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We activated 64-bit upgrade with 32-bit key from Asus
Mods - I don't think this post is in violation of Posting General Rule #7, but I could be wrong. If so, correct me, teach me the error of my ways, but don't ban me. I kinda like it here.
Some background:
My wife bought an Asus laptop in either Aug or Sep '09. It came installed with 32-bit Vista and came with a free upgrade to Win7 - so that kinda gives a time frame. Of course, we wiped Vista from the machine and clean installed one of the later 64-bit Win7 builds and the wife was very happy (always a good thing) with the machine.
When Win7 was released, we did the paperwork (on-line) to get the upgrade disk from Asus. We finally received the package yesterday. It contained only the 32-bit version of Win7 (with a product key) and another disk of drivers for both 32-bit and 64-bit installations (good on them for that).
After reading on SevenForums that an upgrade product key would work on both 32-bit and 64-bit (but those accounts have all be related/using the disk set released and sold by MSFT), I was hoping this "rule" would hold for the product key we got with the Asus disk because the lappy has 4GB installed and I would like for the DW to be able to use all that. So, I grab a MSFT 64-bit Win7 upgrade disk and start the clean install figuring that if it doesn't activate all I've lost is a little time. Then install the drivers from the Asus driver disk (there were 5 components in the Device Manager wanting drivers). So far all is well. OK, time to see if it will activate. I had my son read off the product key groups while I keyed them in (my eyes aren't what they used to be) and pulled the trigger. Activation Failed! Hoping that I had miss-keyed, we did a quick review - yup, one character got keyed as a "W" when it should have been a "Y". Made the correction in the product key and ...... Success!!!
Just thought this might help someone else in the same situation - someone who received a 32-bit version but has access to a 64-bit disk.