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cannot activate purchased version trai version expired help RRS feed

  • Question

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    i purchased windows live one care put it my computer started out with free trial version. a message appeared telling me to subscribe subsciption will expire in_ days .when i tried to do this the program would not accept any of my live ids so i tried my old email(still active) still no luck . tried creating a new one with no result,then i went to billing info  there  is no info subsription expired it says so i can't even see what id i used to install this in the first place.i can't find any help anywhere ! no phone number to call or anything.so  on i go 4 days of trying everything with no luck so i uninstall the program and try to reinstall .i cannot even reinstall completely ,still stuck at do you have a windows live id.result i am out 80$, my computer is now completely unprotected and i am extremely frustrated .i can't believe i paid money for this, all the waste of my time and frustration just to end up with an expired subscription(that should not expire for untill next year), a useless program on a useless disc in a nice useless plastic case(all this for 80$ and about 14 hours of wasted time (good deal yes). so unless some one out there can help i guess i'm screwed and will probably have to buy another program ( you can be sure it won't be windows live)
    Monday, February 11, 2008 11:37 PM

Answers

  •  jyhamel wrote:

    hi and thanks for responding

    i am located in burnaby british colombia Canada i purchased live one care at a future shop outlet . after my purchase i loaded the program with the product key but was using free trial. free trial was coming to an ,end tried to switch to purchased version was unable (would not accept any of my ids tried them all)if i try to add another computer when i enter product key it say it is already in use, if i check subscription/billing info etc.. it says subscription expired.(how can something i purchased 3 months ago that is good for 1 year ,that has never been used , be expired? ) WHAT CAN I DO OTHER THEN SET FIRE TO DISC ,BOX AND PRODUCT KEY      ????????????????????????????

    I'm still not clear on the order of events or why your IDs were not accepted when activating.

     

    Just to clarify the regular process -

    If you are running the trial software and you decide to subscribe and use a retail copy, there is no need to uninstall OneCare. The disc in the box is nothing more than an installer and some core files, which you already have - since you installed the trial. The installer always goes to the server to download and install the latest version of OneCare.

    When you decide to subscribe, you open OneCare, click the link in OneCare to subscribe, sign in with a valid LiveID (http://account.live.com) that does not have a OneCare subscription already associated with it, and then provide credit card details, or a retail PIN or key. Upon completion, the subscription status needs to be downloaded back to OneCare on your PC and it is activated. Subsequent activations are done with that same LiveID.

     

    Since you are being told that the key has already been used, it would seem that you did activate at some point, or you encountered a problem during activation that caused the key to be used and assigned to your ID, but your subscription didn't activate.

    I think you really need to contact support. Use the steps in the FAQ below to open an email support case as a trial user and explain the details of your problem - retail key, can't subscribe, error messages encountered, etc. Ask for a call back or the phone number for you to call. They can check the retail key and see what LiveID it is associated with and assist you in activating your local copy of OneCare.

     

    How to reach support (FAQ) - http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsOneCare/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2421771&SiteID=2

     

    Alternatively, sign in at http://billing.microsoft.com with email addresses that you have set up as LiveIDs and one will show your subscription listed - that would the LiveID to use to activate.

     

    -steve

    Tuesday, February 12, 2008 1:43 PM
    Moderator

All replies

  •  jyhamel wrote:

     

    i purchased windows live one care put it my computer started out with free trial version. a message appeared telling me to subscribe subsciption will expire in_ days .when i tried to do this the program would not accept any of my live ids so i tried my old email(still active) still no luck . tried creating a new one with no result,then i went to billing info  there  is no info subsription expired it says so i can't even see what id i used to install this in the first place.i can't find any help anywhere ! no phone number to call or anything.so  on i go 4 days of trying everything with no luck so i uninstall the program and try to reinstall .i cannot even reinstall completely ,still stuck at do you have a windows live id.result i am out 80$, my computer is now completely unprotected and i am extremely frustrated .i can't believe i paid money for this, all the waste of my time and frustration just to end up with an expired subscription(that should not expire for untill next year), a useless program on a useless disc in a nice useless plastic case(all this for 80$ and about 14 hours of wasted time (good deal yes). so unless some one out there can help i guess i'm screwed and will probably have to buy another program ( you can be sure it won't be windows live)

     

    I have been trying for 2 weeks to install a purchased windows live onecare program. I have tried most of the things in thes forum with no success. Now I can't even download the files. Not haveing a phone number is really bad!!!!!!!!! I guess i'm screwed too!!!!

