David B. wrote:
Your product key problems were nothing to do with Sony, it was because
the product key on the sticker was for an OEM version of Windows XP
(likely home or pro edition) and you were using retail CD's, except for
Media Center, which is OEM, but the key was likely not for Media Center.
It may be frustrating, but don't blame your lack of knowledge on Sony.
All laptops are proprietary, have been for yeas and years.


No Sir. These were OEM disks for builders multi licensing. As long as
you had a key should have been in bidness. This machine had been munged
before, and Lord only knows what the sticker on the case belonged to.
This was a Vaio desktop, not laptop, but that would make no difference.

To get it up and running I used my own key, connected to Sony's website,
then after I'd ordered the disk, did a clean install with the
proprietary disk.

Always enjoy a challenge, but this one was a bugger. Should have
figured as much though, knowing how well Dell likes it's reinstall disks.

I think a lot of it was like you say, lack of product knowledge and all
the proprietary drivers Sony had. But ain't gonna do it again.