I purchased my Dell laptop in December 2015 with a 1 year warranty.

It had major problems in July 2016 and was returned to Dell for repairs.  The motherboard was replaced.

I'm now getting a shadowy message in the lower right of my screen saying "Activate Windows"

When I try, it tells me the Windows key is wrong. 

Further digging indicates that this may be due to the motherboard replacement.

Attempts to chat with Dell result in "You're out of warranty"

I don't want to spend hours of phone *** trying to talk to someone at Dell, or pay for simply getting the proper Windows key.

(Windows seems to update OK with the key it has.).

 

How might I get the Windows Key issue resolved?