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Loss of Pro
Since I reformmated my dell laptop using the OEM reinstallation CD for Microsoft Windows XP Professional that came with it, it is no longer Pro. It's only home edition now. I purchased it with pro and I don't know why the reinstallation cd thats supposed to be for pro only installs home edition. Any advice?
- Something isn't right - perhaps the disc has been mislabelled. If your laptop included a restore partition you could restore your system using Ctrl+F11 (I believe) at the BIOS. Either way, my recommendation is to call Dell as soon as possible, give your customer service representative your systems service tag, explain the situation to them, and ask them politely if they can ship the proper disc to you.
- Jenova87,I agree with Kmkenney. Probably a mislabeled disk. I had the reverse happen recently with a Dell 4600 system. Disk labeled as Home installed as Pro. It activated automatically, so I didn't worry about it.Isn't the first time I've seen a mislabeled CD. I have a a McAfee Viruscan 4.0 CD purchased at Office Depot some years back that contains Windows 2000 Customer Support Diagnostics and Symbols rather than McAfee Viruscan.Tony
- Alright thanks everyone for you're responses, and yes I'm sure the disc is labeled pro and my laptops COA is XP Professional. I'll call Dell, hope the fact my warranty is expired won't matter. Isn't it kind of weird though that an xp pro certificate of authenticity allowed home to be installed?
Message Edited by jenova87 on 02-03-2007 09:43 AM - The Certificate of Authenticity is there to prove that you own a legal copy of Microsoft Windows XP, and should you ever be asked to re-activate (for instance, if you perform a major upgrade of your system), you'll need this product key.What the Dell OEM Windows XP CD-ROMs do is check whether or not the operating system is being installed on a Dell via the BIOS (I believe it looks for either "Dell Inc." or "Dell Computer Corporation". If it matches, it will automatically be activated. Otherwise, you are asked for the product key and to activate.So in theory it wouldn't matter if you used a Windows XP Home Edition, Windows XP Professional, or Windows XP Media Center Edition CD-ROM as long as it was a Dell OEM CD-ROM, then it would automatically activate on your Dell.However, you are only really licensed to the copy of Windows XP that is listed on your Certificate of Authenticity. Like I said, give Dell a call and hopefully they can sort it out for you.Hope this answers your question regarding the COA and good luck :)
- Um nah it doesn't really answer my question it just makes me more confused :-p So what you're saying is that as long as it's a dell oem disk it would never asked for a COA number? It would just automatically install? Wouldn't this make piracy really easy? Wouldn't it mean if I had home and borrowed a media center dell OEM disc it would automatically install and be validated? I did call dell but they told me I needed to verify with tech support that Home instead of XP is installed. Since my warranty is expired and I didn't want to pay money for tech support to tell me what I already know I guess this will never get resolved. I was after all staring at the windows system properties general tab. I'm going to try to borrow a non OEM XP Pro disc and try to validate with my COA. We'll see how that works. Thanks for everyone's help.
- Jenova87,Simplest way to solve you problem would be to contact Dell Support regarding acquisition of the Windows XP Pro Reinstallation CD to which you are entitled. See FAQ at to of this board on how to obtain Dell CDs.If you use another XP Pro CD to reinstall XP on your system, it cannot be activated. However, there are several ways to fix the problem. When asked for the Product Key, enter your Dell XP Pro Product Key. You will receive a message that the key is incorrect. Simply use the Telephone Support option to call Microsoft's automated support line. As requested, read or enter via touch-tone keys the codes displayed on your Product Activation screen. You will most likely be switched to a human being. Thereupon, you will be asked several questions. Explain truthfully what you have done. The representative will most likely ask you to read off the first and last groups of the codes. These will verify that your Windows XP Pro is legitimate and the computer on which it is being installed is a Dell.Second method is to obtain the Magical Jellybean Keyfinder program from here: http://www.magicaljellybean.com/. Note: Keyfinder uses Microsoft's recommended method to change your Product Key to the one which is legitimate for your machine.If you use the XP Pro installation CD's own Product Key, it should give you 14 days to activate, then you can use the Keyfinder to enter your valid Dell Product Key for legitimate activation.Needless to say, my earlier recommendation to contact Dell support is the fastest way to solve your problem.Tony
mombodog
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Posted February 3rd, 2007 03:00