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Inspiron One 2020, Service Tag invalid
The service tag and express service code tied to my Inspiron One 2020 desktop is not recognized anywhere on the dell website or by phone, and always comes up as invalid. The service tag and express service tag are the same on the back of the computer, the SupportAssist application, and in the BIOS setup. I was recently given this machine by a family member's friend, who purchased it at Best Buy, according to her, ~3 years ago. I'd like to register this computer in my name now that it's mine, and be able to purchase the OEM Windows 7 recovery discs if necessary in the future (although I have already installed and activated retail versions of Windows 7 Ultimate and Windows 8.1 Pro on the machine). Would Best Buy be able to do anything about this? If any additional information is needed, feel free to message me. Thanks in advance, Zach. :)
ejn63
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23.1K Posts
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July 20th, 2018 13:00
You'll have to ask the person who originally owned the system -- if Dell doesn't recognize the service tag, only that person can tell you.
Beyond that, neither Dell nor Microsoft will supply Windows 7 media any longer (and in 18 months it becomes a moot point anyway, as all support for it ceases in January 2020).
RoHe
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43.6K Posts
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July 20th, 2018 17:00
If the previous owner bought this PC at Best Buy, they were supposed to register the Service Tag themselves. If they didn't, that's probably why it's not recognized now.
In that case, you could try registering it in your name, though probably pointless since it's an old model and Dell won't provide support, beyond drivers which you can download for free directly from their Support site without registering the Service Tag.
You could easily make an image of the hard drive now, as long as it's working, so you could quickly restore everything on a new drive if this one fails or gets infected. There are various free and paid apps to image a hard drive that store the image on an external USB drive. These apps also let you create a bootable CD/DVD to boot the system and launch their recovery tools to re-image a drive. Good idea to image the drive on a regular basis, so you always have a recent one, to be safe. :Wink:
RoHe
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July 20th, 2018 17:00
BTW: There may still be legal routes to upgrade Win 7 or 8.1 to Win 10 for free. So you might want to look into that and avoid End Of Life for Win 7 in 2020 and for Win 8.1 in 2023.
Obviously, that supposes this system will run Win 10, but if it runs Win 8.1 now, chances are that it will also run Win 10. You might want to search these forums to see what other users have posted about upgrading the 2020 to Win 10 and if they encountered any problems...
OothecaPickle
2 Posts
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July 20th, 2018 21:00
Unfortunately, I'm unable to register it myself. As I said, it's invalid everywhere I enter it. Thanks for your replies and help. :)
RoHe
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July 21st, 2018 19:00
Sure you're reading it correctly? It's very easy to confuse the letter I (capital i) with number 1, letter O with a zero, Y with V, etc.
At this point, you might as well forget registering it because there's nothing to be gained since the warranty has long since expired. So just use it... :Wink: