Possible Activation Issue

[Dragon41673]

Hello All,

I've got an odd situation on my hands & need some tech support as Microsoft can't answer my question for me which is odd as it's a simple question.

I've got 2 systems (a personal computer & a HTPC) running Windos 7 Home Premium...Family Pack. I have not used the 3rd activation yet, I've been holding off to see if/when my daughters computer would die. When that happens, I was going to give her mine, and build a new one with the last activation on Win7.

Well, my computer began having issues last year (IE & a couple other programs are crashing) ever since Corsair replaced my Dominator DDR2 memory (which they no longer made) with a different set of Corsaid DHX Memory. At the time, I put up with it thinking I was going to upgrade to Win 7 when it comes out. When I did this (completely clean install...nothing left on the HDD when I installed Win 7), I STILL have the same issues, so I thought it was obviously bad memory. I've run MemTest like crazy in as many different ways as possible, and the Memory always tests ok but I still have the problem.

I've believe the issue is the motherboard but I can not confirm this as I have no other way to test just the motherboard, which is unfortunately not made anymore & is JUST out of warranty (go figure). So here is what I'm thinking of doing...

I'm going to get a completely different motherboard (just happens to be the exact same motherboard as I'm using for the HTPC...but all other components will be different) for my personal computer, at the same time, I am going to take the CPU from my personal computer (Core 2 Quad), and place it in the HTPC (currently a lower end Core 2 Duo). I will then buy a better Core 2 Quad for my personal computer.

Now I know this will cause problems for my activation on BOTH computers, what I need to know is...will this blow my 3rd activation and cause me headaches later on when my daughters computer dies & I give her my personal computer so I can build a new one for myself? If so...what should I do about this? In the end, I'm still only going to be running 2 instances of Win 7 Home Premium with a 3rd later on.

Thanks

 

[Brink]

Hello Derek,

Since this is a family pack product key number, as long as you only have it installed on no more than 3 computers at the same time, then you will be able to activate Windows 7 on them with that product key number. If it will not let you activate it normally online, then you can do a phone activation instead.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[whs]

I am amazed the MS could not answer the question. You must have been dealing with a real moron. I assume your family pack is a retail version. Then there should be no problems.

 

[Dragon41673]

Brink - As always, thanks! I'm assuming I should be able to do that as well, but I was worried that how they gather info on the computer to activate it, they will say that I have it on 3 computers, when I actually don't.

WHS - I was a bit floored too. I explained what I was doing (in simpler terms), and they had NO idea what I was saying, near the end of the call she said a tech support person would have to answer my activation question. When I asked if she could transfer me, she said why, I wasn't doing the install now. So I figured I would come here where I've always gotten better help! LOL And yes...it's the Retail Version, not OEM

Now...if I could just find a reliable Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P since they discontinued it a couple months ago! LOL Every where I call or check with says they have one, and when I ask if they would go check, they don't.

 

[Brink]

Brink - As always, thanks! I'm assuming I should be able to do that as well, but I was worried that how they gather info on the computer to activate it, they will say that I have it on 3 computers, when I actually don't.

It's not a problem.

If you need to do a phone activation, then you would just need to tell them about your hardware upgrades and that it is uninstalled from all hard drives other than the up to 3 computers that you want to activate it on.

 

[Dragon41673]

Good...hope that works out. I sincerely appreciate all the help!

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Dragon. I'm glad that we could help. Please let us know how it went.

 

[Dragon41673]

Ok, new m/b is in! Everything went well, Win 7 is WAY more forgiving on replacing m/b then any other system. It deleted the old drivers & installed the standard ones, and booted right up. Now, although that worked, I still did a clean install, I just wanted to see if it would actually do it.

I don't know how "well" it would have worked, but that does not matter now. I did infact have to go through phone activation for the 1st attempt, but when I did a clean install it activated with no problems!

Thanks everyone!!!

 

[Brink]

That's great news Dragon. Thank you for posting back with your results.