after certain windows 8 laptops and systems are imaged to windows 7 by my company, they are activated by a volume licence key but when they arrive at a client a few days later the client complains that the system is not activated... does anyone know why this happens and how to solve this problem windows 8 headache!
That depends on whether it is Professional or Enterprise edition, both of which have volume licensing. Professional can also be activated in oem (by Daz loader for example) or retail channel. Enterprise is volume only, using kms or mak. Sure sounds that way, but even with kms they should stay activated for more than a few days. slmgr /dlv from the command prompt should answer the question of which license channnel.
I think if you install kb971033 and use a banned EPID it will un-genuine you in a couple days. I could be wrong. It could be tied into win7 itself, but I think it might be kb971033 and the banned key.
It would be a funny company indeed rolling out images that were activated against an illegal kms host, of the sort often discussed here. The OP really did not provide enough info, such as an mgadiag report from one of the non-activated laptops mentioned. Also, he did say not activated, rather than non-genuine. The systems may simply need to go online for activation on the first boot, and can't find a proper kms server if they are outside the company network on first boot.
volume licence key ? MAK or KMS. Which key you use? If its KMS, already answered above. If MAK used then confirm.
yeah we use MAK... as mentioned earlier in thread someone said W7 Volume licence has to be activated with KMS... but we have never had problems up till now particularly with windows 8 downgrade, someone did mention it might have something to do with secureboot/uefi/efi.. it may be a stupid question, but i wouldnt be asking if i knew.. thanks in advance for ya help
mak also requires one time online activation against servers at ms, or by phone for disconnected system.
You used MAK & activated them online right? After activation did you run generalization to give OOBE experience? Do you have those deactivated system in hand?