Faded COA sticker

[sorcerer]

Had to replace a hard drive in an Acer laptop and, of course, the customer never made the recovery media.

The first five characters of the licence key on the COA have faded beyond recognition and I seem to remember that someone on here took a photograph of one they were dealing with and emailed it to Microsoft to prove that a COA sticker was there but unreadable and MS gave them a replacement key.

I can't find that post now, so can anyone either point me to it or provide the MS email address needed please?

 

[Markverhyden]

How old is the laptop and what was the existing OS? Have you tried to contact Acer for recovery disks as you will not need a key with those.

 

[cyabro]

They weren't running windows 10 by chance?
Otherwise someone did post awhile back on here a tool to activate oem windows, something like slp activation tool.

 

[Markverhyden]

They weren't running windows 10 by chance?
Otherwise someone did post awhile back on here a tool to activate oem windows, something like slp activation tool.

Good point.

https://www.technibble.com/forums/threads/automate-slp-activaiton.67396/#post-525982

 

[sorcerer]

How old is the laptop and what was the existing OS? Have you tried to contact Acer for recovery disks as you will not need a key with those.

Not sure how old it is Mark but it's Windows 7 Home Premium. Two things 'wrong' with contacting Acer - 1, they want to charge for the discs and 2, it would be a few days before they arrived.

 

[sorcerer]

Thanks Cyabro for mentioning the activation tool and Mark for pointing me in its direction, I'll give it a go.

 

[Altster]

Not sure how old it is Mark but it's Windows 7 Home Premium. Two things 'wrong' with contacting Acer - 1, they want to charge for the discs and 2, it would be a few days before they arrived.

Gotta do what you gotta do. The customer should be made aware of this and let them make the decision if they want you to proceed with it.

 

[Kitten Kong]

Not sure how old it is Mark but it's Windows 7 Home Premium. Two things 'wrong' with contacting Acer - 1, they want to charge for the discs and 2, it would be a few days before they arrived.

If the coa is worn, that's down to the client, not you. So you shouldn't have to bare the costs and time frame thereof. Rather like the old vista paper coa's. They wore so easily.

You could always do a fresh install (upgrade) to windows 10..

Ps, recovery media from Acer costs approx £50, and takes 2-3 days to get to you. Least that was the cost and time frame a couple of years ago.

 

[brandonkick]

There are certain "toolsets" that will allow you to see the windows key.

There is another program, I think active tokens manager? that will allow you
to "backup" the installation token and reinsert it into the system once you
reinstall it.

There should be at least a few options available for you to get the key without
needing to contact microsoft or acer...

 

[nlinecomputers]

There are certain "toolsets" that will allow you to see the windows key.

There is another program, I think active tokens manager? that will allow you
to "backup" the installation token and reinsert it into the system once you
reinstall it.

There should be at least a few options available for you to get the key without
needing to contact microsoft or acer...

But they don't work on SLP keys. Or rather the key you get can't be used with normal media.

 

[brandonkick]

Not even advanced tokens manager ?

 

[nlinecomputers]

Not even advanced tokens manager ?

Nope. For SLP Bios locked keys to work you must ALSO have the Certificate file on the machine AND the matching key in the BIOS. Unless all three conditions are met you cannot activate.

 

[bdoggman]

Multi OEM disk is your answer. Been using them for 10 years. You never will have to insert a key again. Pulls the slic key right off the board.