Re: Change in Motherboard - reactivating OEM version?

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

5J''s wrote:

I appreciate your time and reply. I know I am preaching to the choir
here, but that seems very unfiar to expect to purchase a second license
simply because there was a quality problem (you all know the eMachine bad
caps
story) and replacing it with the next closest mobo replacement. For
obvious reasons we did not go with an exact match to only end up with the
same
failure in a few months. I can not believe that MS has not thought of
this
senerio before establishing the EULA rules. Crazy! But I may have to
just give up and make my $190 retail lic purchase.

I understand how you feel about this, but you have a basic misunderstanding
of OEM vs. retail licensing. When you purchase an OEM (Original Equipment
Manufacturer) license, it is tied to the original hardware on which it is
installed. A retail version has no such limitation.

OEMs like eMachines, Dell, Sony etc. have licensing agreements with
Microsoft. When you purchase an OEM machine with a Microsoft operating
system preinstalled, your support and licensing lies with the OEM and not
with Microsoft. The OEM must give the buyer a way to return the computer to
factory condition. This can be with a restore image on a special partition
on the hard drive, a CD/DVD with the restore image(s), a real operating
system disk, or any combination of these. In addition to all of this, when
the OEM provides an operating system restore disk, in many cases it is
BIOS-locked to the OEM-branded motherboard that came with the system.

I am sympathetic, but you should have purchased the identical motherboard
from eMachines. You need to either purchase XP Home or put a different
operating system on the computer that doesn't have a licensing problem such
as one of the many Linux distros. Only you know whether this last option is
viable for you.


Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!
.

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