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Activation-How do I stop the insanity?



 
 
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  #46  
Old December 8th 05, 04:04 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
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Default Activation-How do I stop the insanity?



Alias wrote:

Horsepucky.



It would be so helpful to us in the UK if you guys can translate non
standard american terms for us or provide links where we can learn from.

I don't know what Horsepucky means. I don't expect you to be rude for
trivial matter such as this so I assume it is just a normal american
slang for something.

Best regards,
Ads
  #47  
Old December 8th 05, 05:05 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
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Posts: n/a
Default Activation-How do I stop the insanity?

Mark Smith wrote:

snipped


And you are wrong anyway. You most certainly should have the devices
plugged up so XP can go ahead and install them. It is easier and
faster. And what the hell do you think happens when you plug in the
device? The OS tries to install it anyway.


You should not have USB devices plugged in when installing XP. It may cause
the install to delay or even hang while it tries to find drivers. If they
are mass storage devices and formatted XP may end up on a partition other
than C:. It is always best to install with internal devices only and add
external devices later.

Kerry


  #48  
Old December 8th 05, 05:10 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
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Default Activation-How do I stop the insanity?

"Richard Urban" wrote in message
news:eaMB1D6%

......you turned to ranting.
BTW, the time you took with only your first post would have been well spent
by just reactivating your operating system. You have spent well over ten
times that amount of time now!


Thanks for the recap.

You are right that I am ranting now. I am frustrated, especially because I
know I have a new video card coming and a 1gig of ram coming. The MS tech
said when I install that I am going to have activate again.

You are wrong about the USB not needed in my original post. I have never
seen a pop up like that before, so it was relevant.

And I did reactivate. I had no choice. The tech said I had no choice, even
though there was a tab on the activation screen that said I could continue
later. I had asked if I could wait because I knew I had new hardware coming.

I hope you noticed from all this that I have not complained about XP at all.
It is just the activation, and because I just learned from the tech that I
am going to have to get a new number every time I activate from now on.

And before when all I had to do was click three times, I had no complaint
about the activation process.


  #49  
Old December 8th 05, 05:18 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
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Posts: n/a
Default Activation-Will reformatting start my grace period over again?

"GregRo" wrote in message
...
It sounds like your key got messed up somehow.
I usually does it during the install of windows xp if it messes up.

I know it has happen with me and had to do another reinstall.


Thanks, that was my next plan. To try and reformat and reinstall. But I
still have to enter the same product number (off the back of my legitimate
multi-folder that XP came in). So want MS still know that it is me calling
again? The tech said no matter what I would have to get a new activation
code each time. Is that right?

When my video card gets here Friday, I will know soon enough, because that
is when I will be reformatting.


  #50  
Old December 8th 05, 05:36 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
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Default Activation-How do I stop the insanity?

I know that it seems to suck, but you just got a bad tech. A popup on your
screen will tell you exactly how many days you have to activate or
reactivate. Believe what your computer tells you, not some person from a
third world country.

I change hardware much more than others also. I have had to reactivate about
4-5 times over the years because of this. My situation is NOT the norm.
Many, many people buy a computer and used it until it dies, without even
adding one additional program or piece of hardware. They don't know that
they can. They replace what may go bad by sending the computer back to the
manufacturer. What they usually get is an exact replacement part.

Also, their computer may have, in fact, been activated by the manufacturer
or need no activation because of the way the manufacturer installs the
operating system on their computers. The customer/user does not even know
that the process exists.

You and I are different. I have learned to live with it and I am certain
that you can also. At most, it is a phone call of about 5 minutes.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

"Mark Smith" wrote in message
...
"Richard Urban" wrote in message
news:eaMB1D6%

......you turned to ranting.
BTW, the time you took with only your first post would have been well
spent
by just reactivating your operating system. You have spent well over ten
times that amount of time now!


Thanks for the recap.

You are right that I am ranting now. I am frustrated, especially because I
know I have a new video card coming and a 1gig of ram coming. The MS tech
said when I install that I am going to have activate again.

You are wrong about the USB not needed in my original post. I have never
seen a pop up like that before, so it was relevant.

And I did reactivate. I had no choice. The tech said I had no choice, even
though there was a tab on the activation screen that said I could continue
later. I had asked if I could wait because I knew I had new hardware
coming.

I hope you noticed from all this that I have not complained about XP at
all. It is just the activation, and because I just learned from the tech
that I am going to have to get a new number every time I activate from now
on.

And before when all I had to do was click three times, I had no complaint
about the activation process.



  #51  
Old December 8th 05, 05:43 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
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Posts: n/a
Default Activation-How do I stop the insanity?

You are right about the mass storage part. I accidentally reformatted a back
up drive because I got it confused with the internal. I learned the hard way
to have those unplugged. But the way I recall the post, he listed printers
and some other major hardware.

I definitely would not unplug my external dial up modem. It has been my
experience that devices bought or made pre-XP release cause no problem when
reinstalling.

