I recently purchased an Acer M5640 Desktop computer from Overstock.com being sold by Best Buy Outlet. The Computer came with no restore, no OS but did have the Vista OemAct Product Key on the side of the machine. This was not a surprise because it was listed as such in the auction. I attempted to install Vista using my own oem Home Premium disk and use the acer oemact product key but it said the product key was invalid. I then used a regular vista oem product key (found on the internet) thinking I could change the key to the legal acer oemact key once the install was complete. However, It still came back as invalid when I tried to change it. I called microsoft and of course they said I had to call acer. Acer said I had to buy their $40 recovery disk. About this same time, someone brought a computer in for motherboard replacement and so I sold them the Acer m5640 motherboard which is an NVIDIA GeForce7100 and 630i chipset motherboard. The person had XP on their hard drive so now I still have the rest of the Acer Computer with the vista product key (less motherboard). I purchased an ECS GF7100PVT-M3 NVIDIA GeForce7100 and 630i chipset motherboard which appears to be the same one used in the acer but I still can't get the Acer Vista OemAct Product Key to work and I don't understand why. I had an Acer Acpire laptop com in for repair and used it's default recovery DVDs and installed it's vista on the acer m5640 (now with generic motherboard) but still the Acer oemact vista key said invalid. I called acer again they referred me to microsoft who after some rangling gave me new product key that still says invalid when I try to type it in. I am baffled because I took the product key number from the bottom of the acer laptop that I had borrowed the recovery disk from to install vista on the acer m5640 and that key worked on the acer m5640. My question is how can I get my legit, valid product key on the side of the M5640 or the replacement key given to me by microsoft to be accepted when I type it in. I am sorry this post was so long but I wanted to explain the things I have tried so far. I know I could give up or use a cracked key but this kind of stuff is interesting to me and I'm sure I will encounter similar stuff in the future.
I have a friend who owns a new Acer laptop that came with Vista Home OEM from the factory. I cant remember if it was Home Basic or Prem. I will grab the factory key and key related Windows files to compare and get back to ya in a few days.
Thanks. I just wonder if the am5640 desktop vista recovery disk would accept the license key on the side of the tower if I bought it and if so, why? I know this acer will accept any regular oem vista premium key but just not the one on the side of the case or the one that microsoft gave me.
Didnt catch this the 1st time, but if you sold the Acer OEM board you can forget using the Acer OEM COA case sticker key as it can only be activated on the motherboard you sold, unless you replace it with the exact board from Acer. OEM COA keys are tied to the equipment they were issued for and cant be transferred to other machines (motherboards) per M$ OEM Eula. The ECS board , if retail, will need a bios mod for Vista which will then allow you to install and activate any version of Vista you choose using the SLP keys in the Vista OEM SLP thread with a matching certificate file that matches the bios SLIC mod.
Laptop key worked but I really want to use the Desktop Key I might agree and I am probably wrong, but I used the default recovery dvd from a acer laptop (I made the recovery dvd using the erecovery program on the laptop) and then installed it on the Acer Desktop with the ECS Motherboard. Of course, the key on the side of the Desktop still didn't work but when I typed in the key from the bottom of the Laptop it worked on the Desktop computer. I ordered an AM5640 recovery dvd from acer and I am going to try that to see if the Vista Key on the side will activate when the proper media is used. What I don't understand is how the recovery dvd from the laptop worked on the desktop and even accepted the laptop vista number when the board wasn't an Acer board.
Update: Activation Successful! Why? I ordered the acer recovery dvd for the Am5640 computer. Even though I changed the motherboard to an ECS motherboard (same chipset as the acer), By restoring from the recovery dvd, the computer now accepts the Vista Premium Key on the side of the computer. The key would not work with an oem vista premium dvd. So, I wonder what is different about the vista installation on the recovery dvd. Anyway, $40 dollars later my legal vista key works. SeriasBlack