Windows Xp Activation Thing

A

Aztlan

2[H]4U
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Aug 3, 2002
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well, i have this system, Athlon Xp 2400+, 1 gb pc 2700 ram , 9700 pro+ asus A7N8X deluxe board
i originally installed windows xp pro and activated it with the same system but the hd was a 80 gb WD HD

now today i install windows xp pro on the same machine but with a 36 gb raptor drive
more like an upgrade to that system, but it keeps asking me to activate it, and when i do , the stupid thing comes and says that i exceeded the activation of the computer
argghhh
explanation please

sorry if this is the wrong forum
 
This would do better in the Operating Systems Forum but doesnt matter awhole lot. Look for the activate by telephone number and call Microsoft. Tell them what you did (just put on a new HDD) and they will give you a new activation number so you can activate it. It only takes 5 minutes.
 
I guess i will have to do that *Sigh*
but my question is, do i have to do that everytime i changed a little hardware
i thaught that this only happened when changing the motherboard
 
Hehe, I first bought Windows XP Proffessional, but I switched later on to the corporate version for just this sort of reason. It is unreasonable beyond words to require the user to make a call every time they change a little hardware and then go through a bunch of steps to fix it. I'm still pretty ticked off at Microsoft for this.

Oh, and btw, I think first and foremost it's the network card (if you have one) to watch out for. I think that I heard it uses the MAC address on it, so if you remove/change the card you will have to reactivate just because of that. Of course, it uses more than that to generate the whole hardware information thing.
 
Originally posted by Nazo
Hehe, I first bought Windows XP Proffessional, but I switched later on to the corporate version for just this sort of reason
Click to expand...

but i bet it cost you a petty penny right?
 
I'll be perfectly honest. My dad is software engineer at a company where he is able to get discounts on things like that. In fact, it was partially just a gift on a birthday (if someone says nerd, I kill them!) so I only paid a small amount of the real cost.
 
I moved and of course changed high speed access and when it was installed and rebooted, I got the reinstall message :p I just used the internet thingy this time and it flew through without a hitch...btw this is the fifth time I have had to reinstall, but never had to call MS. Not sure what the triggering factor is......
 
i've never had to call to activate. i've done a couple mobo switches, changed hard drives, cd/dvd's but there's usually been several months between major changes. just lucky i guess
 
Yeah, the whole system they use is weird. One person changes a harddrive and has to reactivate, another changes half their hardware and doesn't. The whole system is stupid if you ask me. Why do you have to go through a hassle to make your operating system work just because you change a little hardware? I mean, if you go from AMD to Intel or the other way around, I can understand having to reinstall, but not just from minor crap...
 
It does have something to do with time IIRC. Such as a certain hardware change in 5 months or whatever I dunno but I do remember hearing something like that.
 
I have changed out every single piece of equipment in my comp save the case, but it has been done over a long period of time in drips and drabs, so you may be on to something. It has to be some equation MS dreamed up with component replacement and time span ratio...maybe the reason I have never had to phone home......
 
Microsoft even said that time as well as parts changes the need for activation. The more time that elapses, Microsoft realizes people are going to change parts and upgrade stuff. So they have time elapsed since initial install as part of the algorhythm (it's really more than a single algorhythm, but still). If you change out a lot of stuff in a short amount of time—around three months (90 days)—then it gets flagged and needs reactivation. And the list of hardware has different levels of how it is flagged: the CPU is a higher flag than the NIC, but lower than the mobo. I read a detailed run-down before, but I wouldn't know where a link for one would be. However, to attempt to give an idea of how it works:

Let's just say that
  • Motherboard == 5 points
  • HDD == 4 points
  • CPU == 3 points
  • RAM == 2 points
  • Vid Card == 1 point
  • Sound Card == 0.75 points
  • NIC == 0.5 points

That brings us to 16.25 points for this hypothetical machine.

Now, let's also say that
  • First 7 days == # of points of part x 3, plus total number of points of last new hardware since initial install or reactivation
  • First 30 days == # of points of part x 2.5, plus total number of points of last new hardware since initial install or reactivation
  • First 90 days == # of points of part x 2, plus total number of points of last new hardware since initial install or reactivation
  • After 90 days == # of points of part x 1.5, plus total number of points of last new hardware

The points don't just stay static, though, so let's say that
  • First 30 days of new hardware install (after initial install), the points from new hardware stay accumulated
  • After 60 days, if no new hardware is added, points are cut to half the number of points accumulated for the last part
  • After 90 days, if no new hardware is added, total number of points accumulated for last part are removed

Now, there is more to it than this simplification, but just stick with me on this. Now, our totall number of points is 16.25 right now, so let's say that the OS counter is at zero. Two weeks after I install the OS, I buy a vid card and stick it in that bad boy. Well, since it's been two weeks, and since the vid card is one point, the OS counter goes up to 2.5. However, I find that I had two sticks of RAM from my last machine that will fit this box, so I stick them in as well. Bang—another two shots of five points, making my total 12.5 accumulated points. A month later, I get a better CPU.

Time for re-activation.

I get a bit annoyed, but at least now everything is reset, right? not exactly. Now, the total points is raised to 20.25 because the extra RAM is in, but the total is still at 18.5 for the next 30 days (2.5 for the vid card replacement, 5 for one stick of RAM, 5 for another stick of RAM, 6 points for the CPU). Since it's "reset"—I just reactivated, didn't I—I decide to stick a new sound card in there.

What the heck?!? Why do I have to reactivate? :eek:

I have to reactivate because the counter never went down when I reactivated before, and I added a sound card (total 2.25 for the first seven days) to a total accumulated count of 20.75, 0.5 over my hardware points count.

Stupid Microsoft. I only change a sound card and I have to re-activate! This sucks! :mad:

Of course, the above italicized statement is incorrect, though I wouldn't have known it if I wasn't aware of the basic idea of how activation works. Instead, I'll be pissed off because I have to reactivate after one little thing, not paying attention to how it's the frequency and level of hardware changes, along with the elapsed time between changes that causes me to wind up having to reactivate. There is a complex and comprehensive system to how the OS knows to reactivate, but I'm not seeing it because I've pretty much given no thought to the prior changes I made over a month ago. Instead, I am seeing what happens after I change something small after already having to reactivate. If I kept having to reactivate repeatedly within 6 months, I'd have to call the number for reactivation, which would be another annoyance. All the while, I would be getting pissed because I don't understand the system.

You can argue the "right"-ness of it all you want. However, the system is not stupid, it is not random, and it is not trying to make life hard on anyone but those who like to use "free" (meaning illegal) copies of their OS. Of course, the system definitely needs to be tweaked, and it's far from perfect—people who regularly change out hardware get especially annoyed—but it's because the system has been put through as many lab tests as possible, but the real world is never like a lab, and things always happen that are not expected. Hopefully, the next revision of Windows is going to have a better system for their OS activation (or maybe they'll forego it, but I doubt it), but their system works and is seamless to the vast majority of legitimate users for the OS. The best way to possibly do something toward improving the system is to send info Via the feedback form with a basic run-down of what led to the reactivation. A warning, though: messages like "WTF, I hate windoze activation, you suck" will probably be ignored and deleted.

Once again, the explanation I gave here is way simplified, and the process is much more complex and has more variables than I gave, but I don't know all the details, so the most honest explanation I can give is a basic one.
 
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