Solved Windows not genuine after laptop not used for a while.

[HAVOC]

I turned on my Dell laptop after it sat for a while and it said "not genuine". I know it is. It's a retail version of Windows 7 Home Premium. I'll be selling the laptop to a friend (for work) and wanted to do a clean reinstall and was confused when I saw the message.

Should I ignore it and continue with the reinstall or fix the non-genuine message first?

 

[torchwood]

Hi Havoc,
Carry on with the re-install, you will get the chance to Activate or not during set-up.

Roy

 

[HAVOC]

Going to do the reinstall this weekend.

 

[HAVOC]

Reinstalled and it activated properly. Now I'm just waiting on the "checking for updates". What the hell Microsoft?

 

[UsernameIssues]

Download this KB: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3138612
Save it to your desktop (or wherever).
Disconnect the computer from the Internet.
Install that KB.
Restart the computer.
Connect the computer to the Internet.
Manually check for updates.

They should show up in less than an hour, if not:
Set the laptop not to sleep and leave it checking for updates overnight.
If that fails, it is time to reset Windows Update.
Use option 3 of this tut: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/91738-windows-update-reset.html

 

[UsernameIssues]

You might also want to look at this download:
http://www.sevenforums.com/news/396236-simplifying-updates-windows-7-8-1-a.html

 

[HAVOC]

I just left the laptop on overnight.