Windows XP Registration
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Anyone have any problems so far with registering XP? I bought an HP notebook that came preloaded with XP. The first thing I tried to do was wipe the hard drive and reinstall just the OS without any third party garbage. When I got to the screen asking for the product key the one that was attached to the notebook was said to be invalid. I tried 4-5 times making sure I didn't misread it but to no avail. I first contacted HP who told me go to MS who told me to go to HP. After three rounds of this I finally got MS to give me another number, which turned out to bogus. I angrly contacted HP again and was told a tech support person would call me back. That was over a week ago. It seems like MS has taken this anti-piracy crap to far. Legitimate users can get the help necessary to use their software.
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Anyone have any problems so far with registering XP? I bought an HP notebook that came preloaded with XP. The first thing I tried to do was wipe the hard drive and reinstall just the OS without any third party garbage. When I got to the screen asking for the product key the one that was attached to the notebook was said to be invalid. I tried 4-5 times making sure I didn't misread it but to no avail. I first contacted HP who told me go to MS who told me to go to HP. After three rounds of this I finally got MS to give me another number, which turned out to bogus. I angrly contacted HP again and was told a tech support person would call me back. That was over a week ago. It seems like MS has taken this anti-piracy crap to far. Legitimate users can get the help necessary to use their software.
Not to be rude: Problem = HP... not good computer makers (printers are OK, but computers are not). HP doesn't use good quality parts (hard drive, disk drive, motherboards, memory, etc.), tech support is horrible (as you found out), and just overall not good computers/company. Unfortunately the way to go these days is make your own computer (if you know what you are doing), or order from Gateway, Dell, or some other computer maker that has good parts, good service, and full support. Again not to be rude, but you are not the only unhappy HP customer, I know many more. Even though I personally use Windows 2000, I have formatted and installed XP numerous times, with no problems. :((
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Anyone have any problems so far with registering XP? I bought an HP notebook that came preloaded with XP. The first thing I tried to do was wipe the hard drive and reinstall just the OS without any third party garbage. When I got to the screen asking for the product key the one that was attached to the notebook was said to be invalid. I tried 4-5 times making sure I didn't misread it but to no avail. I first contacted HP who told me go to MS who told me to go to HP. After three rounds of this I finally got MS to give me another number, which turned out to bogus. I angrly contacted HP again and was told a tech support person would call me back. That was over a week ago. It seems like MS has taken this anti-piracy crap to far. Legitimate users can get the help necessary to use their software.
I have to disagree with Shadowplayer. Though I only have experience of the business/server side, I have no idea what the home service is like. Its true that HP were often a pain in the bum because there often go a little route of their own, such as a very odd 25 way port that can be used in several different ways none of which are standard, such as on the 9000 F20 series servers. But of all servers I have used, including Compaq, my HP's (various models) are by far the most reliable. I put the companies I work with on 4 hour response at have never not had the job done in 4 hours. Of cause that costs money that the home user wouldn't pay. Incidentally you can get 2nd hand HP's from companies like CHS for about £1000, these are servers that you would at one time of payed £15000 for. I use these as backup servers, the only thing I change on them is to put more modern hard drives in them. Your problem is with the way XP is loaded onto your disc in the first place. You could of sectioned off the XP's hidden section and wiped the working area, then use the recovery disc to load XP as new. If you simple did a format without taking care of XP first then you have nothing to recover. I agree that this is wrong, I have to change many hard drives each year and I don't want to have to ring microsoft every time I do it. So I will not let my users have XP yet. If microsoft are going to insist on this path then there need a much better system of recovery, for example in exchange for your license key access to an ftp site. Hmmm, I can see a problem with that, Ed would you edit it out before you put this on the list please. We do it for the joy of seeing the users struggle.
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I have to disagree with Shadowplayer. Though I only have experience of the business/server side, I have no idea what the home service is like. Its true that HP were often a pain in the bum because there often go a little route of their own, such as a very odd 25 way port that can be used in several different ways none of which are standard, such as on the 9000 F20 series servers. But of all servers I have used, including Compaq, my HP's (various models) are by far the most reliable. I put the companies I work with on 4 hour response at have never not had the job done in 4 hours. Of cause that costs money that the home user wouldn't pay. Incidentally you can get 2nd hand HP's from companies like CHS for about £1000, these are servers that you would at one time of payed £15000 for. I use these as backup servers, the only thing I change on them is to put more modern hard drives in them. Your problem is with the way XP is loaded onto your disc in the first place. You could of sectioned off the XP's hidden section and wiped the working area, then use the recovery disc to load XP as new. If you simple did a format without taking care of XP first then you have nothing to recover. I agree that this is wrong, I have to change many hard drives each year and I don't want to have to ring microsoft every time I do it. So I will not let my users have XP yet. If microsoft are going to insist on this path then there need a much better system of recovery, for example in exchange for your license key access to an ftp site. Hmmm, I can see a problem with that, Ed would you edit it out before you put this on the list please. We do it for the joy of seeing the users struggle.
Have to agree with Rassman on this one, HP is not a bad company at all, on the business server side they make excellent equipment, extremly reliable. And you would be foolish to think about saving a few bucks by using laser printers from anyone else. If you pay for 4 hour response they will be there parts in hand in 4 hours. Now the PC business on the other hand is probably a rebadged cheap generic kit. (That's probably why they bought Compaq - they will no doubt just sell Compaq PC's in the future - although I've never liked them either - always trying to make it not quite standard - you must buy compaq bits for upgrade etc... not good) Tryhard :-)
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Not to be rude: Problem = HP... not good computer makers (printers are OK, but computers are not). HP doesn't use good quality parts (hard drive, disk drive, motherboards, memory, etc.), tech support is horrible (as you found out), and just overall not good computers/company. Unfortunately the way to go these days is make your own computer (if you know what you are doing), or order from Gateway, Dell, or some other computer maker that has good parts, good service, and full support. Again not to be rude, but you are not the only unhappy HP customer, I know many more. Even though I personally use Windows 2000, I have formatted and installed XP numerous times, with no problems. :((
>(printers are OK, but computers are not) Maybe the high-end printers are ok, but I've had two HP inkjet's fail on me in under a year. I find it hard to believe that I simply got defective units both times. >or order from Gateway, Dell, or some other computer maker that has good parts, good service, >and full support. Gateway's used to be good a few years ago, but nowdays I wouldn't trust the components they use as far as I could throw them. Since the push to do everything "on motherboard" the quality has gone waaay down. Even Dell uses cheaper components these days than they used to in efforts to reduce costs. Dell is still an acceptable option, but have to agree that building your own system is *the best* way to go. It's really not all that difficult, even for someone with limited technical knowledge once you do a little research. This way you get everything exactly as you want it, and YOU not the OEM get to choose what components (if any) you want to save money on and what components you want to go all out on.