Vista Activation Question

Hello.. I'll try to make this as simple as I can.

I've owned Vista 64 for over a year now and 6 days ago my system board
and CPU fried and I had to have them both replaced. I went with another
same type E8400 CPU but bought a different brand system board but with
the same type but next gen chipset. I got the computer out of the shop
yesterday and the OS was still installed so I booted to see if it would
work. I was able to login and the only problem was the audio driver
because of the new system board so I resolved that and then all was
good. Device manager doesn't have any problems so I hope I won't have to
reinstall. It boots and runs fine and all seems like it did before the
crash.

A few hours after I booted I got a message based on how I'd changed
some major hardware components and said that I needed to re-activate and
it wouldn't let me use my existing COA because it said it was already in
use. So I called M$ and they walked me through re-activation and now it
shows I have a genuine copy and all is well..

So here's my question...

If I should choose to reinstall Vista and since I'm currently not using
my original COA, then will I have to call M$ again to have them give me
another COA?


Thanks,
Enki


--
Enki1212

Enki1212;907650 Wrote:
> Hello.. I'll try to make this as simple as I can.
>
> I've owned Vista 64 for over a year now and 6 days ago my system board
> and CPU fried and I had to have them both replaced. I went with another
> same type E8400 CPU but bought a different brand system board but with
> the same type but next gen chipset. I got the computer out of the shop
> yesterday and the OS was still installed so I booted to see if it would
> work. I was able to login and the only problem was the audio driver
> because of the new system board so I resolved that and then all was
> good. Device manager doesn't have any problems so I hope I won't have to
> reinstall. It boots and runs fine and all seems like it did before the
> crash.
>
> A few hours after I booted I got a message based on how I'd changed
> some major hardware components and said that I needed to re-activate and
> it wouldn't let me use my existing COA because it said it was already in
> use. So I called M$ and they walked me through re-activation and now it
> shows I have a genuine copy and all is well..
>
> So here's my question...
>
> If I should choose to reinstall Vista and since I'm currently not using
> my original COA, then will I have to call M$ again to have them give me
> another COA?
>
>
> Thanks,
> Enki

Hello Enki,

You should not have to once you activated Vista on this technically new
computer. You would normally only have to again only if you change any
key hardware or combination of minor hardware.

Hope this helps,
Shawn


--
Brink

*There are no dumb questions, just the people that do not ask
them.*
*and*
*Please post feedback to help others.*

Thanks Shawn, but I'm a bit confused because if down the road I choose
to do a full reinstall and repartition then re-install and it comes back
up asking me to key in my COA, then which one will I use? Cause the one
I'm using now is a huge number that the Microsoft agent rattled off to
me that I keyed into the "activate by phone" option in the re-active
window and I didn't get to copy it on any other media before I hit
enter.


--
Enki1212

Enki1212;907656 Wrote:
> Thanks Shawn, but I'm a bit confused because if down the road I choose
> to do a full reinstall and repartition then re-install and it comes back
> up asking me to key in my COA, then which one will I use? Cause the one
> I'm using now is a huge number that the Microsoft agent rattled off to
> me that I keyed into the "activate by phone" option in the re-active
> window and I didn't get to copy it on any other media before I hit
> enter.

If you needed to reinstall, you would just use the normal Product Key
Number that came with your Vista and not the one that came from phone
activation.

If it will not activate for some reason, then you would just call for
phone activation again.


--
Brink

*There are no dumb questions, just the people that do not ask
them.*
*and*
*Please post feedback to help others.*

I too changed out my motherboard after a year. what they had me enter wasn't
the product key, it was the activation code.
the reason it did this is because your hardware didn't hash the same as
your last hardware, and it looked like a different machine to the microsoft
activation server from the hash. if you reinstalled today, without changing
any hardware, using your existing product key, it would activate. this is
because the person at the activation hotline overrode your old activation
key with a new one. that is the long number you entered manually.

"Enki1212" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> Thanks Shawn, but I'm a bit confused because if down the road I choose
> to do a full reinstall and repartition then re-install and it comes back
> up asking me to key in my COA, then which one will I use? Cause the one
> I'm using now is a huge number that the Microsoft agent rattled off to
> me that I keyed into the "activate by phone" option in the re-active
> window and I didn't get to copy it on any other media before I hit
> enter.
>
>
> --
> Enki1212

Okay.. Thanks for the info

Regards
Enk

--
Enki1212

Enki1212;907711 Wrote:
> Okay.. Thanks for the info.
>
> Regards,
> Enki

You're welcome Enki.

Shawn


--
Brink

*There are no dumb questions, just the people that do not ask
them.*
*and*
*Please post feedback to help others.*