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Weird situation with Windows license on one of the computers in our company.
Hello community members,
Recently one of our computers had an error going on, basically it would keep trying to "restore" the windows session(i dont know if restore is a good word, in polish it is "wznawianie", it could be translated to like "continue" or "restore" ) then it would show an error regarding a problem with interactive logon ( once again i dont know the exact wording for this term, in polish it is "logowanie interaktywne" ). After that error it took You to the logging screen in which you only could press the buttons on screen, but the logon was not working(could press ctrl+alt+del on either keyboard or the touch keyboard on screen). After that I tried returning it to previous good configuration and then after it didnt work, i tried booting in safe mode which also did not work. I took it to my computer to try and investigate the full HDD (there was another story with this PC before, basically it reporting that the HDD is full) at first the drive did not load at all, but on second try i was able to access the drive and it obviously wasnt full. I decided to try to boot the system again and it magically started working, but from that point the system was not activated, the product ID doesnt even have the OEM letters in it. Tried some program to retrieve the key from the system, but to my surprise there was no line regarding the BIOS key, which would mean that there should be sticker on the PC, but it is nowhere to be found. This is where i decided to try the recovery partition, which ultimately broke the entire system. I clean installed the windows, still not able to activate it, for now i left it running as it is used on daily basis by workers, but we obviously cant leave it like that without license. So what do i do now? Anyone has an idea what could have happened to the computer?
TL:DR something weird happened to the PC, and out of nowhere it is not activated.
The model is Vostro 260 with W7 Pro.
Thanks in advance,
Best regards, Emil.
speedstep
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January 29th, 2021 06:00
Windows 7 pro is no longer supported. it wont activate on a full drive.
You should get a new hard drive and install again. or try cloning to larger drive
https://www.amazon.com/FIDECO-Dual-Bay-External-Duplicator-Function/dp/B07D6L5CJF/
https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-BarraCuda-Internal-Drive-3-5-Inch/dp/B07H2RR55Q/
Windows 7 machines DO NOT have key in bios.
They have an SLP OEM key but the activated key comes from the COA.
If your PC came preinstalled with Windows 7, you should be able to find a Certificate of Authenticity (COA) sticker on your computer.
https://www.dell.com/community/Windows-General-Wiki/Windows-7-SLP-Keys/ta-p/5190724
Philip_Yip
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January 31st, 2021 01:00
Windows 7 Pro activates using OEM System Locked Preinstallation. A clean reinstallation with a Dell Windows 7 Pro Reinstallation ISO/DVD will input a generic Dell OEM System Locked Preinstallation Key from the installation media which will automatically activate on a Dell system which contains a System License Internal Code of 2.1 or later. The product ID should contain OEM-899.
This is the primary OEM activation mechanism. The system should also have a COA which can be used for Windows 10 Pro installation and was only intended for use with Windows 7 Pro when there were activation issues. It it is a paper label, prone to fading and peeling off. Sometimes it was placed inside the computer cover to prevent fading.
I have wrote a pretty detailed Dell Windows 7 installation guide covering OEM SLP. See the section on Microsoft Product Activation if you want to reapply OEM SLP to your previous installation:
https://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/windows-7/
Although you may be better to clean install that system.
Windows 7 has reached end of life and a Windows 7 Pro OEM License has a free upgrade to Windows 10 Pro. If the COA is lost/faded and you have never had Windows 10 Pro installed, you will need to install Windows 7 Pro with OEM SLP and use gatherostat.exe to generate a genuine ticket (initial upgrade install mechanism). More details about this activation mechanism are in my Windows 10 guide:
Windows 10 (OEM and Retail) All Versions - Windows 10 Installation Guides (dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com)
emylovv
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January 29th, 2021 06:00
I do not see, any COA sticker thats why i made this thread, also the key is not working and wasnt working, even on the previous installation, there was an error regarding the activation i will provide the code on monday around 8am CET time, as now I will be heading home now.
speedstep
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January 31st, 2021 08:00
which specific model ?
Do they have windows Genuine labels?
Effective September 2017, a new GML design is released. This design includes a holographic image, holographic micro text and color shift
2017
emylovv
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February 1st, 2021 02:00
Hi, thanks for Your reply,
I currently am making a bootable USB drive for the clean install following Your guide, one thing i Would like to ask is: do i need the internet explorer updates? one of the MS updates for IE was missing (KB2639308) so i skipped the other ones for IE too. Is that a problem? Doesnt seem like something too important.
Will report when i finish the install.
speedstep
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February 1st, 2021 05:00
USB installs are NOT going to activate without a COA key.
Open admin command prompt and type
identfyingnumber is your service tag/serial number
name is model number.
Windows 7 OEM SLP key can only be used with a Dell DVD. DELL WILL NOT ISSUE A NEW KEY all windows updates for 7 will be unavailable because microsoft deleted them from their site.
Windows 7 is EOL EOS you are done.
And Both Dell and Microsoft will not support 7.
You did not answer which model or version you have.
Force update now to WIN 10 2004
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=799445
Use media creation tool to create USB2 installer. Must be FAT32 16 or 32 gig max
usb2 drive. https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=691209
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sandisk-cruzer-16gb-usb-2-0-flash-drive-black/9226875.p?skuId=9226875
emylovv
4 Posts
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February 1st, 2021 22:00
Hi Philip,
Thanks for Your detailed guide, the installation process went just fine without any problems, the Windows is now activated and running fine, exactly what I was looking for, since I already knew i had the SLIC table in that PC(checked before), Just needed the right ISO to install the system.
Thanks again.
Philip_Yip
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February 2nd, 2021 00:00
Great thanks for letting me know it was a success. Also thanks for letting me know KB2639308 is missing. It seems Microsoft has removed it. The rest seem to be there. In any case the Dell Windows 7 Reinstallation ISO Pro Edition already contains Internet Explorer 11 so it is not necessary and NTLite won't slipstream it as its already in the Pro index of the install.wim. It was just mentioned in the guide for completeness for those that were switching from Pro to Home (which doesn't have IE11).