Windows Activation not Working

I am hoping someone can please help me. I have a Dell Inspiron 6000 and my HD crashed. My warranty with Dell ended 12/24 so I couldn't get them to replace it. So I bought a new harddrive to install myself. Since I didn't have the Dell Partition (on the old crashed HD) I used an XP 11 in 1 CD I had and installed Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (which is the version I had orginally and I have the CD key for). When asked for activation I input my CD key which is on the sticker on my laptop and it says I can't activate Windows. I've tried over the telephone and they are no help. I am very very very frustrated. Please help!

Thanks,

Todd

 

Call them back again; if you've got a valid key it should be no problem for you to call Microsoft and get Windows activated.

 

I think the problem might be because you've installed from a retail copy of XP but are trying to validate using an OEM key. As painful as it will be, I would call up Microsoft's activation center again, explain to them that, even though the version you've installed is a retail version, you are trying to reactivate the OEM license that you paid for and see if that doesn't get through the bone twixt the ears on the other end of the line. Also, if the person who answers the phone doesn't seem to grasp what you're explaining, ask to speak to his or her manager, and work your way up the food chain until you find someone who can "get" it.

 

Unless I am mistaken (and I often am so take this with a grain of salt), there were no retail versions of Windows Media Center edition--only OEM editions.

There was a Media Center Edition, Media Center Edition 2004, and Media Center Edition 2005--the first two were available only to the big OEMs (dell, hp, etc), the third was available as a OEM to smaller system builders.

The problem is how your XP 11-in-1 cd was built. I've seen a few of these and they often have incorrect files. In order to get everything to load on one CD, they share common files and have different directories for the specific editions.

The end result is they sometimes use incorrect files or incorrect settings. The other likely possibility is that your key is Dell specific and the 11-in-1 is using a generic PID in the setupp.ini file that allowed you to setup, but not activate.

I think this is the most likely this latter case.

So, the question is--what do you do?

You may be able to edit your cd, particular the setupp.ini file with the appropriate PID. You may be able to find a dell-specific setup cd (I actually think it was a 2 cd set if I recall)

 

@Gerryf19: Thanks for the correction; my mistake for making assumptions!

 

I'd like to thank all of you who replied. I downloaded a Dell version of Windows Media Center 2005 and it worked. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

 

You're most welcome; the lion's share of the credit, of course, goes to gerryf19.

 

Good to hear that you got it working, FYI : you could’ve also gotten an activation code by calling MS.

 

I tried to call MS the person who was obviously not from the United States just gave me another number to call. That number was the generic Microsoft number and the prompts would pretty much lead me to "call Dell" and then would hang up on me. Since my warranty was up with Dell they said I had to pay to get help.

I am upset with Dell for first having my HD crash (but that's random bad luck) but mostly for not giving me a CD to install Windows. The system restore partition is great and all - except if your Hard Drive crashes.