I have some information what happens at mb replacement (RMA) / os reinstallations with oem (Dell,acer,hp....) I copy the info directly from the pdf i receive but for obvious reason i have delete the company.... OEM Activation 3.0 (DPK) : With OA 3.0, the replacement of a Motherboard will require the use of Microsoft MB Replacement License keys (referred to as a DPK or Digital Product Key). Each version of Windows 8 OS will need a specific MB Replacement License key. Factory: MB is pre-injected with DPK. Places a Certificate of Authenticity into the BIOS during the manufacture of a PC that is unique to that PC and is unique to the License Purchased. Service: MB is NOT pre-injected DPK. The need for manual activation process involving the 5x5 DPK provided by *******. OA3 Service Repair – Impact to MB & HDD Replacement Since the DPK won’t be on the Replacement MB, the OS will notice the hardware hash mismatch & puts system to a non-active state System will contact MS’s AVS to validate the new hardware hash and DPK 5x5. AVS will send a ACK notification back. And the hardware hash written to the OS on HDD. NOTE: The manually entered 5x5 DPK will never be “written” to the MS AVS system. Therefore, the customer will always need to re-enter the 5x5 DPK if they ever replace the HDD or re-install the OS. Factory will only pre-inject DPK into MB that ships with new systems. ****** will not pre-inject the DPK onto Service MB Replacements. ****** service hub will ship either a Win 8 Home or Win 8 Pro paper DPK card with all MB Replacements. A new DPK will be required for every MB replacement. The old DPK 5x5 number will no longer be valid with the new MB as hardware hash has changed. The new DPK 5x5 number should be used instead. MB:* When a Win 8 MB has been replaced, it is required that the paper DPK product key be entered into the system after boot to activate the OS. To enter the product key, you must log into the system and access PC Settings. HDD:* If, in the future the HDD is then replaced and requires an OS reinstall from OS media (ie, customer didn’t create a backup), the DPK product key used with the replaced MB above, must be re-entered after booting and logging into the system. View attachment 17586 View attachment 17587
So, basically, replacement motherboard won't have valid MSDM table in BIOS, and such repaired computer will need standard on-line reactivation by using a new key, printed on additionally supplied card. This key also will be "one-time-tied" to hardware on first activation and won't work on another MB. Also, it makes clear that in OA3 hardware hash isn't tied to HDD (and very probably to any other non-integrated into motherboard hardware, like optical drive, any pci-e cards, RAM and even processor's serial?).
I just read all 21 pages phew interesting read... I have a question regarding cloning OEM machines using the OA3 setup. For example lets say I bought 50 acer netbooks with windows 7 starter OEM activated. I can go and run through OOBE, install the which software I like, setup the quicklaunch, start menu, desktop themes, setup multiple users etc, shutdown capture an image and then deploy to other 49 netbooks. This keeps the activation as the slic license, bios and key all remain the same. Note - I did not use audit mode or any other "deployment" type software/process. If I then go and buy 50 acer netbooks with windows 8 (starter?) or whatever edition with the OA3 system. Can I still repeat the same process and keep activation on restoration? Or does this require first backing up the token on each individual machine and restoring on each machine again post clone?
Second should work for sure. First can work only if some individual activation code is stored in BIOS (besides unique MSDM data - that's just a key), which isn't known yet. But if it's not stored there, you should be able to re-activate each machine automatically online just fine and w/out even noticing that (thus not to bother with tokens' backups).
Not sure what you mean, second should work for sure? We are talking about OA3 and windows 8 not SLIC 2.1 and windows 7, which are different things. The first scenario does work and I have done this for the last 3 years or so with batches of over 70 netbooks at one time and OEM activation always stays activated after restoration (talking about imaging windows 7 OEM activated machines). With Windows 8 if OEM activation disappears after being imaged from another machine with OEM activation, then this will require backup the token, restore image and pull back the token for that machine. This is not a problem at all of course, just pxe boot into clonezilla, pre script, dump token on a samba share, use dmidecode to get unique ID store using that, restore image, post script pull back token from samba share. All without having to ever boot into windoze. Anyway we will see when the time comes. If it resorts to the token backup/restore procedure will upload some info for the folks here... Hopefullly not and hopefully someone can give me a detailed breakdown why this is/isn't the case. cheers.
I was talking only about OA3. I'm sorry you misunderstood it, although i quoted what i was responding to: first scenario: "...with the OA3 system. Can I still repeat the same process and keep activation on restoration?" second scenario: "Or does this require first backing up the token on each individual machine and restoring on each machine again post clone?"
It's not about - if they are convinced or not, but about if we are going to be convinced or not. Windows 8 is a big change for people who are obstinate, I have seen people who are still on Windows XP, though Windows 7 has so much to offer above it's predecessors, just because they can't evolve, and I have even seen people who even if somehow upgraded to Windows 7, keep it customized similar to Windows XP and wouldn't explore new ways of carrying out a task, and this is not even confined to Windows, this behavior could be observed in every aspect as this world is full of stubborn people, very handful of people are intellectually evolved, I suppose. Speculating that they have set prices so lower than before.
THIS is almost what they are doing - spent money on copy protection, a method hard to crack; and charging cheap rates for the OS and sell double the amount of licenses.
I am currently testing the OA server for Toshiba for their ASP. Here's the workflow for post-motherboard replacement: 1) Download the activation WinPE image and burn onto a USB Stick 2) Tattoo the board with correct DMI info 3) Boot the WinPE USB stick, with ethernet cable plugged in 4) Follow the prompt on the screen, the program will verify the DMI info against the server. If OK, then the new hardware info will get pushed to MS OA server. If fail, verify and correct with correct DMI info and try again. 5) Test activations by booting the machine and see if it fails activation It seems to me that the hardware info first get verified with the manufactuer's system, if it matches, then the info get pushed to MS. Honestly, this is extra work. In the past, the SLIC are already in the DMI, and Win7 works 99% of the time. I am still waiting for Sony and HP to give me more info on post-motherboard replacement.
This thread is one good read. Took me a while to get through it all but glad I did. Thanks to the original poster and all those who contributed (and continue to)
Yen, can you clear some space for PM or PM me with your email? I have something that might interests you regarding the OA. Thanks
After making my way thru most of the twenty-two pages of this thread, I'm reminded of that line from Mr Scott in Star Trek III when the Excelsior flames out trying to chase the Enterprise: "The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain." Somehow I don't believe all of this complicated gobbledy-gook is going to have a happy ending for MSOFT....
So after reading 22 pages I'm left with 2 unanswered question. How do I get a clean install while preserving activation? Is it a simple as installing with a dummy key and replacing it with the MSDM key post install, or does Windows itself look for a MSDM table and pull the key during setup? Also will these systems also have an OA2.1 SLIC entry for installing previous OSs?