Is this normal?

[jbltecnicspro]

So my brother has an older Acer netbook. It's a decent little dude that could probably use some more RAM (it's running 2GB). But for the price we paid a few years ago, it's not bad at all. He gets it infected with viruses. I mean - the whole nine yards. This computer is screwed beyond belief. Rather than try and nix all of it for hours on end, I decide to do a nuke and pave job.

1. The computer's OEM product key was faded off. (What the fuck is with these new OEM stickers and being made of paper? My 9-year-old Emachines laptop still has its Windows product key because it's laminated!)
2. So I pull the key off the computer itself using software recovery.
3. I proceed to install Windows 7 Home Premium and punch the product key in. It takes.
4. Next time I see my brother (about a couple of months later), I see that the OS is now saying that the key isn't genuine. Okay...
5. I "change product key" to his original key just to see what it says (I reenter the same key, essentially). Says that the BIOS doesn't match.
6. I call Microsoft who tells me that Acer has locked the key and that I need to call them.
7. I call Acer who says that since the netbook is out of warranty, I cannot receive phone support (WTF?!) but can receive PAY-per-support from a THIRD PARTY!
8. Instead, I opt to chat with their reference (AnswersBy), and it doesn't work.

So... At the end of the day, we only have three real options. The first is to continue to use the netbook despite not having access to security updates and such (a big "no", but my brother doesn't care). Second option is to purchase another Windows 7 license. Third is to say "fuck it" and install Linux, which I want to do. But it's not my computer, and my brother doesn't want to go that route.

Is this normal? Can an OEM actually lock an OS key? And before anyone asks - the computer came with zero restore discs. It doesn't even have a recovery partition (it didn't have one when I restored it either, which is weird...). The only thing I remember it having was a piece of software that allowed you to burn your own Acer restore discs (three DVDs), and it crashed every time we tried it years back.

 

[rudy]

Well I have never heard of an OEM locking a key, but who knows.

DId you try to just call MS and do the automated activation and just say that only 1 computer has that device. Every time I have every tried to do that OEM key or not, doesn't matter where the key originated from it has always worked so long as I saw only 1 computer has that key.

 

[XenIneX]

Computers haven't come with actual product keys for quite a while. They have a OEM-specific OS version which authenticates against the BIOS. The certificate on the bottom isn't worth the paper it's printed on. Used to be Microsoft would give you a proper key for a clean install, but I've heard heard reports of them cracking down of late.

According to Acer's support tree, you can purchase recovery media here. No idea what their price is; I'd expect somewhere around $15 (+s&h).

 

[Meaker]

You coukd maybe look into an SLIC modded bios.....

 

[jbltecnicspro]

Computers haven't come with actual product keys for quite a while. They have a OEM-specific OS version which authenticates against the BIOS. The certificate on the bottom isn't worth the paper it's printed on. Used to be Microsoft would give you a proper key for a clean install, but I've heard heard reports of them cracking down of late.

According to Acer's support tree, you can purchase recovery media here. No idea what their price is; I'd expect somewhere around $15 (+s&h).

Boom! This is what I needed. Thank you. I swear I looked around their site for this last night, but I didn't find it. Oh well - that's what work can do to a person. I still don't understand why they don't just include the damn OS disc. I understand that no one does this anymore, but it's still very annoying.

I guess Microsoft started doing this recently. I can use my old Dell Windows XP install discs on any computer in the house, and use their CD-key, and everything is just peachy.

 

[jbltecnicspro]

Well I have never heard of an OEM locking a key, but who knows.

DId you try to just call MS and do the automated activation and just say that only 1 computer has that device. Every time I have every tried to do that OEM key or not, doesn't matter where the key originated from it has always worked so long as I saw only 1 computer has that key.

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, it wasn't an option. I never found the phone numbers for my area. Windows 7 didn't allow me to see the phone number option. Oh well. I'm just going to link my brother to the replacement media linked in this thread.