OT: installing my copy of Win XP on a replacement PC

[Lobster]

Sorry for the OT post but at least it will be a diy installation...

The story so far... I bought one of those netbook PCs a few months ago (got some recommendations here at the time actually) - I bought a 20Gb ASUS EEE PC900, which came with a Linux installation which for various reasons did *not* cut the mustard and was shown the door in favour of a brand new OEM copy of Windows XP which I bought from an ebay trader for

40 or 50 quid.

Very nice bit of kit it was, but the model has quite a serious design fault which means its (already limited) battery loses charge rapidly even when the PC is powered down; the manufacturers have finally acknowledged the problem and are refunding me the purchase price.

I'm going to replace the 900, probably with the improved and updated EEE

901, which will also come with Linux and which I would want to replace with XP as well. However, I assume that when I attempt to do so using my recently purchased copy, it will fail activation as it will assume I'm doing a pirated installation.

Now I know that in theory I shouldn't have been able to buy an OEM copy of XP to install as I did, but I'm afraid I'm not going to lose sleep over the ethics of that. Furthermore I don't see any reason why I shouldn't install that same copy on another PC, given that the original PC is now scrapped, but I'm sure M$ won't agree. Is there some way I can do this without having to buy a new copy of XP?

Thanks David

PS I fully expect to be deluged with 'linux-is-far-better-than-XP-so-why-are-you-dumping-it'-type responses, but please be assured - already been there and done that and linux is not appropriate!

[Toby]

Try it, it may well be fine, if not, you need to call MS up (free phone number) and tell them you have replaced the motherboard on your computer, and it is now refusing to activate, they will then ask you how many machines this copy of XP is installed on (1) and then give you a manual activation key.

You don't need to tell them you are installing it on an entirely different PC, or they may refuse to give you the key!

If you can transfer one piece of non peripheral hardware over to the new machine, I think this satisfies the license agreement too :-)

[Bob Eager]

Not sure that works with OEM copies, unfortunately. That's why they are generally cheaper.

[Andy Champ]

Make sure you wipe the old install before you ship it. MS will be justifiably upset if it goes to someone else who uses your XP, and you both start doing updates.

Andy

[robgraham]

Actually I seem to remember being in much the same situation and just telling MS that the machine that it was originally registered for had been scrapped, and that I'm now installing XP on a new machine; that was accepted. It was within the definition of truth - only the 'new' wasn't totally accurate, so if you do have a really 'new' machine there should be no problems.

Rob

[John Rumm]

Like the others said, erase from the box you return, and install on the new - it may well activate anyway. If not, phone the number and say you had the motherboard replaced (which is true!) If they ask then tell them that it came with windows preloaded (you know you can buy and EEE with windows on it in the first place?).

Had to do it loads of times when rebuilding dead machines.

[Cash]

Bob,

Yes it does work. Did it on the wife's computer after swapping her old one for a newer one - just follow the on-screen instructions and procedures that are shown after an activation sequence is refused.

I used the freephone UK number to call Microsoft and within ten minutes, SWMBO's 'newer' computer was up and running and all the problems of her old one are now a distant memory for both her and her long-suffering computer techie (me).

Cash

[Lobster]

Unfortunately, said box has been with the manufacturer for weeks; they've just decided the problem is non-rectifiable and so they are going to refund me, and I won't get it back to zap my copy of windows.

On the bad side - there must be plenty of users out there who are perfectly happy with their badly-performing EEE 900s and are probably oblivious to the battery issue, so my returned PC might find its way back onto the market somewhere. On the plus side (though marginal) my EEE 900 was a 20 Gb configuration, which to my knowledge was never actually shipped with Windows pre-installed (they sold a 4Gb version with XP or a 20Gb with linux, for the same price. I bought the latter deliberately, wanting both XP and a large disk).

But thinking about it there's probably not a lot I can do in practice to guarantee my copy of XP will definitely not stay 'active', is there? And if that happened I'd be screwed anyway, right?

David

[Bob Eager]

I suspect there are OEM copies...and OEM copies. Some are definitely 'one shot'. And there's the further complication of BIOS-locked copies!

[Cash]

Bob,

Ah! This wasn't BIOS-locked - the CD-ROM was actually purchased from a small, independent computer store that I have dealt with for a number of years some time ago (a retail OEM as you could say).

