MS Licensing: Who Ya Gonna Call?

I am pretty sure that the GigaByte Z87x-UD4h-CF mobo in one of my
Windows-7 OEM boxes is toast.

I was hoping to replace it with the exact same board, expecting no
problem with the OEM licensing.

But I am unable to find one these boards... Amazon. NewEgg... both out
of stock and no other hits.

The Question:

Who do I call at MS to see if I can throw myself on their mercy
vis-a-vis a different mobo?

Seems like a little wiggle room the the license is for a specific PC,
but what is a PC?.... certainly I can replace a failed drive, failed
memory, failed CPU... and so-forth... so one could argue that the mobo
is just another replaceable part...

I wish...

Bottom Line: does anybody have a phone number or link?
--
Pete Cresswell

(PeteCresswell) wrote:
I am pretty sure that the GigaByte Z87x-UD4h-CF mobo in one of my
Windows-7 OEM boxes is toast.

I was hoping to replace it with the exact same board, expecting no
problem with the OEM licensing.

But I am unable to find one these boards... Amazon. NewEgg... both out
of stock and no other hits.

The Question:

Who do I call at MS to see if I can throw myself on their mercy
vis-a-vis a different mobo?

Seems like a little wiggle room the the license is for a specific PC,
but what is a PC?.... certainly I can replace a failed drive, failed
memory, failed CPU... and so-forth... so one could argue that the mobo
is just another replaceable part...

I wish...

Bottom Line: does anybody have a phone number or link?

In my case, the response seemed to be based on "frequency
of install".

Since I'd not installed in X months before the motherboard
change, I don't recollect it being a big deal. If there's
a lot of activity on that key, there could be more trouble.
My experience there was with a WinXP System Builder, changing
from an Asrock mobo and Core2 Duo (2.6GHz), to an Asus mobo
and different Core2 Duo (3GHz). The Asrock refused to work
properly, whenever a BT878 WinTV tuner was present, as there's
a VIA workaround on the PCI bus, that just destroys proper
computer operation (disk I/O drops to 20-30MB/sec). I had
to change chipsets so I could use the tuner (that's the setup
I'm typing on today, tuner card is still present).

When I reinstalled retail Win7 Home Premium, in place of
Acer Win7 Home Premium, using the COA sticker on the laptop,
that required an automated phone call, and the exchange of
56 digit numbers. I presume Microsoft does crap like that,
just for the CallerID info. As the 56 digit challenge/response,
adds nothing to the exercise at all. Except use the phone system
as a form of identification. For whatever that is worth.
No human picked up the line on that one, it was fully
automated.

*******

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r232...ystem-Builders

"I had a similar issue with Win XP where I needed to reinstall
the OEM version of the OS after replacing the mobo/cpu.

Subsequently, activation failed but I was prompted to call a
MS phone number. I called and explained the situation and while
I can't exactly recall what they did, the issue got resolved
without me having to make another donation."

You will find plenty of references to "that FAQ article",
but the practice may differ. Namely, try it and see.

I'm sure if you explain you used some other Z87 as that's
all you could find, that would be reasonable. Remember,
you may end up convincing a human operator of your "reasonable-ness".
If you replace your Core2 Duo with a Naples 32C 64T, I think
that would stand out a bit. It's not an issue, unless the
activation system decides a human must get involved.

Paul

On 5/17/2017 10:01 AM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
I am pretty sure that the GigaByte Z87x-UD4h-CF mobo in one of my
Windows-7 OEM boxes is toast.

I was hoping to replace it with the exact same board, expecting no
problem with the OEM licensing.

But I am unable to find one these boards... Amazon. NewEgg... both out
of stock and no other hits.

The Question:

Who do I call at MS to see if I can throw myself on their mercy
vis-a-vis a different mobo?

Seems like a little wiggle room the the license is for a specific PC,
but what is a PC?.... certainly I can replace a failed drive, failed
memory, failed CPU... and so-forth... so one could argue that the mobo
is just another replaceable part...

I wish...

Bottom Line: does anybody have a phone number or link?

If you use a different mobo but it has the same chipset as the bad
board, you may be OK and Windows might activate automatically.

On 17/05/2017 15:01, (PeteCresswell) wrote:

Bottom Line: does anybody have a phone number or link?

Just go and change the Motherboard and if it fails to activate, you'll
get the option to phone Microsoft using their toll-free number or what
we call free-phone number. keep the backups of the current hard disk so
that you can always revert to the state it was before you screwed it up.

