i just used the gigabyte ep45 ud3r f9 slic zort posted. i use the vista bootloader cleaner thing? and cleaned out all the boot loader, and it showed me 30 days left which means it worked. i then flashed my bios (F9 Slic ) and now it shows it is activated. and it seems like it fixed the sleep deactivation(putting the computer to sleep would make vista deactivates) was it a success? does it mean my vista won't deactivate anymore? thanks EDIT: is that how slic works? it activates your vista permanently instead of using vista activators ? sorry im a noob at this