My son purchased an HP laptop in 2013 with W 8.0 preinstalled on it running in uefi mode. He updated it to W 8.1 via Windows Store early this year. Yday the HP utility started its updating routine which aborted, the system became unstable. I tried to reimage but it hung and froze the rig, I subsequently tried a full restore with the HP utility (F11 during boot) it grinded during more than an hour, rebooted and rewarded me with an "incomplete restore blah blah" message. I thought it was best to make a clean install (still uefi mode) with a W8.1 ISO. Eveything went fine till I had to validate Windows I can't find any serial on laptop, invoice, box... Is there any legit solution to retrieve a W 8.1 license ?
@ LostED thank you this applies to my case "If Windows installer can't detect the OEMM key, it means you are using 8.1 (or later) ISO on a PC that comes with 8. So you need to use the generic keys to install appropriate edition & after completion install your OEMM key. The Windows activates automatically if internet connection is available" I used the generic key for installation but W8.1 did not activate, am I right in saying I have to activate by phone ?
No just change the key at win UI with the one you have read out from the MSDM table. It should activate as soon as you're online. You need to have installed the same SKU with its generic Retail key, though. (If it came with core then it needs to be core again, else pro).
Thanks for the assists Thanks for posting your problem potjevleesch. A Buddy of mine bought an Asus Laptop that came with Win 8.1, with the intent of blowing away the OS in favor of Win 7 -64bit. He discovered no Win drivers are available for it after blowing away all partitions including the Win 8.1 rescue one. He wants me to come to their rescue and re-install Win 8.1 so at least it will run. I have an untouched VL ISO image from MS that should work based on the instructions here. Thanks for the assists Gents!
You’re welcome. I cannot share much own experience on win 8.x, but concerning OA3 I can... We experimented with licenses, also I strongly suggest (to any experienced user) to format any pre-installed machine at once and to install a clean retail ISO with partitions one finds useful. One even can re-activate offline again when writing down the confirmationID before a fresh installation is made. Many PC's here come with a own windows 8.x MSDM license, but the company installs a MAK license of win 7 pro on their clients... so there are a lot of unused LEGAL licenses left.
msdm table serial didn't work, tried by phone: requests an installation ID number that I can't find anywhere any idea ? edited: finally made it by phone activation, worked like a charm
yes exactly same sku pro x64, could HP use some gimmick to prevent such (re)activation ? had to try phone activation which worked like a charm with that very same key thank you again for your help
Do you know any way to check this Hash? Gents, Just to be certain I had the right version I checked the Hash and found: File: en_windows_8_x64_dvd_915440.iso CRC-32: a5889f86 MD4: 1c06c693f1e68ce4d2ff4ecc45dd0388 MD5: 0e8f2199fae18fe510c23426e68f675a SHA-1: 1ce53ad5f60419cf04a715cf3233f247e48beec4 I thought this is the VL version of MSDN Windows 8 RTM English, 64-bit (x64) ISO. I just remembered I had an old ISO I'd grabbed that is supposed to be an untouched MS Image => at least that's what I labeled it. (I think I grabbed it from MS some time ago.) It's Hash is: File: Windows.iso CRC-32: 262ce80b MD4: 5d2b2bfa717f33866381e68d64d321e3 MD5: e043ebb246c864a12c4b7d761b72570c SHA-1: 680870972645c52532d1f3a3a13290368793a790 Do you know any way to check these Hashes against a known list to make sure? Thanks for the assist.