Product Inactivation

Here's one I never heard of:

Tonight, there were two Microsoft Updates that I loaded for my Lenovo 3000 N100. They were updates for the wireless and the integrated Video. They installed and the system rebooted. When Vista Business rebooted, I was informed that the system no longer had a valid activation key.

I attempted to enter the Key from the sticker on the botton and Vista rejected the number. Product support had me reset the BIOS and that did no good. I was then told that Microsoft would have to issue a new key. The Microsoft Electronic Key Office (in this case) is only open Monday-Fri 9-5 PST.

Fortunately, I have a good image backup of the system and am going to try that and see what will happen but this is really a strange.

 

I never figured out the cause, beyond possibly a dead CMOS battery, but I had an old desktop that was like that...I had to reactivate Windows ALMOST every time I rebooted (granted, I learned my lesson quickly, so I tended to only reboot about once a month). That system was completely offline, so I had to call Microsoft's stupid automated activation line, and I know I had to get a new key generated at least twice.

 

This is a new system BUT it has a happy ending!

She who has a good backup lives to reboot another day! Thank you Vista Complete PC Backup!

 

I had a video driver and BIOS update come down through System Update and had to call and speak to a human to beg and grovel to get my legitimate Windows Vista license reactivated. This is indeed nuts.