I am sure this is covered already elsewhere, but I haven't been successful in finding it. Situation: Computer M/B or CPU failed and I am moving the HDD from one machine to another. Original PC is a Compaq and the replacement is an IBM (pre-Lenovo) ThinkCentre. Upon booting the HDD in the new machine, it says that windows must be activated before can log on ... I tried to update the OEM key with the new key but Windows says that it is a bad key: read it says it was mistyped, but I entered the key on the label of the IBM ... Obviously Windows is hacking because the OEM certificate and such are Compaq and it is now on an IBM. How do I change it to believing it is a valid IBM install? I tried to follow the instructions I found in one thread, but the OEM_...Installer.exe that is supposed to be downloaded causes my AV tools to scream about some Trojan in the rar file as well as the .exe version. Any help appreciated. Mike
Not sure if the above is appropriate to me. I have an original Product Key for MS Windows Pro from a machine which I have junked, and can't remember make model etc. It was donated to me years ago. I installed XP on my present machine and all worked well for a year or so. Suddenly I got an activation warning and went through the activation process which failed. Can I correct the situation using the OEM bios installer, mentioned above or is there any way known of?
Well I ran the tool. Did not know which oem files to download because the machine with the problem is homebuilt. It has an intel p5e motherboard and ami bios. But strangely enough after running the prog I was able to change my product key using MsProductKeyUpdateTool_enu.exe (which I got a while ago-cant remember where) and am now able to update. Thanks