Hi, so I have a MOBO Z77, that has an UEFI "bios" or whatever. Well I had an AIO of Windows 8 RTM that I used on it with no issues to install Windows 8 Professional VL, and activate via KMS manually, no issues. However when I tried to reformat and re-install from the same DVD, it would ask me for a key, no matter what, and it seemed to remember at the ifrst screen that I had chose US English as language on it, where the DVD originally had UK English by default before choosing from the AIO. How can this UEFI remember after formatting the only drive it has completely with G-parted, and Parted MAgic, and also removing its MRB, and any partition in it? PS: just out of curiosity I chose the RESET option in Windows 8, and it re-installed Windows 8 as a "Release Preview" with a watermark, that would activate via KMS but not remove the watermark, or let itself be customized (fully activated)
I know this: If its asking for a key then the setup doesn't find a key stored in the bios. (Computers with keys in the bios [shipped with Windows 8] will be detected by setup and install the correct version that key is for) You didn't install from a DVD that has a EI.CFG that has been set to VL.
What is the source of this DVD,since you are saying, that you were able to install and activate properly the first time, so there is no problem with the EI.cfg,since it is just a normal MOBO, i guess there isn't any serial embedded in it.
I love you. In a non sexual way. I thought of everything except this, and for reasons unknown to me, the DVD I burned and used successfully, now has a missing ei.cfg, after a few uses, on different machines. I looked inside the Sources folder, and it was gone. I tried moving a copy of ei.cfg into that already burned DVD, but no go... no problems thought, I installed the same ISO through a USB stick, to save a DVD. Yes, it was the same DVD... but I have no clue how the ei.cfg could be deleted on its own, specially off a burned DVD.
Hardly to believe, still possible that just the sector where the ei.cfg is located are damaged. As I understand, the OP has the ISO Image file so he should firstly create an SHA-1 Checksum from that ISO and compare with the MS original for to see he really has an "virgin" ISO. After that, burn again to an new DVD or better use an USB Flashdrive because that could be re-used if anything goes wrong. Now try again to install.