    Tuesday, February 12, 2008 1:25 AM
  • Where are you located? How did you purchase OneCare?

    Open an email support case per the instructions in the FAQ as  *trial* user and provide your contact information. If you paid by credit card, they can provide the LiveID you used to activate the subscription.

    How to reach support (FAQ) - http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsOneCare/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2421771&SiteID=2

     

    If you did not activate yet, but are holding a retail box copy and trying to activate, what exactly are you encountering when you attempt to activate?

     

    -steve

    Tuesday, February 12, 2008 1:27 AM
    Moderator
  • hi and thanks for responding

    i am located in burnaby british colombia Canada i purchased live one care at a future shop outlet . after my purchase i loaded the program with the product key but was using free trial. free trial was coming to an ,end tried to switch to purchased version was unable (would not accept any of my ids tried them all)if i try to add another computer when i enter product key it say it is already in use, if i check subscription/billing info etc.. it says subscription expired.(how can something i purchased 3 months ago that is good for 1 year ,that has never been used , be expired? ) WHAT CAN I DO OTHER THEN SET FIRE TO DISC ,BOX AND PRODUCT KEY      ????????????????????????????

    Tuesday, February 12, 2008 2:59 AM
  •  jyhamel wrote:

    hi and thanks for responding

    i am located in burnaby british colombia Canada i purchased live one care at a future shop outlet . after my purchase i loaded the program with the product key but was using free trial. free trial was coming to an ,end tried to switch to purchased version was unable (would not accept any of my ids tried them all)if i try to add another computer when i enter product key it say it is already in use, if i check subscription/billing info etc.. it says subscription expired.(how can something i purchased 3 months ago that is good for 1 year ,that has never been used , be expired? ) WHAT CAN I DO OTHER THEN SET FIRE TO DISC ,BOX AND PRODUCT KEY      ????????????????????????????

    I'm still not clear on the order of events or why your IDs were not accepted when activating.

     

    Just to clarify the regular process -

    If you are running the trial software and you decide to subscribe and use a retail copy, there is no need to uninstall OneCare. The disc in the box is nothing more than an installer and some core files, which you already have - since you installed the trial. The installer always goes to the server to download and install the latest version of OneCare.

    When you decide to subscribe, you open OneCare, click the link in OneCare to subscribe, sign in with a valid LiveID (http://account.live.com) that does not have a OneCare subscription already associated with it, and then provide credit card details, or a retail PIN or key. Upon completion, the subscription status needs to be downloaded back to OneCare on your PC and it is activated. Subsequent activations are done with that same LiveID.

     

    Since you are being told that the key has already been used, it would seem that you did activate at some point, or you encountered a problem during activation that caused the key to be used and assigned to your ID, but your subscription didn't activate.

    I think you really need to contact support. Use the steps in the FAQ below to open an email support case as a trial user and explain the details of your problem - retail key, can't subscribe, error messages encountered, etc. Ask for a call back or the phone number for you to call. They can check the retail key and see what LiveID it is associated with and assist you in activating your local copy of OneCare.

     

    How to reach support (FAQ) - http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsOneCare/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2421771&SiteID=2

     

    Alternatively, sign in at http://billing.microsoft.com with email addresses that you have set up as LiveIDs and one will show your subscription listed - that would the LiveID to use to activate.

     

    -steve

    Tuesday, February 12, 2008 1:43 PM
    Moderator
  •  Bruce Barnes wrote:

     

    I have been trying for 2 weeks to install a purchased windows live onecare program. I have tried most of the things in thes forum with no success. Now I can't even download the files. Not haveing a phone number is really bad!!!!!!!!! I guess i'm screwed too!!!!

     

    Bruce, please explain what is happening when you try to install OneCare. What errors are you encountering. Did you have a trial version installed that you removed in order to install a CD copy?