Cash

[George (dicegeorge)]

i think if you phone and use your serial number to activate winxp on new computer then if the old computer gets used again their windows update will fail for them because you have re-registered it to your new machine

i suppose if the sticker with the serial number is on it or if youve left a file with a serial number they could then phone up microsoft and try to re-register it...

but i doubt bill gates would bother to send any heavies round to your house..

[g]

ps

[TMC]

However when I last needed to do this a couple of weeks back (new motherboard fitted) after the on line registration failed I called Microsoft and did not even have to talk with anyone just keyed in the ID from the screen - automated instruction..... 'If you bought the pc with windows already installed press 1' 'If you bought windows separately press

2'

Pressed 2 accepted and gave me a code

Ran all the updates and validation software no problems

Tony

[John Rumm]

Fair enough... there is not much else you can do there then.

I would be surprised if it did not at least get a drive wipe before going back out.

Got a feeling there are more variants of the 901 - so you might be able to buy what you want.

Well since I doubt you stuck the CoA to the old laptop you should be fine - you can always prove its yours. Not only that, but I would expect that if anything they would restore it to its factory default state (i.e. linux) rather than rely on anything you left on it.

[nightjar]

I didn't think anyone bought it retail. However, I generally get two installs from an OEM version before needing to ring MS and tell them I've just replaced the hard drive.

Colin Bignell

[tony sayer]

Can you state why please?. Just out of interest....

[Lobster]

Had to happen didn't it... ;-)

Mainly because the machine is primarily SWMBO's, and she's only ever used Windows and has no interest in computers per se other than what they can do for her. So the idea of learning a new O/S when she really didn't need to was never going to fly... tbh we did stick with the original linux for several weeks before giving up and going the windows route and it became pretty obvious that the machine was going to end up as an expensive paperweight unless I installed XP, so I did so with no regrets from anyone.

Personally although I'm no keyboard wizard I'm still a good deal more computer-literate than SWMBO is, having cut my teeth on MS-DOS many moons ago, but I'm afraid even I couldn't summon up the enthusiasm for retaining linux either. Whereas I've no doubt that ultimately it would be well worthwhile using for all sorts of reasons, there's obviously a pretty steep learning curve and for the uninitiated it's a lot less intuitive than windows, and unfortunately I really don't have the spare time these days to invest in getting to grips with it. And that certainly goes 100% for SWMBO!

David

[tony sayer]

Well thanks for that!..

Quite a few people round here are real Linux devotees and won't give any flavour of Windoze house room;!..

I've used it in some applications and tho as said not quite as user friendly as perhaps XP its incredibly stable:)

And much less irritating that that Vista cack!...

[Lobster]

Yeah - was well aware of all that which is why I did at least give Linux a reasonable crack before reluctantly deciding not to pursue it!

David

[dennis]

8<

Just why is vista irritating? The UAC stuff seldom appears so what is irritating about it? People keep telling me I should be irritated by it but I can't see a problem.

[John Rumm]

Depends on where you are coming from, and what you are used to I expect.

The things that bug me are:

It can be very slow - even on top end hardware it can take ages to do simple things like refresh icons or open a menu etc (and to be fair XP can be a bit like that at times). It can be quite enlightening using Win95 on a 100MHz Pentium - the UI is blazingly quick in comparison. (interactive performance seems to have gone steadily down since they lumped IE into the UI)

The configuration dialogs seem to have been made less intuitive than previous versions. Setting up wireless network connections now seems to be spread all over the place.

It has obstructive DRM built into it that can make doing simple things very difficult - like outputting DVD content to multiple monitors, capturing audio from any source, playing back HD content without a fully encrypted output chain of compatible devices etc (the latter can be fixed by AnyDVD HD from Slysoft)

Games performance is noticeably poorer than on XP or Win2K - part of that is RAM related - give it twice as much as before and it helps, but part seems to be related to the amount of titting about that goes on in the video drivers to attempt to enforce the DRM. SP1 has helped a bit as well.

The aero UI is distracting I find - it also requires quite high end 3D acceleration to run smoothly (turning off transparency and going for the vista basic look results in a huge performance increase on lower end systems).

Support for hardware is improving, but there are still plenty of existing devices for which there will probably never be driver support.

I guess one of its biggest problems is that it does not seem to offer anything really new or improved over XP. All the good bits that were planned for Longhorn got shelved along the way.