Vista OEM DVD won't accept Gateway Key

I'm trying to do a fresh install off a Vista Home Premium 64-bit OEM DVD I bought for my other PC (full version, just OEM to save money). Of course I want to use the Product Key from my Gateway, but when I go to install, it won't accept my Product Key. I have double and triple checked the key code from the bottom of my Gateway.

I've done this lots of times with XP OEM CD's with no issue on other PC's.

They're both Vista Home Premium 64-bit.

 

Weird, I just downloaded a product key extractor ( ProduKey), and the key there is different than what's on the bottom of my Gateway! Could it be one is for the Gateway DVD and the other is actully the Vista key?

edit: Holy crap! I just did a google for my extracted product key and it shows up as a useable OEM key! But the one on the bottom of my Gateway returns no hits. ?

I went under "change product key" to the one on the bottom of my Gateway and it activated fine. This is strange.

 

It won't work.

This has been gone over before, but I'll go over it again.

The CD Keys on Vista OEM stickers are worthless. They don't mean anything and they aren't worth anything. You need the installation media from Gateway - or you need someone to make it for you.

I had to go through the same thing. Since Gateway didn't have media (and they still effing don't... which is retarded), I ended up using a torrent version of Vista x64 Ultimate and it works like a champ.

*EDIT*
Very cool - that should be the real key. I'll try that.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=351738&highlight=Gateway

Link for informational purposes...

 

yea its worthless it wouldnt work for any oem version on my machine either so i just ordered a cd from gateway again. Ill use that thing you said and maybe i can get the real cd key off my machine.

Another note supposebly our motherboards store our cd key info, thats why when you install off a gateway cd, it doesnt ask for the cd key and theres no need to activate.

 

Actually, the copy of Vista on the Gateway DVD's is a pre-activated volume licensed version. As long as the hardware is the same as what the DVD is expecting to see, it won't ask you to activate your copy.

As for your CD key on the bottom of your system, it IS valid and DOES work, just not with the OEM version of Vista.... but it will work with the MSDN (aka Volume Licensed) version.

 

hmm will it work with a torrent of a msdn version? or just the version from gateway? probably just gateway since its looking for a certain hardware config right?

 

Read what I said again... You completely missed what I'm obviously telling you.

 

This is true, I put the Vista Home Premium disk that came with my P172X FX in a 15inch Gateway M**** series that had Vista Home Basic on it and and it installed Home Premium on it with out asking for a key.

 

Manufacturers like Gateway that comes preinstalled with Vista use a method called OEM SLP activation called SLP 2.0. OEM SLP 2.0 requires 3 components to pre-activate your Vista:
1. SLIC table in your BIOS.
2. Digital Certificate that "matches" the SLIC table in your BIOS.
3. OEM SLP product key.

Without going into too much detail, here are a few facts:
1. Any Vista machine that comes preinstalled and preactivated using OEM:SLP method will have the SLIC table in the BIOS.

2. The digital certificate can be extracted from a factory installation of Vista. There are tools out there that can do this or you can do it manually.

3. The OEM SLP key is the key that is used internally in your system and is different from the sticker. The key on the sticker is a OEM COA key which has been disabled at the factory.

4. Gateway SLIC table, Gateway digital certificate, and Gateway OEM SLP key has already been extracted and widely available on the internet.

5. The OEM SLP key is NOT manufacturer specific but it is version specific.

So, get yourself a copy of the gateway digital certificate and you can install any version of Vista.

 

Download ABR (activation backup and restore) from this guide so you dont need to enter any keys or call M$.

 

Come to find out the key I extracted from my PC was a universal OEM key. Strange that with the default Gateway Vista load that came pre-installed (and assuming on DVD) I could download MS updates no problem, and it only had this universal OEM key in the registry.

When I did a clean Vista install, I had to use the extracted key, but before I could do any MS updates, I had to enter the key on the bottom of my machine.

Oh well, it works nevertheless. I just have to keep ahold of the "real" Vista key if I ever need to reinstall.

 

htwingnut,

did you do a clean install with vista64? I do not have the gateway os disk with my 7805 ( no disk shipped).

 

I did a clean install with a Vista 64 OEM disk I had from my other PC. It's a full Vista Home Premium x64 version, not an OEM brewed install DVD with all the other crapware on it.

The DVD that came with my Gateway just wipes your hard drive completely clean and you have little choice what else to do.