    -steve

    Tuesday, February 12, 2008 1:45 PM
    Moderator
  • hi steve

    thanks for trying to help. unfortunately nothing has worked. i have tried something new,i have restored my pc to an earlier date . this has allowed me to use the trial version again(good thing to viruses were infecting my pc)and it now asks me to subscribe again instead of just saying subscription expired. i have found my product id ,account id but i can't find my live id used to create the account.

    when i try to subscribe it asks if i have or need a live id ,when i enter my id it rejects it(i double checked my passwords)saying invalid password..... i don't understand why(i have 2 live ids and an old yahoo email i tried them all)

    i tried loking up billing /account info but there was no live id displayed anywhere, but i did find something very interesting ;i was able to check my account status it read as following status enabled,purchased 12/11/2007  expires 12/11/2008.

     

     

    WHY am i still on free trial ?     WHY does it not accept my id?  WHY does it ask me to subsrcibe if its status is enabled?         WHY DOES  it not  switch to purchased subscription if my subscription is enabled?   WHY does it expire if it is enabled (expires12/11/2008)????

                                                                                                                                                                                   (i restored my pc to 16 days earlier this give me another 14 days of free trail and the ability to look up info again)

    IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE I CAN DO OR  A NUMBER I CAN CALL???

    Wednesday, February 13, 2008 2:18 AM
  • i have yet to figure this thing out but i restored my pc to a previous date (about 2 weeks)this got the free trial working again an restored the download .still have not got it working but atleast it is less messed up and i got free trial back(only 14 days left on it because i only restored it to 2 weeks ago but its better then no protection for now)

    Wednesday, February 13, 2008 4:09 AM
  • Have you tried contacting support as a trial user per the FAQ?

    How to reach support (FAQ) - http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsOneCare/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2421771&SiteID=2

     

    If you are not getting a response from support, send me an email with a subject line of "OneCare Expired"

    In the message body tell me what country you are located in and paste this link: http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsOneCare/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2835306&SiteID=2

     

    Don't send me your account details, I'm simply going to hook you up with support.

     

    -steve

     

    Wednesday, February 13, 2008 1:34 PM
    Moderator
  •  Stephen Boots wrote:

    Have you tried contacting support as a trial user per the FAQ?

    How to reach support (FAQ) - http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsOneCare/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2421771&SiteID=2

     

    If you are not getting a response from support, send me an email with a subject line of "OneCare Expired"

    In the message body tell me what country you are located in and paste this link: http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsOneCare/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2835306&SiteID=2

     

    Don't send me your account details, I'm simply going to hook you up with support.

     

    -steve

    hey steve

    thanks again

     i am in Canada

    i have tried everthing 2 and 3 times completely discouraged i think that if i can"t solve this issue in the next 24hrs i will just give up and buy something else(i have wasted over 24hrs chasing my own tail over the course of 4 days trying to make this work )no one has called there is no number for me to call

    Wednesday, February 13, 2008 8:36 PM
  • i am having a similar problem with onecare. it worked fine in the trial version, but as soon as I purchased it, it no longer works. try to get help, all your get is the automated assistant, who apparently cannot help. there are no live assistants to help, which probably saves the company from having to listen to all of the people who bought it and can't get it to work.

    Thursday, February 14, 2008 7:04 AM
  •  jyhamel wrote:
     Stephen Boots wrote:

    Have you tried contacting support as a trial user per the FAQ?

    How to reach support (FAQ) - http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsOneCare/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2421771&SiteID=2

     

    If you are not getting a response from support, send me an email with a subject line of "OneCare Expired"

    In the message body tell me what country you are located in and paste this link: http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsOneCare/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2835306&SiteID=2

     

    Don't send me your account details, I'm simply going to hook you up with support.

     

    -steve

    hey steve

    thanks again

     i am in Canada

    i have tried everthing 2 and 3 times completely discouraged i think that if i can"t solve this issue in the next 24hrs i will just give up and buy something else(i have wasted over 24hrs chasing my own tail over the course of 4 days trying to make this work )no one has called there is no number for me to call

    I see that I failed to tell you my email address, sboots@mvps.org. Per the quoted text above, send me an email with the link and subject line as above. I'll be checking email in an hour or so.

    -steve

    Thursday, February 14, 2008 2:04 PM
    Moderator
  •  thuggins wrote:

    i am having a similar problem with onecare. it worked fine in the trial version, but as soon as I purchased it, it no longer works. try to get help, all your get is the automated assistant, who apparently cannot help. there are no live assistants to help, which probably saves the company from having to listen to all of the people who bought it and can't get it to work.

