Solved!
Go to SolutionWindows CD key is obscured
Hello,
As is often the case with laptops, the Windows sticker on the bottem, along with the Dell Service tag, was worn off by the young owner of the Dell Inspiron Mini that I have tried to help with. Being a hobbist that knows a little bit, I thought I had this problem licked by using Magic Jelly Bean. I recovered a CD key, and proceeded to use a Win7 disk image and a USB dvd drive to wipe and reinstall on the badly infected pc. I updated Windows and put Dell drivers on, and all was good until after several boots I noticed that the Dell Mini informed me Windows was not authentic. I re-entered the key and got this error: 0xC004F063 "the software licensing service reported thet the computer BIOS is missing a required license"
Anyone have any ideas?
Thank you!
Steve
Philip_Yip
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Posted December 21st, 2012 14:00
See my wiki Windows Reinstallation Guide for more details, get your friend to request A Reinstalaltion DVD or USB for the reinstall:
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/software-os/f/3524/t/19480753.aspx
I was pushing for this to get fixed:
http://www.ideastorm.com/idea2ReadIdea?id=087700000008axXAAQ
However Microsoft has done away with the COA completely in Windows 8 so theres really no point now.
theflash1932
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Posted December 21st, 2012 14:00
OEM's use a special/generic (called SLP) Product Key when the OS is installed at the factory that prevents the OS installation from needing to be activated. Using Magic Jelly Bean returns this Product Key, NOT the actual license key for that computer (on the COA). Using a non-Dell installation DVD will ask for a Product Key ... neither this SLP key nor the OEM key from the COA will work automatically (requires a phone call to Microsoft (NOT Dell) Activation to activate, but is a legitimate way to reinstall). [EDIT: I meant to mention that phone activation will NOT work with the SLP key.] Without a legible Product Key on the COA, your only method to resolve it and get an activated OS installation would be to use a Dell installation DVD, which uses the same SLP activation method that the factory install uses, so a Product Key does not need to be entered.