Earl F. Parrish
December 11th 03, 09:27 PM
A few days ago, I installed a MadDog Video adapter to replace an ATI
adapter. When I rebooted after putting in the card, the WPA window
popped up say that it could not determine the activation status of
my computer. Since I had made several minor changes which had not
triggered reactivation, I blamed it on the cumulative effect of all
the changes. It would not let me reactivate over the Internet so I
had to use the telephone method. I went through the routine and
reactivated the computer.
Later I tried to go to the Internet over my ADSL connection to check
on something and noticed that my network icon was missing from the
System Tray. My LAN connection was also missing from My Network
Places. When I tried to restore the settings, the error said that
no network card was detected. I checked the Device Manager and both
my modem and network card were not present. After opening the
computer case, I discovered that neither of the cards were fully
inserted into their slots. Upon reviewing my actions, I remembered
that I had to remove a newly installed fan which attached over some
of the bracket slots to get the other video adapter out. I decided
not to reinstall the fan because it was hard to get to the screw if
I had to change something else. Pulling the fan out must have
pulled the two cards partially out of their sockets and I had
retightened the screws without reseating the cards. After doing
that I had no problems.
If you change the NIC, reactivation will kick in no matter what else
you change. If the NIC had been in the slot, no reactivation would
have been required by the changing of a video adapter. Even
changing of a video adapter most likely could have been handled over
the Internet. Without the NIC, Microsoft had no way to identify my
machine.
Because the video adapter was not what I expected, I switched back
to my ATI card without a peep from the Activation Center.
--
Earl F. Parrish
adapter. When I rebooted after putting in the card, the WPA window
popped up say that it could not determine the activation status of
my computer. Since I had made several minor changes which had not
triggered reactivation, I blamed it on the cumulative effect of all
the changes. It would not let me reactivate over the Internet so I
had to use the telephone method. I went through the routine and
reactivated the computer.
Later I tried to go to the Internet over my ADSL connection to check
on something and noticed that my network icon was missing from the
System Tray. My LAN connection was also missing from My Network
Places. When I tried to restore the settings, the error said that
no network card was detected. I checked the Device Manager and both
my modem and network card were not present. After opening the
computer case, I discovered that neither of the cards were fully
inserted into their slots. Upon reviewing my actions, I remembered
that I had to remove a newly installed fan which attached over some
of the bracket slots to get the other video adapter out. I decided
not to reinstall the fan because it was hard to get to the screw if
I had to change something else. Pulling the fan out must have
pulled the two cards partially out of their sockets and I had
retightened the screws without reseating the cards. After doing
that I had no problems.
If you change the NIC, reactivation will kick in no matter what else
you change. If the NIC had been in the slot, no reactivation would
have been required by the changing of a video adapter. Even
changing of a video adapter most likely could have been handled over
the Internet. Without the NIC, Microsoft had no way to identify my
machine.
Because the video adapter was not what I expected, I switched back
to my ATI card without a peep from the Activation Center.
--
Earl F. Parrish