    More details on the problem, please....

    Since it worked in trial mode, what happened after you purchased? Did you uninstall and reinstall and activate? In what condition is OneCare now?

    Have you read the FAQ on how to reach support? There is live support, but if your subscription can't be validated, you will need to use email support.

    How to reach support (FAQ) - http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsOneCare/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2421771&SiteID=2

     

    -steve

    Thursday, February 14, 2008 2:07 PM
    Moderator
  • I responded to this already, but the response doesn't show up:

     

    Nothing happened after I purchased it. I kept right on working on my computer. I got an email confirming my purchase. I stopped working and shut off the computer. When I restarted the computer the OneCare button was red, with the following message:

    Urgent

    Go to the Help Center

    OneCare has encountered a problem and might not be protecting this PC.

     

    There is no indication of what problem has been encountered, or what to say or do once I get to the Help Center. I have yet to receive any instruction such as "You need to uninstall and re-install the product". Do I need to uninstall and re-install it? No one else uses my computer, and I only have one account, so the Live ID doesn't change. I checked the Help topic to check my Live ID and product code - its all there.

     

    I have read the How to reach support (FAQ). I love the link that you provide at the bottom with your disclaimer that the link doesn't work (dated November 2007), and it still doesn't. And, since I don't really know what has caused this problem, and I've yet to see something that exactly matches my circumstances, I am understandably wary of just going willy-nilly through my computer's programming, uninstalling and re-installing.

     

    I expect a lot better from Microsoft. This shouldn't have been this hard of a transition.

    Thursday, February 14, 2008 5:56 PM
  • First of all, I edited the Help FAQ. Thanks for reminding me about the note from last November. For the time being, I appear to have lost my battle at getting that link working the way it used to. I will continue to lobby for this, but for now, you need to follow the path outlined in the FAQ for reaching support.

     

    Secondly, I'm sorry that you encountered whatever problem happened on your PC with OneCare.

     

    The fact that OneCare encountered a problem when you rebooted the PC after having subscribed likely has nothing to do with the fact that you subscribed. Normally, the only thing that changes when you activate your trial copy is that your copy is activated, meaning it is now associated with a LiveID that has an active subscription.

    Since you see the Subscription ID in OneCare and it isn't telling you that it has expired, you have encountered some other problem - unrelated to the subscription/activation process, as far as I know.

     

    In OneCare, Help/About..., what is the OneCare version you have listed? 2.0.2500.14 or 2.0.2500.22?

     

    Please try the following:

     

    Reboot the PC. The run the Firewall repair tool - http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsOneCare/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2468376&SiteID=2

     

    And also the Virus and Spyware repair tool - http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsOneCare/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2667445&SiteID=2

     

    Reboot after the tool as completed.

     

    If this still doesn't resolve it, please contact support for help - 

    How to reach support (FAQ) - http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsOneCare/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2421771&SiteID=2

     

    *or*

    Uninstall OneCare - http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsOneCare/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=663806&SiteID=2

    Download and run the cleanup tool - http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsOneCare/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=828910&SiteID=2

    (note that you will need to save the tool to your desktop and then right click the file and select "Run as administrator" if you are using Vista)

    And then install OneCare from http://onecare.live.com and activate with the same LiveID used to originally subscribe.

     

    -steve

     

    Thursday, February 14, 2008 6:30 PM
    Moderator
  • Thanks for responding so quickly.

     

    My OneCare version is 2.0.2500.22.

     

    Thursday, February 14, 2008 6:47 PM
  •  

    Thanks for responding so quickly.

     

    My version listed is 2.0.2500.22.

     

    Although the About section doesn't mention anything about the service being expired, when I checked the virus, firewall and backup, all both show that they are "on", but that they expired almost a month ago. Thats not right, because I haven't had the trial version long enough for it to have expired, and I decided to go ahead and purchase the service 2 nights ago, well in advance of the trial period expiration. A window had popped up and offered a discount if I purchased before a date in the future, so I decided to just go ahead and purchase it right then rather than wait. All had been working regulalry right up to the point that I opted to purchase the service. 