The problems I am facing now is that I have bought several things that were
made after XP. I can't wait to see what happens when I try to reinstall XP
with all my opticals being connected to a PCI card. That is going to be fun.

"Kerry Brown" *a*m wrote in message
...
Mark Smith wrote:

snipped


And you are wrong anyway. You most certainly should have the devices
plugged up so XP can go ahead and install them. It is easier and
faster. And what the hell do you think happens when you plug in the
device? The OS tries to install it anyway.


You should not have USB devices plugged in when installing XP. It may
cause the install to delay or even hang while it tries to find drivers. If
they are mass storage devices and formatted XP may end up on a partition
other than C:. It is always best to install with internal devices only and
add external devices later.

Kerry




  #52  
Old December 8th 05, 05:58 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Activation-How do I stop the insanity?

Mark Smith wrote:
You are right about the mass storage part. I accidentally reformatted
a back up drive because I got it confused with the internal. I
learned the hard way to have those unplugged. But the way I recall
the post, he listed printers and some other major hardware.


Printers often have card readers built in. I install Windows as often as 50
times a month on various computers. Most of those installs are highly
automated but at least 10 - 20 are standard installs booting from the CD. I
have learned the hard way to not have any external devices hooked up. It
doesn't save any time and often causes problems.

Kerry


I definitely would not unplug my external dial up modem. It has been
my experience that devices bought or made pre-XP release cause no
problem when reinstalling.

The problems I am facing now is that I have bought several things
that were made after XP. I can't wait to see what happens when I try
to reinstall XP with all my opticals being connected to a PCI card.
That is going to be fun.
"Kerry Brown" *a*m wrote in message
...
Mark Smith wrote:

snipped


And you are wrong anyway. You most certainly should have the devices
plugged up so XP can go ahead and install them. It is easier and
faster. And what the hell do you think happens when you plug in the
device? The OS tries to install it anyway.


You should not have USB devices plugged in when installing XP. It may
cause the install to delay or even hang while it tries to find
drivers. If they are mass storage devices and formatted XP may end
up on a partition other than C:. It is always best to install with
internal devices only and add external devices later.

Kerry




  #53  
Old December 8th 05, 06:02 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Activation-How do I stop the insanity?

In message "Kerry Brown"
*a*m wrote:

Mark Smith wrote:

snipped


And you are wrong anyway. You most certainly should have the devices
plugged up so XP can go ahead and install them. It is easier and
faster. And what the hell do you think happens when you plug in the
device? The OS tries to install it anyway.


You should not have USB devices plugged in when installing XP. It may cause
the install to delay or even hang while it tries to find drivers. If they
are mass storage devices and formatted XP may end up on a partition other
than C:. It is always best to install with internal devices only and add
external devices later.


This is one of the reasons I used an Adaptec USB2 PCI card for many
moons -- I could have my USB storage devices (a few of which are
installed in the PC) connected to that card and the installer wouldn't
see them, but they would start working once the OS install finished and
the Adaptec drivers were installed.

Unfortunately my current system no longer has enough PCI slots (and has
a good motherboard-based USB controller, so that reduces my other excuse
for using the Adaptec card) -- I wish I could turn off USB ports in the
BIOS though, but not all since I use a USB keyboard too.

Ahh well, such is life -- With any luck the next version of Windows will
have a smarter installer.

--
This space intentionally left blank.
  #54  
Old December 8th 05, 08:26 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Activation-Will reformatting start my grace period over again?

On Wed, 7 Dec 2005 22:18:43 -0600, "Mark Smith"
wrote:

"GregRo" wrote in message
...
It sounds like your key got messed up somehow.
I usually does it during the install of windows xp if it messes up.

I know it has happen with me and had to do another reinstall.


Thanks, that was my next plan. To try and reformat and reinstall. But I
still have to enter the same product number (off the back of my legitimate
multi-folder that XP came in). So want MS still know that it is me calling
again? The tech said no matter what I would have to get a new activation
code each time. Is that right?

When my video card gets here Friday, I will know soon enough, because that
is when I will be reformatting.


A reformat and re-install is going to automatically require a
reactivation. Anytime you install or do a repair install it requires
a reactivation.

Simply installing a new vid card should not require a re-activation.

  #55  
Old December 8th 05, 11:17 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Activation-How do I stop the insanity?

Carey Frisch [MVP] wrote:
Product Activation Facts
http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/activation_faq.mspx

Windows XP Product Activation
http://aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.php


I was all set to upgrade to XP from ME, just bought the CD from Walmart
the day before yesterday. However, given the fact that modern large
volume hard drives fail so often and the fact that I too use a USB
digital camera, I believe I'm going to install XP on a separate hard
drive and only use it for testing purposes.

When I got this computer, it was supposed to come with XP. After
considering the pros and cons of XP Product Activation, I told the
vendor (ABS) to install M.E. on it instead. After reading those two
links, I can see that my concerns were well justified.

