[aktivedesign]

I have a dell laptop which has it's product key on a sticker on the bottom. I recently added a wireless card and some more memory to the laptop and now when I try to activate windows online it says invalid product key.

If I activate over the phone all is well, but this is a painfully long process, how can I get m$ to realise that they product key on my laptop does still belong to my laptop just my laptop now has a bit more memory and a wireless card...

I don't want to have to phone up after EVERY format...

Anyone any ideas/suggestions?

Thanks in advance

[Mercury_22]

Hi!
Try this http://unattended.ms...vate.htm#backup
Let me know if it works for you

[aktivedesign]

Ahhhhh, never thought of that.

Guess that means just one final call to m$ and then from there on, auto activation, yay!

Thanks for your help, I will try this later, got to go out now, but i will post result here. I don't see any reason why it won't work though, THANKS!

[Takeshi]

The DELL XP CD key used to install XP is different from that on the COA. Changing the key to the one on the COA might be a long term solution.

Adding RAM should not lead to the need to reactive.

The methods in the link may not work if you have a significant change in hardware.