Noel, Darin,
No, I am not mis reading/typing the key. I tried several times and even had a second person type in the key. Same result.
Yes the disks are fully Microsoft hologrammed. In fact the disks were furnished by Microsoft service/ troubleshooting. I paid for the email version of Microsoft "technical help" via email. After about a month of trouble shooting and trying different
fixes, Microsoft said they were unable to repair. Microsoft recommended a full new install and offered to send an XP PRO, SP2 install disk. The first disk got lost in the mail and a replacement was sent, then the first showed up- that's how
I have two disks. As I said both disks are fully Microsoft hologrammed, the product key is attached to the inside cover of the mailer and is a yellow/orange sticker with a key "symbol" and the word "PRODUCT KEY". Both keys return the invalid key
error. Also both disks have the words "NOT FOR RETAIL OR OEM DISTRIBUTION" printed on the disks. What does that mean? They should work, since Microsoft sent the disks and asked me to use them for an reinstall.
Yes , I told this to the Microsoft service person, who said they should work.
If I read your reply correctly, there is no Microsoft (or any other ) website that can say if the key is valid. What a shame, and what a pain to have to call the licensing center and try to explain. I will give it a try -- but is
there someone at Microsoft I can just email the key and have them check? After all the install procedure must be doing a check to return an "invalid key".
