Build 7601 Windows not genuine

The HP lady was talking BS!
Neither Retail nor OEM System Builder licenses take ANY notice of the BIOS tables at all.

Yep, the Key on the Microsoft sticker on the bottom of the case (on some machines it can be in the battery compartment - but that's a recent innovation for most companies.)

Noel,
What is the chance that to at least restore the bios to a usable format (she said it had all zeros), that she simply installs the latest bios update using a usb stick or even a good ol' dos floppy?

Extremely unusual to have a zeroed bios. Maybe the battery for the cmos is dead?

ItsMeHolly said:

But I did the keyfinder and found the keys. Would the sticker have a different number?

That looks truly unreadable
the Key should be above the bar code (which doesn't actually have the Key present), and it looks horrible.

@Karl
Not much chance at all - BIOS updates generally are supposed NOT to have the SLIC tables in, to prevent people updating to a different/new OS.
The history is that perhaps one in 30 may work - and sometimes I suspect something else was actually the cause of the 'cure'.

What teh HP tech did, I have no idea - I've never heard that response before (I didn't realise that they had such diagnostics on their machines), but it's fairly plain that they took a look at one specific area (the SLIC table), and rather than containing viable license data, it had been wiped clean.

The current BIOS is v2.4 dated 25 Nov 2009 - model is G71-449WM - so the update to v2.7 is certainly worth a try (from the link) HP Notebook System BIOS Update (Intel Processors) HP G71-449WM Notebook PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English)=
but since it claims to be for both Vista and Win7, I doubt it will change anything.

Noel,
I'm like you. I have no idea what the HP tech did and find the response extremely unusual. Maybe something got "lost in translation".

ItsMeHolly said:

But I did the keyfinder and found the keys. Would the sticker have a different number?

Computers that come pre-installed with Windows from large manufacturers usually come with two Product Keys.

OEM SLP: This is the key that came in Windows (from the factory). It works by connecting to a BIOS flag (the SLIC table) found only on computers from that Manufacturer. Once it sees the correct BIOS flag, it self activates. (this is the one in your report, and the one that the Keyfinder found)

COA SLP: This is the key seen on the sticker located on the side, bottom or in the battery compartment of your machine. The purpose of this key is to be used in the case the OEM SLP self-activation stops working for whatever reason.

If you would rather, we will say nothing.

We are agreeable (hard to believe, eh?).