Bryce W
09-23-2008, 04:10 AM
Today I came across something interesting. A had a client who just dropped off his computer case and after some diagnosis time, I determined that the motherboard and hard drive had died. So, after the client gave me the go ahead I replaced them and went to install XP. I noticed there was no COD sticker on anywhere on the case so I called my client for the CD Key. He got the piece of paper it was on and read it out to me. I asked what version of XP it belonged to and it was XP Pro.
I guessed that it was a retail version (seeing he didnt have the key on the computer case) and the key didnt work. It said it wasnt a valid key. I then tried a OEM version, that didnt work either. So I tried a VLK version which also didnt work with that key.
I then called up Microsoft so they could tell me what version the XP cd key belong to and they said it wasnt a valid key.
Suspecting I wrote it down wrong, I called back my client to get him to read back the cd key and it was the same as I had written down earlier. I asked him how he came across this copy of XP (was it preinstalled, bought from a store etc..) and he said he got the genuine advantage popup some time ago and bought the legal version through there.
Microsoft then sent him out a email with the license key and eventually sent a legitimate XP disk. I recommended that the client bought them over which he did the next day.
I used his genuine advantage disk which looks different to the usual XP disks and used the CDKey printed on the email (which I checked was the same as the one I was read earlier) and it worked first time with no problems.
This leads me to believe that the "XP Professional Genuine Advantage Kit" version is a totally different disk to the OEM/Retail/VLK versions. Can anyone else confirm this? Has anyone else seen something like this before?
I guessed that it was a retail version (seeing he didnt have the key on the computer case) and the key didnt work. It said it wasnt a valid key. I then tried a OEM version, that didnt work either. So I tried a VLK version which also didnt work with that key.
I then called up Microsoft so they could tell me what version the XP cd key belong to and they said it wasnt a valid key.
Suspecting I wrote it down wrong, I called back my client to get him to read back the cd key and it was the same as I had written down earlier. I asked him how he came across this copy of XP (was it preinstalled, bought from a store etc..) and he said he got the genuine advantage popup some time ago and bought the legal version through there.
Microsoft then sent him out a email with the license key and eventually sent a legitimate XP disk. I recommended that the client bought them over which he did the next day.
I used his genuine advantage disk which looks different to the usual XP disks and used the CDKey printed on the email (which I checked was the same as the one I was read earlier) and it worked first time with no problems.
This leads me to believe that the "XP Professional Genuine Advantage Kit" version is a totally different disk to the OEM/Retail/VLK versions. Can anyone else confirm this? Has anyone else seen something like this before?