Sign in
Microsoft.com
 
Microsoft
 
 
 

locked
Upgrading to windows 7 and activating another laptop after first laptop crashed. RRS feed

 > 

  • Question

  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    I have a Family 3 Pack  windows 7 home premium upgrade which I used on a home unit and 2 laptops. One of the laptops died and I reinstalled the upgrade on a different laptop. Now that laptop is saying that the key is not good for upgrade. What do I do when replacing a dead laptop for another one to upgrade?
    Monday, May 17, 2010 9:06 PM

Answers

  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    Type SLUI 4 in the search box, hit enter, select country, dial the number but do not press any menu options, this will force a real person to answer.

    Activate and hopefully you are done, make sure you tell them that the old laptop died and you reinstalled on a new computer.

    Monday, May 17, 2010 9:09 PM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    Hello mt2525,

      Check the error message again.

      I believe the error is saying one of two things:

    a) Error simillar to "This key can no longer be used" - This is a terrible error.  In Vista the error was "This key is already in use" which is not a great error and I tried to get it changed. Unfortunatly they did change it in Windows 7 but they changed it to this even worse error. 

    All this error means is that you need to Activate by Phone as Carl suggests, above.

    b) Error simillar to "This key only be used for Upgrade" - This means that the Windows you are trying to enter the key into was installed using the Clean or Full install process, not the Upgrade process. This is fairly common mistake.

    To do a Clean or Full install, you boot to the upgrade disk by putting the upgrade disk in and then restart the computer.

    To do an Upgrade install, you first must boot into the older Windows (the one you are upgrading) then put in the upgrade disk in and start the upgrade install, from there.

    It's a subtle but importent difference.

     

    Hope that helps,

    Darin MS
    Tuesday, May 18, 2010 5:49 PM

All replies

  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    Type SLUI 4 in the search box, hit enter, select country, dial the number but do not press any menu options, this will force a real person to answer.

    Activate and hopefully you are done, make sure you tell them that the old laptop died and you reinstalled on a new computer.

    Monday, May 17, 2010 9:09 PM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    Hello mt2525,

      Check the error message again.

      I believe the error is saying one of two things:

    a) Error simillar to "This key can no longer be used" - This is a terrible error.  In Vista the error was "This key is already in use" which is not a great error and I tried to get it changed. Unfortunatly they did change it in Windows 7 but they changed it to this even worse error. 

    All this error means is that you need to Activate by Phone as Carl suggests, above.

    b) Error simillar to "This key only be used for Upgrade" - This means that the Windows you are trying to enter the key into was installed using the Clean or Full install process, not the Upgrade process. This is fairly common mistake.

    To do a Clean or Full install, you boot to the upgrade disk by putting the upgrade disk in and then restart the computer.

    To do an Upgrade install, you first must boot into the older Windows (the one you are upgrading) then put in the upgrade disk in and start the upgrade install, from there.

    It's a subtle but importent difference.

     

    Hope that helps,

    Darin MS
    Tuesday, May 18, 2010 5:49 PM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote
    It would help if MS would quit trying to fit all error messages to 4 words or less, just being facetious but you are obviously frustrated by this too.
    Wednesday, May 19, 2010 1:22 PM