Window OEM Licence

[IanB]

I cant answer this but I am interested in your answer. As I mentioned earlier I do have a hard drive with Windows 7 on it from my previous Dell laptop. I thought I could've possibly used this in the Acer?

In the scenario I described I put the new disk back in the same machine, not a different machine. The Windows activation looks at the rest of the hardware and checks that it still matches the original activation record. If you tried to put the disk in a different machine it would ask for re-activation.

[westfw]

I would love to see an explanation of how a laptop originally sold with windows would somehow legitimately lose that license.  I keep seeing that replacing the hard drive can do this, but I'm not sure I see why.  Does the old drive take the license with it (if it contained an already-authenticated version of windows?)  Presumably the same license key could be re-used by some other system (I mean, the most likely reason for my particular problem involves the reseller doing some sort of bulk SW upgrade with a license string that shouldn't have been used in that way.)  But that says a bunch of bad things about microsoft's ability to keep legitimate resellers (toshiba, best buy) behaving properly :-(

On the plus side, a W8 "un-verifiefd" system gives you access to your data, and actually does quite a bit, so it's not like they're shutting you out completely from backup images/etc.

That you have to have your laptop "serviced" to correct a license issue is laughable. :-(

[miguelvp]

If I buy a bunch of systems and place them on lease and after the lease is over the company that leased them don't want to purchase them I have a lot of systems in various states and I don't have the original keys.

I can then sell those systems to a refurbisher, in which case they are the ones that will have to purchase OEM licenses so they can sell them for cheap.

If you get a refurbisher that is not doing things by the book, I guess you can end up with a system where the license count expired, or the hardware has changed enough (for example a replaced IC), as in they are trying to reuse previous licenses or some other methods. I think the burden falls on the refurbisher not Acer nor Microsoft.

It's not like you can go to a store and write down the license of a system in display and use it, most likely it will fail because it was already allocated to that system and somewhat preregistered or inactive.

Think about an iTunes gift card at the store that you never ring. It's brand new but since it wasn't purchased yet it's not valid until properly validated at the register via whatever software needs to run to activate it. So you could get a brand new iTunes card that was never scratched but it will be useless.

There are probably a lot of things happening behind the scenes when your purchase a valid system that grey systems might not activate, or something like that.

[HackedFridgeMagnet]

Right, now we're getting somewhere, so it's an Australian company, not a private individual and it's still within the warranty period which is very good.

Have you tried contacting them? It's the seller who should fix it for you and then they can (hopefully) recoup their costs form MS or Acer.

Acer is sending a courier to pick it up tomorrow. So I don't need to bother with ECom. But I am sure they are a legit business. Anyone in Sydney who walks down that part of Pitt street probably knows this shop. From memory it says 88 Pitt Street.
https://www.google.com.au/maps/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x6b12ae41b81115f5:0xc722f5d8129ce64d!2m5!2m2!1i80!2i80!3m1!2i100!3m1!7e1!4shttps://plus.google.com/114910389480303307516/photos?hl%3Den%26socfid%3Dweb:lu:kp:placepageimage%26socpid%3D1!5sECom+computers+-+Google+Search&sa=X&ei=k3R9VIH8POPvmAXB7IC4CQ&ved=0CLABEKIqMAs edit: Bricks and Mortar
Maybe it was refurbished, but it looked new when I bought it, AFAIRemember I bought it as new. Although it was the lowest price I could find, but close in price to the other sellers.

Acer has sent me lots of emails about that I have to read now about how to pack it and label it and not to put any other stuff in the package.
I wonder if Acer will fix the broken headphone jack that is stuck. I was going to pull the whole thing apart a month ago to fix it, lucky I didn't. I couldn't get it out using common web techniques.

I would love to see an explanation of how a laptop originally sold with windows would somehow legitimately lose that license.

When I talked to Microsoft they said that the Key was no longer valid as Acer had overused it. (Or words to that effect.) I am not sure that it was ever activated, maybe we tried and failed but didn't really care as the computer was working anyway. The light blue pop up screen every 30 minutes is new though, and this is the problem.

There are probably a lot of things happening behind the scenes when your purchase a valid system that grey systems might not activate, or something like that.

I am sure there is a lot of things going on behind the scenes but Acer is part of this deal because they gave me $75 cash back for buying it. The money was from Acer, not from anyone else, so I assume they know what is being sold.

In the scenario I described I put the new disk back in the same machine, not a different machine. The Windows activation looks at the rest of the hardware and checks that it still matches the original activation record. If you tried to put the disk in a different machine it would ask for re-activation.

The Dell machine is dead to the world, it got surged through the USB port. CPU runs very hot and immediately shuts down. All that I have salvaged is RAM and Hard Drive.

[Macbeth]

Honestly, just modify your BIOS with a SLIC 2.1 table, and get hold of any certificate that you can install using slimgr. Seriously, a couple of hours on My Digital Life forums will save you lots of aggravation.

Personally, I much prefer Linux, and for most people Libre Office, Chrome / Firefox, GIMP, etc. is all that is needed. For gamers, Steam supports Linux now as well.

Sadly, for us electronics or engineering dudes, pretty much all the software and drivers are Windows based.

Ok, we have KiCAD and sigrok which I will fully support with open source code additions myself when I get to make some! But really, Windows is it when it comes to drivers and stuff like that.

[HackedFridgeMagnet]

I did have a look at 'My Digital Life' and tried to download the tool to modify the BIOS. But my Antivirus went apoplectic (if that's a word).

Well the good new is that Acer have returned my son's laptop. 5 Days return to Sydney, short of catching the plane yourself you cant do it quicker, good work Star Trak couriers.

The Laptop is now activated.
It says

Windows(R), Core Edition:
This machine is permanently activated.

Thanks for coming to the party Acer. Yay.

They didn't fix the broken jack socket though, that's quite ok, I didn't really expect them to, I was just hoping.
Instead they did give me a nonsense coverall letter back regarding the repair.

All computers are required to pass our stringent quality control and diagnostic test. Our diagnostic test has been developed to ensure that your computer is fully functional before leaving our Repair Centre.

They need to add 'test headphone socket' to the QA manual then they'll be sorted.
It reaffirms the lack of assurance I get from Quality Assurance.

Anyway to further embellish the 'story' here is the letter.

[SeanB]

I think the "hardware test" is just making sure it booted, and had a display, and possibly the keyboard had at least a few working keys and a working trackpad. That and the POST test passed was likely all they did.

[Stonent]

Regarding the license checking. Back with XP I remember reading it monitored something like 5 different pieces of hardware and if 3 I think changed within a certain timespan it would put the computer into "Windows is not genuine" mode and start annoying you and if you went a certain amount of time without fixing it, it would prevent you from getting to the desktop until you contacted Microsoft support to reactivate the OS or you entered a new license key.

[HackedFridgeMagnet]

That and the POST test passed was likely all they did.

I guess this is true, and it makes sense, but they shouldn't embellish it to the point where it's no longer true.

From Acer

All computers are required to pass our stringent quality control and diagnostic test. Our diagnostic test has been developed to ensure that your computer is fully functional before leaving our Repair Centre.