I'm all for Microsoft protecting their product from piracy and think
that product activation is a good way of doing that. What I don't like
though, is the way that Microsoft has implemented this strategy. Horror
stories like Mark Smith's demonstrate that the system is flawed and unfair.

Also, honestly... *THREE VOTES* for a stupid NIC? Whatever was MS thinking?

--
Regards from John Corliss
  #56  
Old December 8th 05, 11:53 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Activation-How do I stop the insanity?

Alias wrote:
(clipped)
Actually, if you clean install XP SP1, followed by SP 2, then updates,
then motherboard drivers, video card, audio card drivers, then programs,
and *then* devices like printers, cameras, etc., you're much better off.


Thanks for mentioning this because I'm going to try to upgrade from ME
to XP Home SP2 using this technique. For the last couple of days, I was
thinking about how best to deal with the peripherals. However, can you
provide more info about why it's better to install all the programs
before attaching and detecting peripherals? With M.E., whenever I do a
format and total reinstall, I always make sure that all of my hardware
(including all peripherals) is functioning before installing any
programs (well, that is except for Winzip and Acroread).

--
Regards from John Corliss
  #57  
Old December 8th 05, 12:55 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Activation-How do I stop the insanity?

John Corliss wrote:

Alias wrote:

(clipped)
Actually, if you clean install XP SP1, followed by SP 2, then updates,
then motherboard drivers, video card, audio card drivers, then
programs, and *then* devices like printers, cameras, etc., you're much
better off.



Thanks for mentioning this because I'm going to try to upgrade from ME
to XP Home SP2 using this technique. For the last couple of days, I was
thinking about how best to deal with the peripherals. However, can you
provide more info about why it's better to install all the programs
before attaching and detecting peripherals? With M.E., whenever I do a
format and total reinstall, I always make sure that all of my hardware
(including all peripherals) is functioning before installing any
programs (well, that is except for Winzip and Acroread).



I don't know why it's better. I only know that it has worked for me many
times.

Alias
  #58  
Old December 8th 05, 01:00 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Activation-How do I stop the insanity?

Richard Urban wrote:

I know that it seems to suck, but you just got a bad tech. A popup on your
screen will tell you exactly how many days you have to activate or
reactivate. Believe what your computer tells you, not some person from a
third world country.

I change hardware much more than others also. I have had to reactivate about
4-5 times over the years because of this. My situation is NOT the norm.
Many, many people buy a computer and used it until it dies, without even
adding one additional program or piece of hardware. They don't know that
they can. They replace what may go bad by sending the computer back to the
manufacturer. What they usually get is an exact replacement part.

Also, their computer may have, in fact, been activated by the manufacturer
or need no activation because of the way the manufacturer installs the
operating system on their computers. The customer/user does not even know
that the process exists.

You and I are different. I have learned to live with it and I am certain
that you can also. At most, it is a phone call of about 5 minutes.


Well that makes three of us that are "different" and I suspect there are
millions more. There is no reason why paying customrs should be forced
to help MS catch pirates, especially when you consider that WPA and WGA
doesn't stop pirates one iota. In fact, it promotes piracy due to the
frustration that a paying user experiences leading him or her to want an
XP that needs no activation.

Alias
  #59  
Old December 8th 05, 01:02 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Activation-How do I stop the insanity?

John Corliss wrote:

Carey Frisch [MVP] wrote:

Product Activation Facts
http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/activation_faq.mspx

Windows XP Product Activation
http://aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.php



I was all set to upgrade to XP from ME, just bought the CD from Walmart
the day before yesterday. However, given the fact that modern large
volume hard drives fail so often and the fact that I too use a USB
digital camera, I believe I'm going to install XP on a separate hard
drive and only use it for testing purposes.

When I got this computer, it was supposed to come with XP. After
considering the pros and cons of XP Product Activation, I told the
vendor (ABS) to install M.E. on it instead. After reading those two
links, I can see that my concerns were well justified.

I'm all for Microsoft protecting their product from piracy and think
that product activation is a good way of doing that.


How so? Pirated XP disks don't need to be activated.

What I don't like
though, is the way that Microsoft has implemented this strategy. Horror
stories like Mark Smith's demonstrate that the system is flawed and unfair.

Also, honestly... *THREE VOTES* for a stupid NIC? Whatever was MS thinking?


What makes you think they were thinking?

Alias

  #60  
Old December 8th 05, 01:03 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Activation-How do I stop the insanity?

ANONYMOUS wrote:


Alias wrote:

Horsepucky.




It would be so helpful to us in the UK if you guys can translate non
standard american terms for us or provide links where we can learn from.

I don't know what Horsepucky means. I don't expect you to be rude for
trivial matter such as this so I assume it is just a normal american
slang for something.

Best regards,


It is synomonous with "bullsh*t".

Alias
 




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