I own a TR3A like many of you.

It used to have a recovery partition. However… some time ago I needed the space so I made a ghost backup of my system (thats acutally nothing but the sony installed Windows XP plus some software that I have installed meanwhile) and deleted that partition.

However…
The other day I decided to make a clean install of Windows XP.
So, I took a Windows XP Home CD ENGLISH from a friend.

Ive slipstreamed it to Windows XP Home SP2 and installed that using the
prodcut key on the bottom of my TR so that I would have a clean install again.

Install was fine until it came to product activation. The activation assistant told that the key was invalid :twisted:

How could that be? Were talking about the product code from the Microsoft label of my TR…

OK…
since the Sony installed Windows XP never asked for activation I decided to recover the ghost backup I have to check for differences.

I used “magical jelly bean keyfinder” to read out the product key of the Sony delivered Windows XP installation and I was out of my socks.

Reason…
The Product key that was used for it is not the same as on the Microsoft Label on my TR. Again… how could that be?

HATE…
I decided to use the product key that Ive read out to install Windows XP again. Setup was fine. But when I tried to activate my Windows it would tell me this time that the code was UNAUTHORIZED.

I dont get it. It seems like Sony left 2 product keys on my system. A legal one on the label and an illegal one thats been used for the installed version of XP. Both cant be used for product activation so theyre in the end both illegal… or what?

What am I supposed to do now?
Would you guys do me a favor and read out your product keys and compare them with your code on the label???

The program Ive used is called “magical jelly bean keyfinder”.

Yeah, it’s the same as I used during installing windows XP (used the software you mentioned).
But I never used the windows-version shipped by sony (XP home). It’s a clean version of XP prof on my TR.

So you used Windows XP SP2 either? Did you
experience the same problem? I dont really understand what youre talking about…

Hast du auch Windows XP SP2 benutzt und die gleichen Fehler gehabt?
Was willst du mir eigentlich damit sagen??? Ich kappiers nicht :?

Hi silyb0y -

Unfortunately OEM license keys (like the one from the bottom of your notebook) won’t work for Retail editions of Windows (either Full, Upgrade or off the store shelf OEM).

Each edition of Windows, including PC Manufacturer OEM, has a different set of license keys and they are not interchangable (same goes for Home and Pro editions).

Volume license keys do not require activation because they are BIOS locked to their original installation.  The only computers your Sony OEM Windows recovery will work on are Sony TR3A’s.  They are forever married.

Now .. as to the reason your license key (from the bottom of your computer) is different from the license key encrypted in your TR3A’s installation: Sony doesn’t sit and type the license key into each computer. Instead they ran the same installation on all the TR3A models configured as yours was .. and used a volume license key. If you choose to change the key in the activation wizard, you can input the key from the bottom of your computer and it will be accepted by the algorithm that validates license keys.

However, your TR3A’s key won’t work with your friend’s Windows XP CD because it is a retail edition and won’t accept a volume license OEM key.

There’s tons of information about all of this at Microsoft’s web site.

Sorry.

Jef

@jefn:

thank you so much for providing me with these infos. I never thought about Sony using Volume License keys and OEM Versions.
Ill try to find some more info on that from the Microsoft page.
Im glad to know that I at least own a legal product key.

Thank you.

OK. Thanks to Jefn once more.

First:
Ive checked the Microsoft info and I must say the the microsoft website is pretty difficult to search. Too many contents :x

I guess I will give them a call tomorow and ask for further advise. I dont know what else to do.

However. I got a serious question to the forum and I hope that
the admins arent too mad at me because of that:

Is it actually against the forum rules if I asked for the images of the recovery discs? Because the more I think about it the more I come to the conclusion that I actually own all licenses necessary. Accortding to the threads here the recovery discs wouldnt work with other systems anyway.

——————————————————-

Second:

For as I know there are only recovery discs available. No install CDs.
Do you guys have any idea how to get to the binarys neccesary for installation with the key on the CAO label of my TR3A?

After installing the slipstreamed XP I was really suprised about the size of my Windows folder. Just about 1 GB. I didnt think that XP could be so tiny

The size of my Windows folder from the Ghost image I mentioned is about 2.8 GB :twisted:  :oops:

OK. I got it. Good news for all of us!

I spent almost the whole day reading the Microsoft Databases and didnt find a solution on my problem.

Once again:
I used an english XP installation CD (that Ive slipstreamed to service pack 2) to install a fresh copy of Windows XP on my system.
I of course used the product key from the CAO-OEM-Label on the bottom of my TR. Installation worked just fine but when I tried to activate my XP online I was told “incorrect product key”.

I didnt figure out the problem, thinking that I took the wrong version of Windows XP (just like Jefn told that my oem product key cant be used for retail version of XP).

Thinking about it I came to the conclusion that this cant be right.
If its not supposed to work it wouldnt have let me installed XP at all.

Spending hours of glancing through administrator forums I found dozens of articles about laptop owners (mostly HP laptops) having the same problem. 

Finally I found an article telling that Microsoft stopped supporting online activation for OEM product keys in order to prevent software piracy.

(stopped support in May 2005)

Reason:
OEM keys indicate that the owner is supposed to have an activated version of XP or even a version thats not to be activated at all so that
one could easily use that one product key to activate XP on another computer system. Thats actually what I got to understand.

However… whats the solution??? Online activation is not possible.

What to do?
Microsoft actually ask their OEM customers to pick up the phone and give microsoft a call (phone activation).

The telephone voice answering system (how you call that?) will also tell
you that your product id (calculated by activation process) is not correct.

The answering system will connect you to a real person who double checks your id. That real person will of course know whats the deal and give you the activation code without any further questions.
The whole phonce activation process, just like the online activation, wont ask you for a name or whatever… youre tottaly anonymous.

So… I finally got my XP activated…. legally… just as its supposed to be.
If you ever get in such a situation and you have nothing to worry about… dont hasitate to pick up the phone and call them. Theres nothing wrong with your product key. Hope that will help you guys.

I’ll have to remember your solution.  Excellent sleuthing!

I was aware the Microsoft stopped online activation of OEM keys .. but wasn’t aware that the call to the Mothership would result in a helpful exchange of codes to activate the license.

Good work!

Jef

Thanks you Jefn :o