raymac46 Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 (edited) Last month was computer screwup month for me it seems. After I had hardware failure on my laptop, I had a Windows 7 meltdown on my desktop. After a Windows Update, the final update would not install and the machine kept rebooting. I checked the Error codes and it turned out that Windows Validation thought I had a pirate copy of Win 7 Pro. I checked with a Windows Verification Tool and it basically told me "Get a real version right now or else, sucka!!!!" Then my wallpaper went away and I got a black screen. Contacting Microsoft was useless as they told me I had an OEM copy which they could not unlock. I phoned Acer and they told me I couldn't even GET the key as it was baked into the machine's BIOS. This is BS as I already had it from Belarc Advisor. Nevertheless I had only one option available: That's right - Nuke and Repave (the Big Hammer - Windows Style.)This worked and fortunately I had my data backed up. I still had to do 177 updates, reinstall all my programs, and recopy all my data. This took me about 12 hours. Whoopee! Any wonder anyone who thinks for his/herself uses Linux? Oy..... Edited January 4, 2015 by raymac46 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 Wow, I have no desire to trade places with you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V.T. Eric Layton Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 Been there a few times; remember it fondly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebrke Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 (edited) Last month was computer screwup month for me it seems. After I had hardware failure on my laptop, I had a Windows 7 meltdown on my desktop. After a Windows Update, the final update would not install and the machine kept rebooting. I checked the Error codes and it turned out that Windows Validation thought I had a pirate copy of Win 7 Pro. I checked with a Windows Verification Tool and it basically told me "Get a real version right now or else, sucka!!!!" Then my wallpaper went away and I got a black screen. Contacting Microsoft was useless as they told me I had an OEM copy which they could not unlock. I phoned Acer and they told me I couldn't even GET the key as it was baked into the machine's BIOS. This is BS as I already had it from Belarc Advisor. Nevertheless I had only one option available: That's right - Nuke and Repave (the Big Hammer - Windows Style.)This worked and fortunately I had my data backed up. I still had to do 177 updates, reinstall all my programs, and recopy all my data. This took me about 12 hours. Whoopee! Any wonder anyone who thinks for his/herself uses Linux? Oy..... Just so I understand, how did you reinstall and validate windows without the key? Edited January 4, 2015 by ebrke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymac46 Posted January 4, 2015 Author Share Posted January 4, 2015 I had to use the Acer recovery partition and reset the computer to factory settings ca 2012. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zlim Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Do you image? If I was forced to do a factory reset, the next step would be to grab my newest image and install that. (I make my images outside of Windows, so I can restore using a boot disk, or boot USB stick and an external hard drive or DVDs). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 Hello, I had something like this occur to a computer at work running Windows 7 Professional OEM Edition last month, as well. No hardware failure, but after the last round of Patch Tuesday updates were applied, the machine reported it was no longer licensed. The computer vendor wasn't able to suggest much (actually, the machine was out of warranty, so there wasn't much they could do), and I did log a ticket with our internal help desk, but response from them can vary. The Product ID Key was still showing up via various utilities (Belarc Advisor, Magic Jelly Bean Keyfinder, Nirsoft Produkey, etc.) which I saved copies of for safe keeping. While I did have factory recovery media for the machine and it did not have much third-party software installed, as well as backups of all the data on the machine, I was loathe to blow it away and lose time rebuilding it. So, before I did that, I started playing with the Software License Manager (filename: SLMGR.VBS) tool to clear the product key from the registry, uninstall the product key, and finally re-inject the product key back into the system. One short reboot later, I was back up and running, and Windows was reporting it was now licensed. I still had to re-select my old wallpaper, but that's about it. Regards, Aryeh Goretsky 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 I still had to re-select my old wallpaper, but that's about it. Just a thought. New Year > New Wallpaper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebrke Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 (edited) This situation is a little scary--apparently MS has little, if any, interest in helping users whose systems have been very badly impacted by one of their patches. I'm just glad my mother's laptop is okay, but it doesn't leave me filled with confidence about the coming years with win 7. EDIT: I did finally find some mention of this issue in other places, seems to be related to the already-known troublemaker KB 3004394. http://www.infoworld.com/article/2859267/operating-systems/windows-7-hit-by-rash-of-bogus-not-genuine-reports-validation-code-0x8004fe21.html Honestly, I'm going to start waiting weeks, rather than days, before installing win7 updates. Microsoft, bring back all those software testers you laid off! Edited January 6, 2015 by ebrke 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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