Help: windows 7 activation product key invalid

Welcome to the forums :emotion-21:

You need to contact Dell tech support about that. 

You shouldn't have been asked to activate it first of all, because there's a setting in the BIOS which is meant to pre-activates the OS.

But even if you were asked to activate it, the product key should obviously work.

So you effectively have two problems:

1.  The OS isn't being pre-activated - as it should be.

2.  The product key isn't being accepted.

And there's no advice forum members can offer, to overcome such problems.

Can you just confirm though, whether it's a full version of Windows 7 you've got, or an 'Upgrade' version?

The only possible reasons I can think of for the key being seen as invalid, is that you used an upgrade disc, and didn't have Vista pre-installed?

Or... the product key on the laptop is for the OS which was pre-installed on the laptop when you bought it (Vista?), not the Windows 7 upgrade key?

If Windows 7 was the OS which was pre-installed, then you definitely need to contact tech support.

If it's an 'upgrade' disc however, the Windows 7 product key isn't the one on the bottom of the laptop, but should be on a label stuck to the disc cover?

I have the same activation problem on a brand new Studio 1555 that came pre-installed with Windows 7 Home edition 64 bit. The LCD was bad out of the box and Dell promptly fixed it. When I received it back, the activation error was appearing. I know if you make major hardware changes, Windows wants to reactivate, but this was just an LCD which I confirmed with tech support.

The only license key I have is listed under the battery and that's not working.  Dell tech support formatted my drive and reinstalled Windows 7 from the OEM disc and had the same activation problem. Next they did an upgrade to the system with the same OEM disk and had the same issue. At this point it was well past midnight so I told them to call me today. 

I'm waiting to hear back from them, but I think the only solution will be a new disc with a matching key and one more reinstall.....

Why did you reinstall windows? That was not necessary and is why you have problems now. You need to clear this up with Microsoft. Use the contact Microsoft Activation Desk instructions shown when you select Activate from the Help menu in Windows Explorer and have the correct activation key handy. Be sure to distinguish between zeros and the letter O, the letter B and the number 8 etc. Make copies of the key and save it with the disk.

Thanks Mary!! I called Microsoft Automated number on the activation instructions and my copy is activated. Only took a few minutes and didn't require a reinstall. My question is how come the two Dell techs who worked on my pc didn't know that? Instead they reinstalled my OS twice.

At least I can carry on with configuring everything. Thanks again!!

I'm having this same issue, only  I cant seem to get it activated via phone as well.  I have been literally hung up on by dell and windows tech support more then multiple times and just want this computer that I spent so much money on to work. Great job dell on installing an OS that does not require being activated. :emotion-21:

I have the same issue. Got the pop-up yesterday saying my windows evaluation period had run out. I have a couple of month old studio 540s. Right after getting it I had issues with sleep mode working. The tech had me reinstall the OS.

After an 1hr plus call with dell support this morning, they told me they would need to come and replace the hard drive and motherboard. Turns out the there is an embedded key in the BIOS chip that gets sent to microsoft to authenticate. This chip isn't working for some reason.

The call with tech was painful, and only at the end do they say, "we're having this problem with a lot of newer PCs".

I just did the phone activation and that actually worked, but I'm still going to make dell replace the parts just in case something else comes up (and the way it's been going with this PC, it will).

Long time dell customer...now considering new PC providers.