Unable to activate Vista Ultimate on Packard Bell

Discussion in 'Windows Vista' started by Enigma1234, Jul 21, 2008.

  1. Enigma1234

    Enigma1234 MDL Novice

    Jul 21, 2008
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    I've got a Packard Bell desktop with Vista Basic installed. I wanted to upgrade to Ultimate so I followed these steps:
    *Using OEMdump I extracted the cert
    *I saved the original Vista key via Bean keyfinder (just in case)
    *Checked with everest if bios has slic (OEM ID=PacBel, OEM Table ID=PBDT000E) All seems ok.
    *Popped in a Vista disc and upgraded to Ultimate without entering a key.
    *After the install I copied the cert to c:\
    *I registered the cert via the command line - no problem
    *I've read that the key for Vista is independent of the cert and bios. Via the command line I entered a Ultimate serial. I get the message that the key is successfully installed.

    Vista isn't activated however. I tried 5 different Ultimate keys to no avail. What have I overlooked? I have 30 days to come up with a solution ;-)
     
  2. petar

    petar MDL Expert

    Apr 5, 2008
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    Install and open ACPI Scope.
    Go to File-->Load AACPI Information-->From BIOS
    Save it as *.ats file and upload please.
     
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  3. Enigma1234

    Enigma1234 MDL Novice

    Jul 21, 2008
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    Attached Files:

  4. Enigma1234

    Enigma1234 MDL Novice

    Jul 21, 2008
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    #6 Enigma1234, Jul 21, 2008
    Last edited by a moderator: May 23, 2017
    (OP)
  5. Yen

    Yen Admin
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    #7 Yen, Jul 21, 2008
    Last edited by a moderator: May 23, 2017
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  6. Enigma1234

    Enigma1234 MDL Novice

    Jul 21, 2008
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    #8 Enigma1234, Jul 21, 2008
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 29, 2008
    (OP)
    Thanks for all the answers thus far. Unfortunately I will be out of the country for a week so I won't be able to test your suggestions till next week.

    This is what I'll do once I get back:
    *Use the Packard Bell recovery disc. This will reinstall the activated Vista Basic onto the machine. (plus all the **** that comes with it :rolleyes:)
    *I'll make a copy of the tokens.dat / cert. and upload it.
    *I'll install Vista Ultimate from scratch (clean install), wiping all previous traces of Vista Basic
    *I'll try to activate Vista Ultimate.

    Whatever the outcome is, I'll post the results here.
     
  7. Yen

    Yen Admin
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    You can also have closer look to SOURCES\$OEM$\$$\SYSTEM32\OEM. Make sure you can see hidden and system folders.
    Maybe you can get the cert. right from your recovery DVD.
     
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  8. Enigma1234

    Enigma1234 MDL Novice

    Jul 21, 2008
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  9. Yen

    Yen Admin
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    #11 Yen, Jul 31, 2008
    Last edited: Jul 31, 2008
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  10. Enigma1234

    Enigma1234 MDL Novice

    Jul 21, 2008
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    Yen, you totally did it! Vista is activated!! I couldn't be happier! :)

    So, if I understand this correctly the token.dat file was in this case a 'container' for multiple license files. The oemdump utility assumes a token.dat only holds 1 cert and therefor extracted the first one. The token.dat in my case had more than 1 cert. This means Packard Bell is using at least 2 different SLICs and 2 matching certs, right?

    Thanks again for your assistance.
     
  11. reginakampher

    reginakampher MDL Addicted

    Apr 5, 2008
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  12. Yen

    Yen Admin
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    I'll reupload them when I'm back at home again. We've got now a new cert. with SLIC! At tokens.dat I've found a lot of sections with the typical start and end of a cert. Most of them have got a different size, so I decided to search at the end of tokens.dat......
     
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  13. reginakampher

    reginakampher MDL Addicted

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    Thank you so much Yen, I'm excited to peek into these files.
     
  14. delah

    delah MDL Novice

    Jul 2, 2007
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    Juts to let people know, this worked for me also after ages trying to get Ultimate activated on a PBell iMedia. (worked with the cert Yen extracted from the weird tokens.dat)

    Thanks to Yen and Enigma!
     
  15. Enigma1234

    Enigma1234 MDL Novice

    Jul 21, 2008
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    I've re-enabled the link. I'll keep it online for as long as possible!