I need to activate my Vista key...

I bought an HP dv9925nr laptop about a month ago. I did a clean install on it using a Vista disc that my grandparents owned, though I used a program that saved my Vista key to a flash drive then reused that key after the clean install. It worked fine and has been working fine for the last month, that is until about a minute ago. I restarted my computer because it was really slow (restart it about every week) and when it rebooted it said my key was invalid and that I needed to type in a new one. This came out of nowhere, I haven't had a problem before, haven't installed any drivers or software recently, have kept up to date on my anti-virus, spyware, etc. stuff, in fact I just ran all the checks last night, everything was running good.

What should I do? I have a valid key, it was with the laptop when I bought it from Best Buy, I transferred it after the clean install but I used the one I had before, and it worked. I can't remember if I wrote down that key, if I did my mom might have thrown it away because we're trying to move and she's just been tossing everything. Should I ignore the warning, I thought you only had 30 days to enter a key, is that true here? Can I find that key on the bottom of my laptop? Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

Your key should be on your COA.

 

Ok, so that's on the bottom of the laptop? Which number is that? I'm guessing it's the real pretty Microsoft label, most likely the "Product Key"? Sorry if I sound really stupid, just don't want to screw this up.

 

The key on the bottom that you described is the key, yes. The key you pulled is a blanket key that HP used on their base image of the OS. This happens on pretty much all OEM PCs.

 

Ok, because I remember the guide I used to do the clean install (it's the sticky over in the HP section) said to use the key that came on the computer and not the one on the bottom of the laptop, apparantly there were different. I'll try the key on the bottom and report back.

 

It probably said to use the one on the bottom of the laptop and not the one that software pulls.

 

Oh, maybe it did, not sure. So this thing is common by using the software pulls? That seems kind of dumb in the first place.

Anyway I my internet is faulty so I had to use Microsoft's automated phone system to activate it, one of the worst things I've had to go through but it worked! Thanks guys for your help, you're the best!

 

Glad it worked out for you. Also that automated phone system is not bad, I call it 5-6 times a week, it's on my cell's speed dial >_>

I find it relaxing but maybe that's because I work in a high pressure industry.

 

Well maybe it's not that the systems bad but that I don't know how to properly enunciate because it couldn't distinquish "continue" from "repeat again." I'm surprised my roommate wasn't laughing because I was pretty much shouting near the end. Not sure how you endure that so often!

 

I don't actually talk, I just press 1 or 2. You can type in the key on your keypad, and you can hit 1 for yes/repeat and 2 for no/continue

 

Oh, I guess that would have been nice to know before hand, I'll try to remember that for next time. Thanks again!