OEM Vista and Activations after re-builds?

sir doris

Regular
Hi,

I did a search but didn't find anything recent, now the dust has settled and Vista has been with us for a year, what is the current situation with reactivating/ rebuilding an OEM Vista system. I remember at launch MS were hinting that the OEM versions were not intitled to re-activation if the hardware had changed considerably or the drive was formatted and Vista reinstalled?

I'm still on XP Pro but considering the move to Vista as I'm about to upgrade and rebuild my PC. I thinking of getting the OEM Home Premium, but will I be able to rebuild my System (Re-Format) in a years time? What's the situation at the moment? has anyone successfully rebuilt there OEM Vista Install?

Cheers :)
 
As far as MS is concerned the motherboard is the computer but even changing a graphics card can trigger re-activation on OEM installs. As the previous poster said, just ring them and explain that the motherboard died and had to be replaced and they will issue you with a new activation code. Do not tell them you upgraded your motherboard.
 
As far as MS is concerned the motherboard is the computer but even changing a graphics card can trigger re-activation on OEM installs. As the previous poster said, just ring them and explain that the motherboard died and had to be replaced and they will issue you with a new activation code. Do not tell them you upgraded your motherboard.

Are you serious? That is bogus. (As in it sucks, don't know if it is accurate).

I previously just told them the truth with XP and it was never a problem. Namely that I put the XP home from laptop on a desktop, the Pro on the laptop, another pro on a desktop then a car computer, then desktop. I installed XP about 20 times probably.
 
If you call in to activate XP they ask if "you've made any major changes recently such as the motherboard or the hard drive." If you ask me that's a crock of shit. Changing your hard drive isn't a major change, but hey, anything to make people buy more product, right MS? :rolleyes: I imagine they're just as restrictive (if not moreso) with Fister.
 
As far as MS is concerned the motherboard is the computer but even changing a graphics card can trigger re-activation on OEM installs. Do not tell them you upgraded your motherboard.

I don't think so. I have Vista Home Premium oem and have changed the cpu, video card, and increased the memory with no problems. All this since I installed Vista oem.
 
If you call in to activate XP they ask if "you've made any major changes recently such as the motherboard or the hard drive." If you ask me that's a crock of shit. Changing your hard drive isn't a major change, but hey, anything to make people buy more product, right MS? :rolleyes: I imagine they're just as restrictive (if not moreso) with Fister.

And like I said I always told them, yeah I changed my motherboard and they give me a new key no problem.
 
If you're lucky, the Internet activation might just work 100% fine, no questions asked, on your new motherboard (it did for me with my XP OEM).
 
Actually in Windows XP (I'm not sure about Vista but it could be the same) the activation check resets every few months (I don't know the exact time), so if you do not upgrade very often you shouldn't need to phone in, activation via internet would work.
 
To be honest, on my old motherboard it wouldn't activate over the Internet at all no matter how hard I tried, I had to call MS every time. So I was a little bit surprised when it activated just fine over the Internet after upgrading the motherboard (and basically everything else too). :)
 
Actually in Windows XP (I'm not sure about Vista but it could be the same) the activation check resets every few months (I don't know the exact time), so if you do not upgrade very often you shouldn't need to phone in, activation via internet would work.

That isn't true.

Once you have activated so many times you always have to phone in. I went over a year without activating and still had to phone in. There may be some weird thing, but that is not an accurate portrayal of it.
 
Do you change nothing at all during the year? If you change some hardwares, although not enough to trigger re-activation, it will reset the timer so you have to wait another several months again.

Assuming that this period is 3 months. If you changes nothing for more than 3 months, then you change everything which will require re-activation, you can reactivate through internet. However, if you changed anything during the 3 months period, although no re-activation required, you'll need to wait for another 3 months without changing any hardwares to be "clean." At least that's from what I've heard.

Of course, Microsoft doesn't seem to say anything explicit about this so I could be wrong. But from my experiences with several Windows XP boxes it seems to work like this way.
 
Had an interesting issue with Vista Ultimate after a number of HW shuffles on a test box. It booted with a "Non-Genuine" message on the desktop when I changed the CPU. The previous CPU was listed in the device manager. A scan for new HW fixed the cpu id & the desktop message disappeared.
 
Do you change nothing at all during the year? If you change some hardwares, although not enough to trigger re-activation, it will reset the timer so you have to wait another several months again.

Assuming that this period is 3 months. If you changes nothing for more than 3 months, then you change everything which will require re-activation, you can reactivate through internet. However, if you changed anything during the 3 months period, although no re-activation required, you'll need to wait for another 3 months without changing any hardwares to be "clean." At least that's from what I've heard.

Of course, Microsoft doesn't seem to say anything explicit about this so I could be wrong. But from my experiences with several Windows XP boxes it seems to work like this way.

You are confusing me, and I may be confusing you.

What exactly do you mean when you say re-activate.

I mean I reformat my drive and reinstall windows on a clean slate. It seems you only have so many times you get to do that without it causing trouble. Is that what you mean? Or do you mean just changing some hardware and activating again? That may be the case.

I always reinstall windows though when I get a new motherboard.
 
Windows XP checks for some hardware changes, including display card, RAM size, CPU, disk, etc. If the hardware changes are small (to my understanding, less than three changes) Windows XP will not require reactivate, but it does reset the timer. Basically you need to have a long period of time without changing any hardware to be able to use internet to re-activate.

[EDIT] Some said that retail version of Vista only allows 5 times activation through internet, and all further re-activation will require phone-in. I'm not sure about Windows XP though. I've only dealt with OEM version Windows XP.
 
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