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    After uninstalling AMD Catalyst my Win7 became "not genuine", now I can't do anything.

    Discussion in 'ASUS Gaming Notebook Forum' started by superstardeejay, Jun 25, 2015.

  1. superstardeejay

    superstardeejay Notebook Enthusiast

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    I'm not at all an expert on computers, so my G73JH has been with its factory Win7 setup since I bought it in 2010. I've updated the Catalyst since then, but never actually uninstalled the whole Catalyst Control Center until today. Today I just wanted to update my graphics driver and I thought that uninstalling the whole CCC and then installing the new version would be ok. So, after uninstalling CCC and restarting, all hell broke loose: I get a message telling me my Windows is not genuine, I get prompts to type in my Windows product key (I don't now it? Where the hell is it?), I can't do anything in Windows because Windows Explorer keeps crashing, I can't use Recovery because it says it's turned off (I know it was ON before all this happened), and now when I go and try to turn it on, Windows Explorer crashes. Even installing the new Catalyst and then restarting doesn't change anything with Windows. How can I bring my Windows back the way it was? If I can make Windows work properly, then I could probably use Recovery without crashing and could revert back to when I had the old CCC installed.
    (Maybe this is of some significance: I migrated my System drive to an SSD about two months ago, but there never were any problems. I thought I'd mention it in case it might have something to do with my current problem.)
     
    superstardeejay, Jun 25, 2015
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  2. superstardeejay

    superstardeejay Notebook Enthusiast

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    OK, I found the sticker with the Windows product key and WINDOWS IS STILL BROKEN. The only thing that changed is it doesn't say that my copy is not genuine anymore. Everything else is completely the same as above. Help!
     
    superstardeejay, Jun 25, 2015
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  3. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    So you still get prompts for a key?
     
    Meaker@Sager, Jun 26, 2015
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  4. superstardeejay

    superstardeejay Notebook Enthusiast

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    Prompts for a key is the only thing I don't get anymore, so I guess the problem lies elsewhere, because nothing else has changed.
     
    superstardeejay, Jun 26, 2015
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  5. C4RN1

    C4RN1 Notebook Consultant

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    C4RN1, Jun 26, 2015
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  6. superstardeejay

    superstardeejay Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thanks, this whole thing was getting too overwhelming for me, so I went the easy route - used my old HDD to re-migrate my SSD, now everything's pretty much back to normal.
    The only question is why the G73 windows is soooo dependent on this Catalyst thingy.
     
    superstardeejay, Jun 26, 2015
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  7. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    It's not, it's just the change to a hardware device (removing display drivers so vga description would have become standard vga) triggered the windows license detector to determine the hardware was too different and to device se the machine. Microsoft have coded it badly basically.
     
    Meaker@Sager, Jun 26, 2015
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  8. pato

    pato Notebook Evangelist

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    Or you reached your 3 hardware changes that you can do before you need to re-validate. Like chaning the hdd, different gpu (from uninstalling the drivers) and maybe a ram upgrade or the second hdd.
     
    pato, Jun 27, 2015
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  9. Meaker@Sager

    Meaker@Sager Company Representative

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    If it happens, go through phone validation to re-activate it and it should return to normal.
     
    Meaker@Sager, Jun 28, 2015
    #9