[Mike0001]

My daughter bought a Dell XPS about 2 months ago with Vista Home Premium on it.

This evening when it started up it produced the famous box saying the product key is invalid, and giving a few options. It rejects the key printed on the CoA on the back and Dell has a 30 minute wait on its premium line, at 5p a minute.

[thingie2]

Have you tried calling the microsoft support line?

[evilfantasy]

You can do online chat for free. Go here, enter the Service Tag and click Submit.

I've chatted with them a few times, they're OK most of the time.

[Mike0001]

Originally Posted by evilfantasy You can do online chat for free. Go here, enter the Service Tag and click Submit. I've chatted with them a few times, they're OK most of the time.

She says everyone is busy!

[evilfantasy]

Figures lol. I can't remember what it was I called for but do remember they were pretty quick to resolve the question. Might be worth the wait.....

[thingie2]

yea, afterall the cost of the phoneline isn't that bad, at 5P a min, even if you do need to wait for 30 mins, that's still only £1.50

[philthomas]

Mike .... try rebooting the Laptop a few times .... with a bit of luck, on reboot it will give you some options, such as Activate by phone .... if you then phone the number quoted and provide the product key, they will call you back some numbers to input, which will reactivate it. It may need a further reboot after the input.

[Mike0001]

Originally Posted by thingie2 yea, afterall the cost of the phoneline isn't that bad, at 5P a min, even if you do need to wait for 30 mins, that's still only £1.50

and at the end of that all they had to offer was reinstall Windoze, which I could have done anyway!

Vista validation requires activation (which it has been, but claims not to be)
Activation requires access to the initial activation screen (which never appears)
Running an upgrade installation is disabled on booting from the CD
Running a CD in Windoze is disabled, you can only browse the internet

Sheesh!:ma d:

Linux FTW!

She asked Dell how she was to save her files before reinstalling and drew a blank. Linux?

[Mike0001]

Originally Posted by philthomas Mike .... try rebooting the Laptop a few times .... with a bit of luck, on reboot it will give you some options, such as Activate by phone .... if you then phone the number quoted and provide the product key, they will call you back some numbers to input, which will reactivate it. It may need a further reboot after the input.

It does give the option to activate by phone, but the instructions say to click the activation icon in the system tray, etc. Now given that it runs in a "limited" mode without a system tray, indeed without a task bar or start menu, that would be a miraculous accomplishment!

Oh, and the M$ support line closed at 6pm!

Anyway, she has stomped off upstairs now and slammed her door!

[philthomas]

LOL .... that's kids for you.

When she calms down and lets you near it again, try this page.