Hard drive utterly dead and girl never made recovery disc set. She's not even a "hottie" but I'd still like to help... Service tag: 7KGSBL1 Dell does not offer a downloadable .iso for this laptop. Someone said to contact Dell via support chat and request media, but I can't prove I am the owner of the laptop so that's out. Rats. So... I have a Windows 7 install disc, can I make it into a Dell slp disc? (I spent my whole day reading about SLP activation and it left me extremely frustrated by the way highly skilled techs discuss steps in very incomplete detail, as if everyone knows what they're talking about. lol)
Install with a generic Windows 7 disc from Microsoft Then install SLP OEM serial and Dell SLIC certificate, or just run the Daz loader, it will do it all for you
once installed use command prompt right click as admin and do slmgr.vbs -ilc c:\path to certificate file. (like the ones in PhoenixMod Tool) slmgr.vbs -ipk KEY-OF-GENERIC-OEM pretty much all it needs is 3 things.. bios slic 2.1 marker (already in bios by dell) certificate of oem for that slic and the generic key google offline activation oem slmgr (this works for GPT EFI install that have no MBR and DAZ loader wont run)
I don't recall that the Dell 1545 has EFI or GPT so just using the Daz Loader will work, simple and no complications to deal with. It's already been posted that this bios already has SLIC 2.0 installed so windows will activate with an OEM Windows 7 home install (providing 7 Home Premium is what it was originally licensed for)
everybody's smarter than me... lol Thanks so much, all... You smart people don't know it, but some of those steps are not self-explanatory. Guess one can become so smart that they forget what it's like to be dumb. lol LatinMcG - you did great except that this line was cryptic to me: "slmgr.vbs -ilc c:\path to certificate file. (like the ones in PhoenixMod Tool)" Huh? Of course, 99% of the peeps here must understand you perfectly, but I had to google around some before I got it. Oz - I thought I read that Daz defaults to install certificates to make you seem like an Acer; that don't feel quite kosher. I wouldn't want it to go haywire on her at some future date if the Daz thing ever gets circumvented. Joe C, you've helped me many times in the past. Kudos! Tito - thanks for info! Now, although virtually every download link I googled up was dead, I finally got a certificate from: h t t p w w w squidworks.net/2015/03/how-to-windows-7-oem-activation/ So that's a start. HOWEVER, NONE OF THIS ADDRESSES MY ORIGINAL QUESTION, which was, how to create a Dell slp disc? Will this work? Recommended by a chap with poor English skills: Copy the contents of a genuine Windows 7 install disc to a folder named WindowsDisc. Modify the ei.cfg file by changing product ID to Professional, and retail to OEM. Inside "Resources", create a folder named $OEM$/$$/SYSTEM32/OEM and put the DELL-DELL-2.0.XRM-MS file inside it. Use WBI Creator to turn the modified WindowsDisc folder into a bootable Windows install iso. So... is that correct?
Hey, thanks for links, Oz, I'll spend tomorrow reading up on this (for the third day in a row). Hopefully I'll finally get a handle on it. RE: grab a torrent - I'd be a liar if I said I've never done something like that, but... I prefer not to trust a torrent. Now back to my original question - I finished my post #6 by quoting someone's advice but I just noticed that it lacks, at the very least, the info on where to insert the slp key. Would someone kindly fix me up on that?
Post #3 The ISO in Torrent is original DELL 7601_W7SP1_PROFESSIONAL64_RTM_DELL(DL).iso SHA1: 10529a3a46bf8cb917e317512640e6846e1c3f16 SIZE: 5,620,013,056
This. I just reinstalled a dell laptop from MSFT's ISO, and just installing Daz's loader is by far the path of least resistance for getting it activated, despite the fact that I have a valid product key, because trying to activate using the product key *didn't work* because MS thinks it's already in use. I really don't want to have to phone them just because I swapped my hard disk for an SSD, and don't see why I should. It even ends up showing the correct product key in the product info (I guess because Daz's loader picks the existing info from the BIOS).
Dunno if this applies in your case, but I downloaded a program from the Dell site that allowed me to create the restore media. I did need the computer's tag and/or Dell code number.
[FONT="]^^^ This. Why fight it when this is so simple? If it doesn’t work for you then you can go back to the good fight and soldier on.[/FONT]
Terminology - "Restore Media" isn't the same as "Recovery Media" (what you're referring to). Be aware that Recovery Media is designed to "wipe" the HDD and drop down the usual Factory Bloatware. "Restore" Media is "mildly altered" OS Install (original MS plus auto-insert keys/etc plus screensavers/themes and no more than that) .