| Forum Home | ||||
| Press F1 | ||||
| Thread ID: 82047 | 2007-08-14 13:16:00 | XP COA | qazwsxokmijn (102) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 580973 | 2007-08-14 13:16:00 | I'm wondering about this subject. Are XP COA product keys OEM keys? It appears OEM keys are tied to the motherboard BIOS it was installed on, and therefore cannot be used on another system. I am offered 2s XP COAs along with a full system, but I am not sure if I can activate XP with the remaining 1 XP COA (presuming it had been used before to install and activate XP on another machine). Can anyone enlighten me? |
qazwsxokmijn (102) | ||
| 580974 | 2007-08-14 16:59:00 | OEM keys are 'tied' to the original hardware however RETAIL keys are NOT....... even if you change some hardware, motherboard for example and you have an oem key you may be able to still activate it with ms by just ringing them to do the activation and telling them the pc had a heart attack and you had to change the mobo....... |
drcspy (146) | ||
| 580975 | 2007-08-14 20:19:00 | And so COA product keys are not OEM and I can use it over and over again to activate XP when I need to? | qazwsxokmijn (102) | ||
| 580976 | 2007-08-14 20:55:00 | so long as it's not OEM or VLK......(vlk= volume liscense key such as what you'll find on a 'branded' pc) | drcspy (146) | ||
| 580977 | 2007-08-14 21:00:00 | No. My copy of XP is OEM but it has a COA and isn't BIOS locked. Mass produced PCs also have COAs but probably will be BIOS locked. I think MS disabled the keys on some of these PCs so the only option is reloading the restore CD on an original model motherboard. | PaulD (232) | ||
| 580978 | 2007-08-14 21:07:00 | No. My copy of XP is OEM but it has a COA and isn't BIOS locked. Mass produced PCs also have COAs but probably will be BIOS locked. ALL versions of windoze have a c.o.a......thats the certificate of authenticity which is supposed to be stuck on the machine..... |
drcspy (146) | ||
| 580979 | 2007-08-15 04:29:00 | Cheers all. An MS guy told me as long as it doesn't say OEM on the sticker, then I'll just have to phone MS and tell them the story, and they'll give me the new activation number/key. | qazwsxokmijn (102) | ||
| 1 | |||||