activation questions

[John Pearson]

Hello. I bought a Dell Dimension 4100 about three years
ago, which came installed with Windows 98SE. I
subsquently upgraded to Windows ME and the Windows XP
Home. Recently I started having problems with the system
board, which Dell replaced for me. That didn't work, so
I want to take the working components and put them in a
new case with a new motherboard. This would mean the
hard drive, the two optical drives, the PIII CPU
(possibly!), and the memory modules.

So I have two questions: 1. Would I still be able to
activate Windows XP with these hardware changes? 2.
Once I have reactivated, can I make other changes to the
hardware configuration and be able to reactivate again if
needed? Thanks.
..

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

Yes. At worst, you will have to call to reactivate. Painless process.

--
Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows XP/ Windows Smart Display
Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
http://www.dougknox.com
--------------------------------
Associate Expert
ExpertZone - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
--------------------------------
Please reply only to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
Unsolicited e-mail is not answered.

"John Pearson" > wrote in message
...
> Hello. I bought a Dell Dimension 4100 about three years
> ago, which came installed with Windows 98SE. I
> subsquently upgraded to Windows ME and the Windows XP
> Home. Recently I started having problems with the system
> board, which Dell replaced for me. That didn't work, so
> I want to take the working components and put them in a
> new case with a new motherboard. This would mean the
> hard drive, the two optical drives, the PIII CPU
> (possibly!), and the memory modules.
>
> So I have two questions: 1. Would I still be able to
> activate Windows XP with these hardware changes? 2.
> Once I have reactivated, can I make other changes to the
> hardware configuration and be able to reactivate again if
> needed? Thanks.
> .
>
>

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

Yes, you will need to activate again. You will likely get a message that
you need to call the activation center and you will be given a phone number.
Explain what you've done and you will be given a new activation number.
Yes, you can activate again. You can activate as often as you want as long
as it is on the same computer.

The threshold mentioned by someone else in this thread determines whether or
not a call is required. Usually, if you just reformat or change one or two
pieces of hardware at a time, you can usually activate over the Internet
much as you did when you first installed XP.

--
Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

"David Nguyen" > wrote in message
...
> If you have already activated, then you don't need to reactivate. If you
are
> making 6 or more changes to your system, then I think that you will need
to
> reactivate.
>
> "John Pearson" > wrote in message
> ...
> > Hello. I bought a Dell Dimension 4100 about three years
> > ago, which came installed with Windows 98SE. I
> > subsquently upgraded to Windows ME and the Windows XP
> > Home. Recently I started having problems with the system
> > board, which Dell replaced for me. That didn't work, so
> > I want to take the working components and put them in a
> > new case with a new motherboard. This would mean the
> > hard drive, the two optical drives, the PIII CPU
> > (possibly!), and the memory modules.
> >
> > So I have two questions: 1. Would I still be able to
> > activate Windows XP with these hardware changes? 2.
> > Once I have reactivated, can I make other changes to the
> > hardware configuration and be able to reactivate again if
> > needed? Thanks.
> > .
> >
> >
>
>

[Ron Martell]

"John Pearson" > wrote:

>Hello. I bought a Dell Dimension 4100 about three years
>ago, which came installed with Windows 98SE. I
>subsquently upgraded to Windows ME and the Windows XP
>Home. Recently I started having problems with the system
>board, which Dell replaced for me. That didn't work, so
>I want to take the working components and put them in a
>new case with a new motherboard. This would mean the
>hard drive, the two optical drives, the PIII CPU
>(possibly!), and the memory modules.
>
>So I have two questions: 1. Would I still be able to
>activate Windows XP with these hardware changes? 2.
>Once I have reactivated, can I make other changes to the
>hardware configuration and be able to reactivate again if
>needed? Thanks.
>.

Yes you can reactivate, and if it has been more than 120 days since
the last activation of that copy of Windows XP then it should be done
automatically over the Internet.

You have a Retail Upgrade version of Windows XP and therefore the
license belongs to you. Your only restriction is that you can only
have that copy of Windows XP installed on a single computer at any
given point in time. This contrasts with the licensing for an OEM
version of Windows XP where the license is permanently locked to the
first computer that it is installed on.

Good luck




Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."