I bought 6 used Dell PC's with Windows 7 installed - everything worked perfectly until today when they all started saying they needed activating & that I may be the victim of counterfeit software !

I cant find any COA stickers on the units themselves, so I think I may have been conned & can't get hold of the seller - no longer registered on eBay

I've looked at buying the licences, but at ~£150 that's what I paid for the PC's in the first place

It appears to be a Dell specific install - I tried another key I have on a knackered PC, but that wasn't accepted.

Is there anywhere I can buy 6 copies of Win 7 Pro 32bit for reasonable money ?

Or get hold of Dell licence keys ?

Try searching for a Windows 7 OME licence.
These are normally for system builders but the licences are around £50-£80 and totally ligit.

If you're buying 6 then you may be able to work out a discount as well but if there are a counterfit install then it may be worth doing a complete re-install with the new licence, to make sure everything is ok. 

Hi Ali,

I do this kind of thing day in day out and could pop over this weekend to help you out as i do a sideline in this

Normal OEM stuff is a bit tricky and a PITA to get right, specially with W7/8

Drop us a line if your interested as there are a few on here and D3/4 Forum that can vouch for my services. Budget on about 10mins per machine to get the job done but when i do it, its done right  FFRR MY06 facelift With TDV8 Alloys Zeros/ATR's
Mantec Sump Guard, Rigid Load liner, MY10 BT upgrade.

be careful there is no spyware installed.

Personally I would reformat the hard drive and install a new OS from scratch.

Do you need windows? You could try http://www.ubuntu.com/

Looks like a 'legit' install - but with a temporary key

They came with a Dell re-installation disc & have tried re-installing with that tonight - it basically looks like it installs properly, but with a temporary licence key - you then need to activate it within 30 days which is where it now seems to be failing

kingpleb - I'm away a lot over the next few weeks & the next 7 weekends - My family are in France for the summer, so I'm backwards & forwards - one of the PC's is now in France too !

If I can't figure it, I'll drop you a line

No problems alistair

I can do a full reinstall but take about 30-60mins a machine
But can then activate and leave them to pull te updates down

I use the good stuff from dell mind.

There is a bios part to the activation which may be your downfall. There are online things that may help, bust as above be aware of spyware and get MSE installed ASAP as its free and does a fairly decent av/sec job for machines  FFRR MY06 facelift With TDV8 Alloys Zeros/ATR's
Mantec Sump Guard, Rigid Load liner, MY10 BT upgrade.

+1 for MSE. Graham

____
Gone: 10MY L320 RR Sport HSE, Ipanema Sand
Gone: 20MY Jaguar iPace HSE, Silicon Silver
Gone: 17MY RR Evoque SE Tech, Loire Blue
Gone: 08MY Discovery 3 XS, Stornoway Grey
Gone: 07MY FFRR TDV8 Vogue, Stornoway Grey

Thanks kingpleb

It does indeed look like a BIOS problem - apparently I need A15 or higher for the Dell OEM to work, but the machines I have don't have a BIOS revision that new.

So it looks like I have 4 choices - live with annoying messages and without updates, use a dodgy tool to remove the BIOS check somehow, stick my hand in my pocket and donate a ridiculous sum to Microsoft or find some un-used Dell COA tags from machines that were wiped or installed with XP.

So I guess it's option 2 or 3......

Why can't you upgrade the bios?

These should be available on the Dell site for download and installation .
Experience is the only genuine knowledge, but as time passes, I have forgotten more than I can remember
Volvo V70 P2 2006 2.4 Petrol 170bhp Estate SE
MG Midget Mk1 1962

Previous: L322 Range Rover TDV8 3.6 2008; L322 Range Rover TD6 3.0 2002; P38A Range Rover V8 1999

Dell don't upgrade the BIOS for older machined - the one I'm on at the moment is a GX620 & Dell only have BIOS A11 available for download. Apparently only versions A15 or later work with OEM Win 7.

I have found a site that has a modified BIOS with SLIC 2.1 on it which will apparently work.

I'm just about to take the plunge with that

Is this right? I've got a 7 year old Dell D600 laptop running Windows 7 perfectly well... Graham

____
Gone: 10MY L320 RR Sport HSE, Ipanema Sand
Gone: 20MY Jaguar iPace HSE, Silicon Silver
Gone: 17MY RR Evoque SE Tech, Loire Blue
Gone: 08MY Discovery 3 XS, Stornoway Grey
Gone: 07MY FFRR TDV8 Vogue, Stornoway Grey

It depends on which version of Win 7 & where you got it from.

Google has made me an expert in the last 24 hours or so

If you buy a version from Microsoft it will come with a licence key and you can install it wherever you want.

If you get a copy of the manufacturers own OEM version, then it will only install on their machines - Dell has their Windows 7 versions locked down to something hidden in the BIOS that was only added with BIOS revision A15.

They have, quite understandably, not gon back and produced A15 BIOS versions for machines that pre-date Win 7 and never shipped with it.

With a Dell re-installation disk, if you've got A15 or higher, then it just installs and works without needing a key. If your BIOS is older, it works fine in trial mode for 30 days, then tells you its not genuine.

Bit of a moral dilema for me here - I bought in good faith, but accept that the installs are not legit. However, the Microsoft pricing policy strikes me as nuts given that it's only an operating system and I've got more PC's than people in my house. I'd be OK paying a couple of hundred, but at over £100 ber box -there's no way I'm paying £600, so the end result is that I'll probably end up paying zero and feeling slightly guilty..........

Windows Loader

+1......... 2011 Range Rover Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8

Previous cars :
2003 Range Rover Vogue TD6
1999 Discovery Td5 ES
1995 BMW M5 3.8 6 speed
1992 Range Rover 3.9 Efi Vogue
1992 BMW M5 3.8
1988 BMW 735i SE
1989 Ford Sierra XR4x4 2.9i
1981 Ford Fiesta Supersport

Be aware if you put a custom BIOS on you'll likely reset all the settings too, if your not sure how to customise a BIOS it can be a minefield - things like memory timings, CPU settings even voltages can (but are normally locked down) changed, apologies if you already know how to do this tho.

The easier option for most is either a boot loader that loads before the OS and cons the OS into thinking it has an branded BIOS thereby activating the install or the other option is tools that can disable the 'Windows Activation Technology' component.

Obviously I only tell you this for simple trivia, piracy is a crime and should not be condoned.