I got a guy that I dont know to well but that I know through a friend whose wanting to start a business and all that goes along with it, but he wants to sell refurbished dell optiplexs. I know he said 260's models and maybe 240's I cant remember and those are so old now a day who knows for sure what the model number is but I am sure of the 260. Well anyways Hes trying to tell me that he has access to thousands of them for dirt cheap and needs a helper in making sure the hardware is all up to shape and working. I ask him does he have all the XP software for these computers to reinstall on them so that they are up and going to be sold. He tells me he clones them all. I get thinking about this and I ask him what do you mean clone them all and he tells me he clones all lets say he has 500 at the time with one hard drive he has that has a XP install that is a Dell factory install on it and nothing else added to it.. Basically he has a hard drive with a dell factory install with SP2 or 3 or maybe even 1 on it I didnt ask. I just went on to explain to him that he cant put the same clone on all of those machines even if they are exactly alike hardware wise due to the fact of licensing legalitys. I said this would end up putting the same product key on hundreds if not thousands of pc that he did this to and I know for one thats illegal. Then he goes to tell me that the product key is not on the cd or stored in the registry but they are all different because there are stored in the BIOS of each pc so different pc, different bios, different product key... I said now the activation code is stored is your BIOS not the product key. Well needless to say I was a little sharper than he thought I was because every time I put him on the spot about legality issues he instantly changed the subject and would go off on a totally different tangent. I was polite to the guy when I told him I would have to pass on this job opportunity. But I tell you one thing I sure the heck think hes up to something shady ( con-artist ) or hes doing a lot off illegal installations to dell computers...
Sorry so Long but had to be done to understand the situation I was approached with yesterday.....
Whats your take on this anyone???
Sorry so Long but had to be done to understand the situation I was approached with yesterday.....
Whats your take on this anyone???