Windows license question?

I worked on one of my teacher's computers a few months ago.

All of a sudden she is telling me that she gets this message which flashes on her desktop:

"this copy of windows may be counterfit and is not allowing usual updates for windows" etc.

So what does this mean,
is this a legit message or is it some kind of virus.

I reinstalled her copy of windows back in October. Its the disc she got from Dell back in like 2002


So what do I do to get around this/fix it
I am 100% sure it is a legit copy of Windows

K-TRON

 

Call MS and make the windows genuine for free. I forgot the 1800 number, but it's on MS"s support site. It takes 5 minutes to go through everything and one their tech support computers (no human tech support person involved, all automated) will revalidate windows XP and make it genuine again.

 

If she got the disk from _Dell back in 2002, then that's got to be XP SP1 or XP SP1a; in either case, if you didn't upgrade to at least SP2, it's possible that the updating system is simply reacting in a "clumsy" way to the fact that the service pack your teacher's computer is running is no longer supported by Microsoft.

 

So could this message be shut off?
if I shut off automatic updates through MSCONFIG, wouldnt that get rid of the message?

I found the licensing page on Windows site, but I do not see a phone number:
http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/cu_sc_prodact_master#tab1

K-TRON

 

Why not just get the thing as up-to-date as possible, and sidestep the issue of supressing the message?

 

Its a P4 celeron at like 1.8GHz I think, its might slow. SP2 would crawl on it

I will see what I can do, thanks guys.
If only microsoft had there phone number for activation. I will have to check if the number is labeled on my Dell Windows discs

I will be going over sometime this week to check it out for her, Hopefully its an easy fix

K-TRON

 

A 1.8 GHz P4 celeron shouldn't have any trouble dealing with XP SP2 or even SP3, so long as it has adequate RAM available. My old VAIO is of almost the same vintage - I bought it in February 2003 - and has a 1.3GHz centrino (I believe it's a Pentium M - the codename was Banias) and 768MB of RAM (PC2700). That old VAIO has no problem running XP Pro SP3 - where it bogs down is with apps like GIMP and the like.

I also have an old _Dell desktop with a 2.4GHz Pentium 4 and 2GB RAM that makes mincemeat out of what XP Pro SP3 throws at it.

 

There were performance improvements in both SP2 and SP3 of XP.

You can do even better by selectivly setting services to manual or disabled. Be sure you know what you are doing though.

It would probably cost 'small money' to stuff that machine with as much ram as it could handle. Maxing out an older systems ram is generally the only thing one can do to extend it's useful life.

 

SP3 would make it run smoother and faster d00d, you need to install SP3 ASAP

 

yeah sp2 or sp3 will only make it faster. they imporved memory allociation and things along those lines. if its like a dell/gateway/sony/hp and so on pc why dont you get an oem of that company disc and rebuild the pc.

 

You should install all XP Service Packs, they won't make the machine slower.

Microsoft may have marked the license key that is being used for the copy of XP as illegal, which may have various reasons that your teacher most likely doesn't have anything to do with.
If you know that it's a genuine license key (and it should be if it's the one that came directly from Dell) then you should indeed call Microsoft and explain everything. They will check it then. You won't get into trouble.

Hope that helped you,
Christoph

 

A number of OEM keys from Dell, HP, Compaq, etc were blacklisted because they got out in the wild so while they worked for the install when windows update loaded WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) Windows began giving these messages.

When you get this message, you click on the error balloon and it takes you to the page with the phone number on it. You will not be able to use the automated process and will be kicked to an tech support person from India.

Explain that you reinstalled the system, that you used the key on your Certificate of Authenticitym and that this license of windows is only installed on a single machine.

She/He will give you a new installation ID to plug in and you will be back up and computer in about 6 minutes.

 

Ah-hah! Mystery solved, by the ever-astute Gerry! That makes a lot more sense than anything else put up here.

 

makes sense..it could also be a virus as well...

 

Thank you so much Gerry
I will try this when I call her up tomorrow

I would like to upgrade the system however it has a 60gb 4200rpm desktop drive which isnt exactly fast. It has 2gb of PC3200 memory in it but it still crawls because of the harddrive. I told her a new hareddrive would make it faster, but she will not allow me to upgrade the harddrive.

K-TRON

 

gerry is correct.

 

She probably fears losing data.

Make an image of the harddrive, restore the image to a faster drive, then resize (expand) the image on the new drive.

This way, when you start, you can assure her that if she doesn't like the end result, you can drop the old, slow drive right back in there for her.