Since my last and only previous post I have experimented with and tested a few images using nLite and Sun's VirtualBox to become familiar with both. As I come to the serious end of those experiments and want to finalise my efforts, I need to first resolve a major problem which I encountered namely; you cannot apparently use an OEM Product Key to complete a clean install of XP SP3 where the OEM key was meant for use with an earlier version of XP.
I am not sure if the problem is:

• Using an OEM key with source files taken from a retail CD;
• The fact that the OEM key was meant for use with a lesser service pack;
• Or both.

Does anybody know the answer and if so, a work around to enable me to use one of my two (pre SP3) OEM keys with my new slipstreamed SP3 CD?

Further to my post above I have just worked out how to delete but first back up the Lenovo hidden partition to a recovery CD and wonder if using this 'OEM' CD as the source files would be make a difference to being able to use a (pre SP3) OEM Product Key to install XP (SP3) from a new source CD?

Thanks

PS I have just Is there a better or more appropriate forum where I should or should have posted this?

If you are slipstreaming it from Vista then try nLite 1.4.8.

The SP level shouldn't matter. Assuming you're doing this in XP, if you're using a retail CD as source, it won't accept an OEM key. Search the forums for setupp.ini for a solution.

@nuhi, thank you for the new version and your continued efforts!

I had the same problem, I found the answer in this article...
Unlocking WinXP's setupp.ini: http://www.thetechguide.com/howto/setuppini.html

Good luck,
Lilla

Thank you nuhi and emgee1465 for your replies,
I suppose I should have specified that used nLite to slipstream SP3 into and am trying to install Windows XP.
Thanks emgee1465 for the clarification; I didn't make sense to me that a key should be SP level specific but was confused because that is what a number of less confident MS support technicians told me on the phone and was then repeated by Lenovo support when I rang them. It makes more sense it that an OEM key will not work with a retail edition and vice versa.
Now that I have that straight, I have three legitimate (are they any other kinds ) available to me:

• Two OEM licenses which come with my two ThinkPads (an older but much loved T23 which I want to retire to a lesser role in another location and replace with a new T60 as a desktop replacement);
• A retail license which came with a replacement XP wSP2 CD I once ordered and received for some reason I can;t remember (I think it was because I bought the T23 second hand or just no longer had access to the hidden partition); and
• Guess I would like to stick with these legitimate keys if possible.

I guess this is where this post converges with my debut post in which, very new to nLite, I ask about using nLite.
As I mentioned in this post I have since become a little more familiar with nLite, and discovered Sun's VirtualBox to test a number of images but discovered that I don't at moment have the time to create the image I would like to but will instead settle for an SP3 image (with IE7, WMP11 and maybe a few hotfixes integrated) common to and which I can use for both ThinkPads until some time in the future as I have time to fully customise and integrate source files for each.
So the question now is do I go:

• The setupp.ini solution; or if I think I have them (I think I managed to extract the OEM i386 source folder when I created a recovery disk from the T60's hidden partition);
• Creating a new image with nLite (nuhi, I'll download the new version thank you)

The other problem I have encountered is not having the controller drivers needed at F6 to install XP (this is the first time installing XP to a SATA HDD). Can these be generic drivers and where should I look for them? Any ideas?

It seems just as I get onto top of and become confident with one thing, new problems to overcome start all over again when I move onto new things

Thanks for your reply Lilla,
Sounds straight forward enough but I have yet to test it.
At first glance though I don't seem to be able to reconcile the example given or my own setupp.ini file with the variables (actual values) given. My setupp.ini file reads:
[Pid]
ExtraData=786F687170637175716954806365EF
Pid=76487000
As I used a retail source XP CD to slipstream SP3 but need to accept OEM keys would my PID value accordingly simply be 51882OEM?

Thanks

I'd go with Pid=76487OEM
This way you are making the smallest change possible, less likely to have problems.

I'm sure you know this already, but just to be sure, your OEM key and retail CD are both XP Home or both XP Pro, right? because you can't mix the two.

Good luck,
Lilla

Thanks again for your reply and suggestion Lilla,
Also makes sense but by that logic I can't figure out in the example given what version the CD would have been and the PID examples given would had been:

• Pid=55034335
• PID=55034OEM

Do you see my point of have I missed something altogether? Thanks

I've never come across those pid's in the techguide link and find this page to be more useful, http://wiki.lunarsoft.net/wiki/Product_IDs
I agree with Lilla, 76487OEM is what you should use and is what I always use for XP PRO and MCE.

Thanks Lilla & emgee1465,

Especially for the Wiki link which provided a little more detail. The many other references all seem to plagiarise the other as they are all almost word for word the same. Including to a degree a reference on Daniel Petri's site which however did suggest that changing the PID value could led to problems with Activating XP, passing the Windows Download Centre's Genuine Advantage test and so on.

However I did as you both suggested and although I have so far only tested an image in a VirtualBox have not has any of the aforementioned problems.

Thanks again for your help