I've got a Dell PC at my house that was brought to me for repair. Symptom was that the computer wouldn't boot- as soon as it got past the splash screen, it would immediately go to a blue screen of death ("windows will be shut down to protect the computer").
There's a sticker on top of the case of the machine with the Windows Home license key on it - it was delivered installed by Dell.
As the computer required a reinstallation, and the computer came with no original discs (or if it did, they no longer exist), I used a Windows XP Home disc that I have. [This may be more recent than the originally installed XP home, as this disc has SP3]. Installation completed successfully, and the computer now boots up into Windows once again. This aspect of the repair was successful.
The issue is: when I input the original, valid license key for this computer, it will not validate - Windows says the license key is not valid. Are these licenses unique per CD? I assumed it wouldn't matter what source CD I used for Win XP home. The computer is networked and online for validation purposes.
Since I do have a valid Windows XP home license key, and this is a repair effort, what is the issue/solution? I have verified that I correctly installed XP Home and not an incorrect version (pro, x64, etc).
