Solved Incorrect hardware date affects Windows activation

Pederia

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Hello.
I got my ASUS notebook back from repair, and it said Windows wasn't genuine. I knew it was genuine, because I had passed validation before.
I phoned Customer Service at Memory Express, where I had gotten it repaired, and where I had purchased it in the first place, and they didn't know what was wrong.
Today, I realized that I had experienced this problem before, and both times it happened after updating the clock, which was somehow incorrect. I had a hunch that the hardware clock somehow affected validation, and went into the BIOS to fix it. After updating the hardware time, I attempted validation again, and succeeded.

If anyone else has this problem, Windows suddenly failing validation, try changing the hardware clock.

 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
OS
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
Yes Windows has did that several times on other computers over the years i have had it installed on!
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Win 7 Ultimate sp-1 64 Bit+Vista Ultimate sp-...Intel Core 2 [email protected] GHZ socket 775 LGA8 gb stepping 7-7-7-20ATI HD-4850 Dell
Computer type
PC/Desktop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Dell XPS 430-Dell XPS 8700
OS
Win 7 Ultimate sp-1 64 Bit+Vista Ultimate sp-2 64 Bit
CPU
Intel Core 2 [email protected] GHZ socket 775 LGA
Motherboard
Dell Inc. 0G254H (CPU)
Memory
8 gb stepping 7-7-7-20
Graphics Card(s)
ATI HD-4850 Dell
Sound Card
IDT High Definition Audio CODEC
Monitor(s) Displays
DELL S2209W
Screen Resolution
(1920x1080@60Hz)
Hard Drives
2 Crucial M4SSD 64gb Win7 Ultimate 64 bit SSD {Raid-0}
2 750 GB Seagate sata {Raid-0}Vista Ultimate 64 Bit
1 1000 GB Seagate {SATA}-Backup
PSU
430 W
Case
Dell XPS 430
Cooling
CPU Fan-Hard drive Fan-GPU Fan on card-PSU Fan
Keyboard
Dell
Mouse
MS 2000
If anyone else has this problem, Windows suddenly failing validation, try changing the hardware clock.​

There is never any need to go into the BIOS to change the computer time and date - it's best changed using the Date/Time options in Windows
First check that your region or Tiime Zone is set right for your actual location, then that the date is correct (including the year - it's surprising how often everything but the year is right!). Then check that the actual time is nearly correct (an hour or so either way is close enough), and then use the 'Internet Time' tab options to update the actual time - this will set it far more accurately than you can, and ensure that everything else is correct.

It's not unusual (although bad practice) for a machine to come back from a repair shop with the wrong time settings, either because they didn't reset it properly after changing a battery, or because they reset the region (some machines go to another country for repair - in the UK, if you take your Acer in to PCWorld for them to 'fix it' it will often go to Germany!), and it's reset to local time there.

If you run an MGADiag report when your machine goes non-genuine (or validation fails), and the time is out, you will usually see an error such as...
Validation Status: Clock sync error
You can also check by going to the validation diagnostics site for a quick checkup - www.microsoft.com/genuine/diag which should indicate the clock error, and also tell you if you have some other problems affecting validation.


HTH
 

My Computer My Computer

At a glance

Win 7 x64 Home Premium (and x86 VirtualBox VM...i3 370M/i7 6500U8GB - finally :)/8GBit's an i3, dude!/dual Intel&nVidia
Computer type
Laptop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
Asus K52F or Lenovo B51-80
OS
Win 7 x64 Home Premium (and x86 VirtualBox VM)/Win10
CPU
i3 370M/i7 6500U
Motherboard
Asus/Lenovo
Memory
8GB - finally :)/8GB
Graphics Card(s)
it's an i3, dude!/dual Intel&nVidia
Sound Card
onboard
Monitor(s) Displays
15.6" built-in
Screen Resolution
1366x768/1920x1080
Hard Drives
750GB Seagate internal
Sundry external drives attached to other computers on the local network
1TB SSD on the Lenovo
PSU
n/a
Internet Speed
as much as I can get - usually on a dongle/phone, so <1MB/s
Antivirus
MSE/Defender
Browser
IE11/12/Edge/Chrome/FF(if I must)
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