install says my product key is invalid

[giantenemycrab]

im trying to install Windows 7 64 bit Pro that I downloaded using the student offer. I received my product key through the confirmation email. I carefully entered it into windows 7 setup, which caused it to process this for about 10 seconds, only to say that my product key is invalid. I have double and triple checked to make sure i entered it correctly. I did. Now what? Thanks...

 

[zigzag3143]

im trying to install Windows 7 64 bit Pro that I downloaded using the student offer. I received my product key through the confirmation email. I carefully entered it into windows 7 setup, which caused it to process this for about 10 seconds, only to say that my product key is invalid. I have double and triple checked to make sure i entered it correctly. I did. Now what? Thanks...

did yu do a clean install or upgrade? what was the version of the OS on there before? Ie if you had vista on there before was pro like the win 7 you purchased?

ken

 

[giantenemycrab]

I did a clean install. I had XP Pro 32-bit.

 

[tw33k]

do you have the full product or the upgrade?

 

[giantenemycrab]

do you have the full product or the upgrade?

The upgrade. Again, this was the student offer.

 

[kegobeer]

do you have the full product or the upgrade?

The upgrade. Again, this was the student offer.

Did you run the upgrade from within XP, or did you boot from the DVD?

 

[unholymist]

I'm having the same problem... I did a clean install using the upgrade disc and it doesn't*take my product key... I had the RC installed before and I'm trying to use my Windows XP Home-Edition key to upgrade...

 

[giantenemycrab]

do you have the full product or the upgrade?

The upgrade. Again, this was the student offer.

Did you run the upgrade from within XP, or did you boot from the DVD?

Tried to install from XP, didn't work. I figured it was because it was a x64 Windows 7 install over a x86 XP. Then I tried to boot from the DVD. It worked but when it wants the product key, I enter it and it says it isn't valid.

 

[giantenemycrab]

OK! I got it to work. What I did was deselected "automatically activate windows when I'm online", which let me get passed the product key screen. Once I was able to get to the desktop, I then tried activating my version of windows. This time, it took my key and is now working flawlessly. Thanks for the help.

 

[unholymist]

OK! I got it to work. What I did was deselected "automatically activate windows when I'm online", which let me get passed the product key screen. Once I was able to get to the desktop, I then tried activating my version of windows. This time, it took my key and is now working flawlessly. Thanks for the help.

I did the same thing but it still doesn't take my key...

 

[djjaeger82]

Unholyist,
I think setup does check for a windows installation when setup first starts. You can still format or delete that partition within setup to have a nice clean blank PC for win7, but this is treated differently than installing to a completely blank non-partitioned drive. Please see my posting here:

http://www.sevenforums.com/installa...l-upgrade-windows-7-version-7.html#post323460

 

[Jeffs]

Talk about dumb, and a waste of time. I just had the same thing. I installed the student download version of Home Premium onto a Laptop that had Vista, but whose drive had failed. So the laptop had a new, blank drive.

The product key failed.

I had to reboot from the DVD, delete the already installed Win 7 partition, and install it again. Then the product key was accepted.

Thanks to above for the instructions as to how to get around this annoyance.

 

[gregrocker]

Run a Repair install from the new desktop. A repair install is an upgrade over itself in Win7. This will make the installer think there is a previous qualifying OS and allow you to insert the key.

Otherwise wait til after intsalll and insert key at Computer>Properties link.