Re: Restore OEM license to original machine?



An OEM licence is valid for the first PC its installed on, if that PC dies
so does the licence.
Changing a motherboard would require reactivation, unless maybe its
identical to the old
Puting your installation HD into a different PC should have required a
repair installation of winxp, you were lucky it worked, and lucky that MS
supplied activation key.
So if you put your HD back in its origonal PC your OEM Licence should be
still valid but will probably require reactivation.

"Mark Nelson" <MarkNelson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:84B89836-884D-4ED4-BCFB-A46D89CC16CD@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Problem -

On the day before thanksgiving my computer would not POST. I needed to pay
some bills online before leaving for vacation so in a panic I threw the
HDD
into an old Socket A computer I had in the garage. I had to do a telephone
validation to reinstall XP on the drive with the new mobo and get the
computer to a point where I could get online to pay the bills. Now my good
computer (only a socket 462 but good in my eyes), the one I bought this XP
Pro OEM copy for, is POSTing fine and ready for action. All I had to do
was
take out the memory sticks and blow the dust out of the DDR sockets. Wish
I
knew then what I know now, oh well.

Here's the Question--- If I put the HDD and OEM license that was
originally
registered to my good mobo/CPU/HDD back in that machine, will it work?
Does
this comply with the EULA? Will another phone validation work? Or do I
need
to buy a new OEM copy?

Below is some more background or just rambling...

I'm just confused because everyone says the OEM EULA doesn't allow use of
the license in a different computer but I did it. Now all I want is to go
back to how I was. Haven't tried yet. I was going to get another OEM copy
and
HDD for the good computer and keep this tbird900 going for the kids, but
wife
says no, I spend too much $ on computers and she is worried about kids
becoming "computer addicts", never saw the reason to build this one in
2003,
on and on... bartender... come down here...

My preferred option would be to go back to where I was 2 days before
thanksgiving - can I just reinstall this HDD and XP license back into the
good computer? Do the "windows licensing authorities" remember the HDD and
motherboard and CPU that are registered with this license, so I could do a
system restore from my external 500GB USB drive? I'm worried about messing
things up when I telephone validated my XP license to this old machine.

I could put the good PC in the boneyard and stay with this dinosaur, but
the
trouble is it's running dog slow even for a tbird900 plus I am now having
problems which I suspect relate to me moving this OEM copy of XP to the
old
computer. I've been doing updates all week, but now I can't get past the
Windows Installer 3.1 update. I tried all the applicable steps at
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555175, but I get an Access Denied error
during this update, or it fails silently during the shutdown update. Plus
I
can't get a couple security updates because the Genuine Advantage webpage
says my copy of XP cannot be validated due to "unknown error". Are these
enforcements against my moving the harddisk to an old computer in a jam?


.



Relevant Pages

  • Re: OEM activation with new hardware
    ... I thought that the only difference between OEM and Retail, ... > The OEM license for Windows XP is tied to ... > Only a "Retail Version" of Windows XP ... On installation it ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics)
  • Re: XP Home Activation after upgrade.
    ... Regarding the limitations of OEM licenses: I live in the UK, ... Motherboard in the EULA. ... In contrast, a retail license can be transferred any number of times, even ... from the XP Home disk to "repair" the XP installation. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: No reinstall disk/files for refurb pc
    ... >>> the shop put a fresh installation of windows XP Pro, ... >> definitely do not have a legitimate license. ... he's not selling OEM licenses, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: OEM licensing and hardware failures?
    ... The problem here isn't MS's fair use policy, it's the limitation of the OEM ... >> his XP license from the failed, ... > "The installation ID is made up of two components: ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: New motherboard
    ... On installation it "tailors" itself to the specific hardware found. ... If it's been more than 120 days since you last activated that specific Product Key, you'll most likely be able to activate via the Internet without problem. ... If it was an OEM license, it's stored on a label that the PC manufacturer affixed to the exterior of the PC case, or on the bottom of a laptop. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)