspect I'm going to have to call them but no-one in today because it is Boxing Day.

Cheers,

Nigel

FBi7 · 26 Dec 2018 at 13:59

I've had this a couple of times.

The phone line is (was) automated, so you should be able to call today. IIRC, the first time I had this after mobo/CPU change, I used the online chat to resolve the issue. The online chat might be available today.

Hope that's of some use to you.

m4cc45 · 26 Dec 2018 at 18:15

Hi,

When you swapped from Windows 7 to Windows 10 you were given an OEM key. Essentially this is tied to the motherboard.

Legally you should buy another Windows 10 copy.

M.

Orcvader · 26 Dec 2018 at 21:28

m4cc45 said:
Hi,

When you swapped from Windows 7 to Windows 10 you were given an OEM key. Essentially this is tied to the motherboard.

Legally you should buy another Windows 10 copy.

M.

Not exactly. That depends on what type of licence the original 7 key was. My retail 7 functions as a retail 10 key and activated my new build just fine.

@nheather seeing as you changed mothberboards, did you reinstall Windows? Run the troubleshooter and select the old PC, and it should carry the licence over, assuming you were signed into your MS account.

matthab · 1 Jan 2019 at 21:35

Had a similar issue and could never resolve it. In the end I re-installed and it activated straight away.

Dave Burton · 2 Jan 2019 at 00:05

Be wary of the online chat. I've twice had dealings with "Eastern" call staff personnel who wanted to Teamviewer / remote accewss the PC to "install some software"... i called them out on it, and eventually (3 hours it took on one ocassion) persuaded them I sorta know what I'm doing and they relented and sorted it out, but anyone else might have let them do what they wanted...

Thekwango · 2 Jan 2019 at 00:22

Dave Burton said:
Be wary of the online chat. I've twice had dealings with "Eastern" call staff personnel who wanted to Teamviewer / remote accewss the PC to "install some software"... i called them out on it, and eventually (3 hours it took on one ocassion) persuaded them I sorta know what I'm doing and they relented and sorted it out, but anyone else might have let them do what they wanted...

What did you think a Microsoft employee was going to install, ransomeware?

Dave Burton · 2 Jan 2019 at 01:03

Thekwango said:
What did you think a Microsoft employee was going to install, ransomeware?

Well, when the solution literally took 20 seconds to type in, it made me wonder why I had to argue with them for hours to get to that point. It genuinely made me question their motives!

Disco_P · 3 Jan 2019 at 06:04

If your windows 10 key is one of these two then you have no been issued a new product key.

Win 10 Home: YTMG3-N6DKC-DKB77-7M9GH-8HVX7W
in 10 Pro: VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T

Try your windows 7 key.

malachi · 4 Jan 2019 at 13:24

Dave Burton said:
Be wary of the online chat. I've twice had dealings with "Eastern" call staff personnel who wanted to Teamviewer / remote accewss the PC to "install some software"... i called them out on it, and eventually (3 hours it took on one ocassion) persuaded them I sorta know what I'm doing and they relented and sorted it out, but anyone else might have let them do what they wanted...

They run a .vbs script to show the product key and force activation to make sure the key isn't dodgy.

Didn't work for me so they gave me a new product key which activated fine.

Dave Burton · 4 Jan 2019 at 13:29

malachi said:
They run a .vbs script to show the product key and force activation to make sure the key isn't dodgy.

Didn't work for me so they gave me a new product key which activated fine.

Haha, that would sorta make sense. I'm reasonably IT savvy, and the amount of horror stories you hear of foreign "tech support" staff installing dodgy software always keeps me wary. Got it sorted eventually with some console command, and my old but genuine Windows 7 key

malachi · 4 Jan 2019 at 14:21

Dave Burton said:
Haha, that would sorta make sense. I'm reasonably IT savvy, and the amount of horror stories you hear of foreign "tech support" staff installing dodgy software always keeps me wary. Got it sorted eventually with some console command, and my old but genuine Windows 7 key

Yeah, I questioned it too because they never had to do it before. But they are taking extra measures due to people buying £10 keys and trying to activate them.