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Service Tag for Product Key???
# 1. Bought a 2nd hand Dell Vostro 1700 with recovery disk (pre-loaded Vista). Currently the machine has Win 7 on it, so I can't use key finder to get the product key to take it back to Vista. Key finder only reveals the Win 7 key and the Product key sticker is worn off on the bottom of the laptop. Thought the service tag or express tag could be used to find the original product key by talking to Dell but the person on chat said you will need to pay for tech support. What why?
I'll bet the information is there at Dell but they want to charge you to get it. Why?, is it locked up in a vault someplace, do they have to climb a mountain or is it just a few keystrokes away on their computer? They claim customer service is one of their main things but giving stored information must cross that line.
Problem # 2 ~ since getting the machine the HDD stops working but then recovers. This usually happens after it has been in use for an hour or more. If I am in the middle of burning a CD or other... the disruption is on the final copy. I've read on the internet that this problem with these machines happens especially when they have been upgraded to another OS than the one loaded on them. I do not know what the truth is on this. Others claim it has to deal with cooling but how to prevent is a mystery.
Any advice or comments are welcome. Is paying more the real solution? Where is the warranty on that? Thanks for your time.
bacillus
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May 5th, 2012 12:00
Do you have the original dell vista dvd? if you do you should not have to type in the product key to install vista.
ColoradoRobert
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May 6th, 2012 08:00
You are right Bacillus. I had to try an restart a few times but finally the Vista disc kicked in. Been messing with it now for about 10 hours and can't tell yet if my HDD will stop working and then recover or not. But that was the main reason I have done this. To cure that.
For anyone having to do this a word to the wise. I guessed when picking the Drivers! Though they were "all" supposedly listed on the Dell site by entering my service tag many more came up for all the variances of my laptop model. So I'm not not sure I have them all or the right ones. TIP * download the wifi drivers on a memory stick or you will not be able to connect to the internet to get the rest of the drivers you need. The Vista disc I have replaced the OS but not drivers.
I wonder how many drivers there are suppose to be for my particular unit? I used a search program and it shows I now have a lot of them. Can they conflict and cause other nasty problems, I dunno.
Also wondering if anyone can answer this: Can the Win 7 OS (Windows old) now be deleted without harming anything? It was loaded on the laptop by the last owner.
PudgyOne
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May 6th, 2012 11:00
ColoradoRobert,
Try running the full diagnostics and report back any error messages. How to Run the Dell™ Diagnostics Utility
If you use the Dell Vista OEM disk, no product key is needed, as bacillus stated.
Rick
speedstep
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May 6th, 2012 16:00
You cannot find key via service tag. Its not there. You will have to buy a new copy of windows.
ColoradoRobert
31 Posts
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May 8th, 2012 07:00
Wow! Hey Pudgy... I started this diagnostic last night at 5pm and this morning it is still running with only 59% checked.
Guess I've been taking computers for granted and not realizing how powerful they really are. At this rate it will be 24 hours or longer before the check is complete. So far I've only seen one item unchecked as "passed."
Something else I uncovered and will have to research - the HD has 3 partitions on it and it looked like 2 were primary and one had 10GB unallocated. I wonder if this has anything to do with my troubles? I've read a little and some people say that you don't need any partitions at all. I wonder if this is true.
Also when you do a format do all 3 partitions get formatted? If I knew how I would combine all 3 and format everything and start all over but not sure if the recovery disc would then load Vista. I know these are a lot of questions but if anyone has definitive knowledge I would sure like to read it. - CR (writing this from my wife's computer).
PudgyOne
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May 9th, 2012 13:00
ColoradoRobert,
The full diaostics needd your participation to be run.
Try running it again. It should take an hour, I think.
The error codes will help with what is wrong.
Rick.
ColoradoRobert
31 Posts
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May 10th, 2012 07:00
Hey Pudgy, I did all the tests that came up on the diagnostic screen. One was called extended or something like that and it took just over 24 hours to complete. The only errors that I saw were: SATA Disk #--- Smart short self test, SATA Disk #--- Confidence Test and my battery came in bad also, but I've known about that for a long time. I've still heard some popping when playing music but so far the HDD has not blacked out and then recovered. So for now I guess I just live with it. Part two and maybe I should start a new thread? What do you know about partitions? When I look at my disk it has 86MB first partition, 10.00 GB Unallocated second and then 3rd is called OS (C) 288.00 GB. This doesn't look right to me because my wife's looks different. I'm wondering how can I merge the 2nd place unallocated partition with the 3rd and is the first place partition large enough? What was it from the factory you think? Comments Welcome.
PudgyOne
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May 10th, 2012 12:00
ColoradoRobert,
If my memory serves me correctly, one is a boot partition, one recovery and one system.
Did you get an error message, like 2000-0146 or any other code? This runs outside of Windows and checks the hardware on the system. I only had the test take a little over an hour for full. Did the first short test come up with any error messages?
Rick