--
With over 500 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

On 17/5/2017 10:01 PM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
I am pretty sure that the GigaByte Z87x-UD4h-CF mobo in one of my
Windows-7 OEM boxes is toast.


Would you wanna try installing Win 10 using the Win 7 key? The free
upgrade process is still working.

--
@~@ Remain silent! Drink, Blink, Stretch! Live long and prosper!!
/ v \ Simplicity is Beauty!
/( _ )\ May the Force and farces be with you!
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On 05/17/2017 07:01 AM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
I am pretty sure that the GigaByte Z87x-UD4h-CF mobo in one of my
Windows-7 OEM boxes is toast.

I was hoping to replace it with the exact same board, expecting no
problem with the OEM licensing.

But I am unable to find one these boards... Amazon. NewEgg... both out
of stock and no other hits.

The Question:

Who do I call at MS to see if I can throw myself on their mercy
vis-a-vis a different mobo?

Seems like a little wiggle room the the license is for a specific PC,
but what is a PC?.... certainly I can replace a failed drive, failed
memory, failed CPU... and so-forth... so one could argue that the mobo
is just another replaceable part...

I wish...

Bottom Line: does anybody have a phone number or link?


Hi Pete,

For someone to call:

Microsoft License (Customer) Service(s) 866-230-0560,1,3

But that was years ago.

HTH,
-T

"PeteCresswell" wrote:

I am pretty sure that the GigaByte Z87x-UD4h-CF mobo in one of my
Windows-7 OEM boxes is toast.

I was hoping to replace it with the exact same board, expecting no
problem with the OEM licensing.

But I am unable to find one these boards... Amazon. NewEgg... both out
of stock and no other hits.

The Question:

Who do I call at MS to see if I can throw myself on their mercy
vis-a-vis a different mobo?

Seems like a little wiggle room the the license is for a specific PC,
but what is a PC?.... certainly I can replace a failed drive, failed
memory, failed CPU... and so-forth... so one could argue that the mobo
is just another replaceable part...

I wish...

Bottom Line: does anybody have a phone number or link?

Well, you're going to have to replace the mobo, anyway. After doing so
and when you install Windows, you might get away with automatic (online)
activation. If msoobe.exe fails to activate over the Internet, you get
a phone number to do a manual activation. When you talk to their rep,
just tell them the old mobo fried, the old mobo is no longer available,
and you had to put in a new one. They didn't balk when I had to do that
(I put in a new mobo but reused the old CPU). They'll dole out a new
product key. Remember to record it since that will be the new key used
thereafter to [re]install that license.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...ow-to-activate
(click on the Windows 7 link for more details)

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-...dware-upgrade/
This article tells how to run slui.exe to run the Activation wizard.

http://www.aztekcomputers.com/GAZ87X...i 1wAod4aoCCQ
That listed "in stock 1".

http://tinyurl.com/mzljfn9
eBay seller has 2, free shipping, pretty good reputation, has an eBay
store (i.e., not a flighty seller), 30-day return (but you pay return
shipping although if you file for refund from eBay that original
shipping would be included in the refund). It doesn't have the CH
submodel number so you would have to check its feature set against your
old one.

http://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/...UD4H-rev-1x#ov

In message , VanguardLH
writes:
"PeteCresswell" wrote:
[]
Who do I call at MS to see if I can throw myself on their mercy
vis-a-vis a different mobo?
[]
Bottom Line: does anybody have a phone number or link?

Well, you're going to have to replace the mobo, anyway. After doing so
and when you install Windows, you might get away with automatic (online)
activation. If msoobe.exe fails to activate over the Internet, you get
a phone number to do a manual activation. When you talk to their rep,

I. e. the number appears on the screen of the machine you're trying to
set up, if it doesn't activate automatically.

just tell them the old mobo fried, the old mobo is no longer available,
and you had to put in a new one. They didn't balk when I had to do that
[]
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

If you believe in telekinesis, raise my right hand

In case anybody else goes on this little journey:

- The replacement board I bought was the same brand,
same chipset, but slightly different model:
GigaByte Z87X-U33H, replacing ...U4DH.

- No problems from MS... yet... and it has been
several days. Windows Updates have been streaming
down like crazy... more than 100 so far, so I
guess MS thinks my install is good-right-and-holy.

- I turned AutoMagic Update off, telling WindowsUpdate
to download the updates, but not install until I
sign off on the list tb installed. My recollection
is that, sooner-or-later, one of the updates will
hose that setting and it will spontaneously revert
to automagic updates.

- I am just about done installing all the stuff I had
before, but the box is a *LOT* faster/snappier than
it was before things went South.
--
Pete Cresswell