[Rant] Whoever invented Windows Product Activation will SUFFER!!!

[Mojo]

Hi y'all, i just wanted to blow off some steam, i dont give a .... whether you read this or not.

I was just trying out those new NForce drivers, and guess what? Now i have to go ask Mr. Microsoft whether im allowed to use my computer anymore? :rolleyes: Fair enough - i dont mind clickin a couple o' buttons and getting it done again. (it is a legitimate copy of XP Pro afterall..)

oh wait... "According to our records, the number of times you can activate Windows with this product key has been exceded."

true, i have had to reinstall a fair few times - 9 times out of 10 because Windows gave up the ghost and died, and the rest of the times were due to that god-damned IBM 60GXP which also died routinely every month forcing a reinstall (with a low-level format just to revive it!) In other words, they're asking me to buy a whole new copy of XP, simply because it fcuks up so much i have to re-install?

at least they gave me 3 days to do it this time instead of instantly locking me out of my machine :mad: :mad: :mad:
so, next thing i try is giving them a call and ask very nicely if they will let me carry on using my computer.

they're closed. (out of hours) - then i try the toll number. the number isnt recognised. Don't you think that if they build in a feature that screws people over 24/7, then they should at least offer support for that product 24/7 too?

Okay, rant over. Has anybody else here had any equally infuriating experiences with WPA? Care to share?

Mojo

[saturnotaku]

Originally posted by Mojo
Okay, rant over. Has anybody else here had any equally infuriating experiences with WPA? Care to share?

Nope. But I gots me a university/corporate copy of XP that requires no activation. Thank you University of Indiana! :D

[Jon]

Yep, activating windows is a pain and their "activation servers" always seem to be down whenever I need to reactivate it. Although I have to say that whenever I have called them, they have always given me a code to reactivate it with no questions asked. You have to appreciate the irony though that the only person this type of security hinders is the legimate customers who buy their products, the pirates have no such problems.

My advice is to give them a call, you have the right to reinstall it as many times as you like. I have had to call them about 3 times so far. The last time, I gave away XP Home to my friend to use when I bought XP Pro. I called to reactivate XP Home on his computer and they didn't ask anything, just gave me a number to type.

Good luck!

[demonized]

That definetely sucks. Their trying to stop the people who actually buy the OS instead of the illegal users.:(

[CaptNKILL]

Originally posted by saturnotaku
Nope. But I gots me a university/corporate copy of XP that requires no activation. Thank you University of Indiana! :D
Heh, I have one of those too..... but I havnt been to a university in years.. wierd huh?.... oh well ;)

[Greg]

Ahh, just do what I do, and use their service. Call them at 1am in the morning when you've finally got your PC fixed and activate it by free phone call. Although the phone is answered by a polite person in a 3rd world country on the other side of the world.

Oh, and one little reminder, if you don't want to phone them every day after reformatting a corrupted HDD, when you have a faulty motherboard like I did..... Set the date in the BIOS *BEFORE* you install windows, or else your 2 weeks of grace period is up immediately. And you either have to reinstall again, or make the call.

[noko]

I think I am going to stick with W2K as long as possible. I could see me having a rough time with my hardware and then having to talk to who knows who over the phone. Yeah, I probably end up saying a few choice words or two and end up with no OS at all :eek:.

[Dark Jedi]

Example: I change hardware almost as often as I change my socks. Now up until recently, every time I re-installed XP and went through the online activation, everything was OK. Then, just last week, after yet another re-install, I get the message about exceeding my quota and that I'd have to phone to activate... no problem, phoned on the toll free no, entered the code, away I went. Now... 2 days ago, I was faced with another re-install (yep, I just LOVE re-installing XP... ;) ) so away I went. Got to the online activation... went to activate... expecting the message I got last time... when all of a sudden it activated... :confused:

I also have a friend who has run into the same problem... this system seems very strange and annoying to me.

[WarheadMM]

im not sure....but if you got the pro verison of windows and use a corp key it wont ask to activate. When you call microsoft ask them for a corp key