Product ID, Vista OEM vs Vista Retail questions

I somehow managed to recover my 20 day old HP dv9500t notebook using the recovery disks and one of the solutions posted on this website.

However, the problem is that Windows Vista needs to be activated again. I used the product key on the back of notebook but it says its an invalid ID. Called Microsoft Activation hotline who tried to activate it but failed with the same result. The guy tranferred me to Microsoft tech support and they said they can't help me because its an OEM license.

I don't want to go thru the nightmare of calling HP again. Does anyone know what the problem is?

Second question: I have an upgrade copy of Windows Vista Home Premium that I bought from CompUSA long time ago and have never used. Would it be possible to use the upgrade copy to upgrade the OEM version of Vista? Obviously, I would have to use the prod key of the the version I bought but I guess that's better at this point than pulling my hair out while talking to HP.

Thanks!

 

The way you recovered your system could be causing this problem. When you had the failed recovery discs, were those ones that you burned yourself, or were those ones you paid HP to include when you bought it?

If they were not burned, try to burn new discs yourself if the HP recovery manager is installed. There's info on doing that on some of the papers that came with the system. You'll need 2 DVD+R discs to do it.

The goal here would be to burn the discs and then do a recovery off of them. That would install Vista with the correct key and properly activated. Then you can backup the key and activation, and use it whenever you need it in the future.

Yeah, this is all a pain, but HP didn't do enough testing.

 

I used the 2 recovery disks that HP sent.

The way the system has recovered is not really perfect and so I can't do what you said. I noticed that the primary disk partition (C:\) is only 25 GB and rest of the space is not allocated. I do see the SWSetup folder.

 

I just realized that what I was thinking of doing won't work in this case. Because of the way you interrupted the recovery, it's hard to say what state your system is in right now.

To get some information about the activation status, open a command prompt as administrator (right click and choose "run as administrator" and type:

Code:

slmgr.vbs -dlv All

and look through that. If you post it here, it might be useful in helping figure out the situation, just make sure to hide your product key if that's listed.

Otherwise, you can try to change the product key and retype the one on the bottom of the laptop by going into the system control panel. It will then ask you to activate online, but that will probably fail. Then you'll need to call MS and try to do it by phone again

 

Hmm that's weird. What I do when my Vista activation doesn't work:
Call Microsoft hotline > Key in 65535 digit activation ID > Automated activation failed, do you have another key? If not, hold the line.....
.....
Agent: Are you installing this first time?
Me: Yes/no depending on my mood.
Agent: Are you installing this on same PC?
Me: Yes, I switched hard disks, but same PC.
Agent: Generating new activation ID.
( Reads 65535 digit code )
( Types it in )
( Activate )
Agent: Thank you for calling Microsoft.
Me: Have a nice day!

I always thought the activation hotline agents can generate new activation keys on the fly because that method always work for me.

 

i dont know how Vista activation works, but in XP you cant use an OEM key on a retail version..... legally.

but Vista may have changed, it cant hurt to try it. but if you used the recovery disks, i didnt think you would need to activate it.

 

I think it's the same with Vista, i.e. OEM disks won't support retail keys and vice versa. The recovery DVDs have the activation keys inserted into them already, so no activation is necessary. In fact, if they're like XP, the activation key is the same for most HP notebooks because it's a standard image which would work only with HP BIOSes.

 

OREV: As I said, I have already tried to type the product key from behind the notebook and it has failed. I will try the slmgr.vbs utility when I go home.

CHRISXX: Call to MS did not work out. They directed me to HP, cuz of OEM license.

 

Not true. All Vista discs are identical*. Retail, OEM, and Anytime Upgrade are exactly identical. The thing that makes the difference is the license key you have. That unlocks whatever functionality you are allowed to have with your version. It does not check other license terms like if you bought the OEM vs Retail version, etc...

* 32bit and 64bit discs are different.

 

I am curious what the big deal is with retail vs OEM. From my reading it does not appear that any feature is disabled in the OEM version...it's just that you are supposed to get help from the company that built your PC instead of M$.

Is it worth to go through so much trouble for M$ for this? Wasn't there another easy way of accomplishing this?

 

The difference is the license terms. OEM cannot be moved to another computer if you bought a new one, while the retail version can be moved.

 

What happens if I install a RETAIL UPGRADE version of Home Premium that I purchased from BestBuy over OEM Home Premium AND use my retail version key/ID?

 

nothing.... you will now be using your own retail license key.