Why phone activation?

[riegel]

I have an HP probook that had Windows 7 Pro installed on it. The whole hdd somehow got corrupted, I could not even boot from a recovery partition (I think because I shrunk C: and created a D: too and it created a wierd partitioning system). I had to use a Linux live CD to erase all partitions because even my Windows 7 Pro CD could not see the partitions when I got to that part of install. Upon installing the same exact version of Windows on the same exact computer I entered the product code that was under the battery of all stupid places. Then is does not activate and tells me I can activate by phone? huh. So I did everything phone told me and Windows is activated fine... BUT why when I have a valid product key does it fail until I use the phone activation?

 

[brightspark]

It's a strange one. Generally only occurs when there is zero internet connection. Was the probook definitely connected to the internet at the time you attempted to activate?

 

[NoelDP]

The COA Key starts out life being blocked from activation to reduce the amount of times that machines on store shelves had their Keys stolen.
Telephone activation over-rides this block and locks the Key forever to that machine.