Thanks I never knew there were soft mods on the machine I googled for a tool and have removed them and the pc working great, thanks 911medic for your help
(about the XFX 780i P08 BIOS mod) Actually I didn't even have to reinstall - just fired Vista up and behold - it stayed activated even though I switched the motherboard manufacturer from Asus to XFX and chipset from 680i to 780i. Thanks again!