     

    After reading through their instructions, neither of the links provided - the firewall repair tool or the virus and spyware repair tool -  match the circumstances indicated that which would precipitate their use.

     

    As hesitant as I am to do so, I will attempt the uninstall/re-install procedure.

    Thursday, February 14, 2008 7:03 PM
  • Well, I uninstalled OneCare, downloaded and used the cleanup tool, and then reinstalled OneCare just as the instructions had instructed me to do. Now I get the exact same "Urgent" message that I had before I started all of this, except now the service isn't registered to me, nor does it work at all. I have now managed to spend HOURS of my time trying to figure out what is going wrong with the "service" that I have paid for, which once paid for, no longer works at all. I don't have the time to waste on this; it shouldn't have been this problematic, with me having to do all the problemsolving for the failures of the product of a world-renowned organization.

     

    What do I have to do to get this service that I purchased to work, without having to visit numerous sites still containing outdated and erroneous information. I just want the product that I purchased. Where can I go to get it where it will not take me hours longer to negotiate its return and implementation?

    Thursday, February 14, 2008 8:09 PM
  •  thuggins wrote:

    Well, I uninstalled OneCare, downloaded and used the cleanup tool, and then reinstalled OneCare just as the instructions had instructed me to do. Now I get the exact same "Urgent" message that I had before I started all of this, except now the service isn't registered to me, nor does it work at all. I have now managed to spend HOURS of my time trying to figure out what is going wrong with the "service" that I have paid for, which once paid for, no longer works at all. I don't have the time to waste on this; it shouldn't have been this problematic, with me having to do all the problemsolving for the failures of the product of a world-renowned organization.

     

    What do I have to do to get this service that I purchased to work, without having to visit numerous sites still containing outdated and erroneous information. I just want the product that I purchased. Where can I go to get it where it will not take me hours longer to negotiate its return and implementation?

    I was replying to your previous post and needed to review what we had discussed previously. I abandoned the reply after seeing this new post.

    I've sent an email to your address listed in your public forum profile.

    What is the exact Urgent warning you are now getting? When you reinstalled, did you also activate with your subscription LiveID? Is the date and time on your PC correct? That could explain the warning and false expiration. It would also mean that you were not given the link to subscribe/activate on the reinstall.

    What is the current condition of OneCare besides the red status?

    Expired trial? Is protection enabled?

    -steve

    Thursday, February 14, 2008 8:18 PM
    Moderator
  • The exact message is the exact message that I put in earlier. it looks just like this:

    Urgent

    Go to the Help Center

    OneCare has encountered a problem and might not be protecting this PC.

     

    Only now, instead of it being identified with my computer's name, it is now identified as "This PC"

     

    When you reinstalled, did you also activate with your subscription LiveID?

     

    No, that option was not offered. The directions for reinstalling OneCare are to go to the website and click on the "download trial version" button, which I did. There is no known option which has a button showing "Reinstall OneCare".

     

    Is the date and time on your PC correct?

     

    No, I just checked it and it inexplicably shows that it was January 14th, 2008. I have since corrected that.

     

    What is the current condition of OneCare besides the red status?

     

    The current status is "At Risk", which it has been since the morning I started my computer after having purchased the service the night before, when it had been working fine. The update links all indicate that I can't get an update because the service is expired; I just downloaded it????? The Product ID number is now different, and my email address isn't indicated on it anymore. The program states that a tune-up is in progress.

    Thursday, February 14, 2008 8:36 PM
  • Sorry for taking so long to reply this time. I was off line for a few more hours than I expected due to an unforeseen issue...

     

    Anyway, the fact that your system date was incorrect is why the reinstall immediately showed as expired. It's stupid, but the server date and the system date were so far out that your 15 days of Trial was up, but because the date was wrong, you didn't get the subscribe link.

     

    Until you can activate using your LiveID it will be at risk and expired, which also means that you can't manually do anything within OneCare. After the Tune-up completes, reboot, and see if you can subscribe/activate with your subscription LiveID now that you have corrected the date. If no subscribe link appears, I'm afraid that I think it means another reinstall. :-(

     

    Did you receive the email message I sent earlier today?

     

    I don't expect to be back online until some time tomorrow.

    -steve

     

    Friday, February 15, 2008 2:12 AM
    Moderator