On Jan 20, 7:16 pm, "philo" wrote:
"GeorgeF" wrote in message

...



I'm encountering a weird problem activating my copy of WindowsXP Pro
(OEM). I bought it off of Ebay and by all appearances, it's a
general OEM version, as there are no markings to indicate it's from a
big name OEM like DELL or HP.

Anyways, it installs ok. When I go to activate though, it complains
about an "unauthorized product key"

Specifically:

"This product key is unauthorized. Activation cannot be completed
until a valid product key is entered. The 25-digit product key can be
found on the Certificate of Authenticity (COA) label attached to your
computer or Windows documentation. It should be similar to the
example below. Please correct the product key below or type a valid
product key, and then press Retry.

... (picture of a COA, spaces to re-enter the key, and some more
details about contacting tech support)

Message Number: 45090"

Anyways, I've tried this on a real machine and a Virtual Machine using
virtualPC 2007. Same results.

I've checked the key, and apparently it was correct, as it was good
enough for windows to install itself.

I've tried telephone activation, and wasn't able to activate that way,
with little in the way of explanation as to why.

snip

I think that if you try the automated phone activation and for some reason
it does not work...
you can stay on the line for help from a 'real person'
You don't need to pay for technical support to do that

Thanks for replying.

Yeah, I know. I did speak to a 'real person' -- a guy named Rajitt
(really). He walked me through it, and had me read back the
resulting digits to him and specifically repeat the last grouping of
digits. He wouldn't tell me why I couldn't activate, except to tell
me that the code from my machine was saying the key was't authorized
(Which is what my own machine was telling me with the internet
activation). However, he did give me numbers for tech support and
their anti-counterfeiting group.

I forget whether it was tech support or the anti-counterfeiting folks
that helped me confirm that my key was indeed legitimate, and valid as
it had never been activated before. However, they couldn't help me
activate it. Apparently, I needed to speak to an 'activation agent'
about that. I guess that would be Raj, who passed the buck to begin
with. Tech support wouldn't get involved unless I could show I had
paid for tech support services (they gave me another number to order
that). The guy from the anti-counterfeit group seemed a bit annoyed
that I bothered them about a seemingly valid key.

Anyways, back to Raj (don't know if they routed me back to him, or it
was random chance that I got the same guy again), and again, he
couldn't help me, but suggested I talk to tech support (again).

I don't get it, how can it be an unauthorized key if Microsoft's own
people acknowledge that it's a valid key that's never been activated
before? Is it something I'm screwing up?

-GeorgeF