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A new cry for help with Vista activation RRS feed

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    Hi,

     

    I'm in bit of a pickle and need some assitance. A will back I bought a Dell laptop with Vista Ultimate pre-intalled. It came with the 32-bit edition, but I particularly wanted the 64-bit version becuase the the security enhancements. At the time Dell insisted they couldn't provide this as it hadn't been released to OEM, so we did a bit of price negotiation and I agreed to take the laptop with the 32-bit version and I'd go out and buy another copy of Vista Ultimate and install the 64-bit version myself.

    This has all been fine and I was pleasently suprised with out of the box driver compatiblity

     

    So I now have two copies of Vista Ultimate, which is also fine as I'm planning to build a media centre PC on which I'll use the spare product key, or so I thought...

     

    ...this is where my troubles have started. I've built my media center PC, had it up and running un-activated to test 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Vista Ultimate. I went to activate it last night having opted to run the 32-bit version and online activation failed. I couldn't remember which prod key I used when upgrading the Dell to 64-bit so I tried both.

     

    I can't remember the exact error, but one was something like "product key already installed on another machine" (OK I think I understand that one) the other was "invalid key" or alike.

     

    I have purchased two copies if Vista Ultimate, I have to "real" legitimate prod keys, but seem to be able to activate only one. It may be possible that both prod keys have been registered against the Dell? I'm can't say for sure.

     

    How can I fix this issue? I need both products to activate and play nicely.

     

    BTW I've 12 days and counting to activate Vista on my Media Center, so a prompt response would be much appreciated.

     

    Thanks in advance.

     

    Jonathan

     

     

     

    Tuesday, October 16, 2007 5:05 PM

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    The OEM product key that originally came with your Dell computer is only valid on a Dell computer.  It cannot be used on a non-Dell computer.

     

    Wednesday, October 17, 2007 8:08 PM
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    I have split this post to it's own thread.

     

     

     

    Thank you,
    Darin Smith
    WGA Forum Manager 
    Wednesday, October 17, 2007 6:17 PM
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    Jonathan,

    the error you saw stating "product key is already in use on another machine" was perhaps because you had the first machine activated already originally. You can attempt to activate over the telephone.

     

    The "invalid product key" error you saw was because you attempted to use the key associated with the 64-bit OS on your 32-bit OS.

     

    Do let us know if this works for you. If not can you please run the Diagnostics tool located at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=52012 click 'continue', and then the 'copy' button and paste your report onto this thread.

     

     

     

    Wednesday, October 17, 2007 6:29 PM
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    The OEM product key that originally came with your Dell computer is only valid on a Dell computer.  It cannot be used on a non-Dell computer.

     

    Wednesday, October 17, 2007 8:08 PM
    Moderator