Thinkpads Forum

Hey,

I just recently used the IBM Recovery Service on my refurbished T60 ThinkPad. When I started up, everything was back to the "manufactured state" which is what I expected, though when I tried to activate Windows (XP Pro), it didn't seem to like the product key I entered. This was the same product key from which I used for the first time, but it doesn't seem to allow me to use it again after recovery.

Am I going to have to get another "refurbished" key from IBM? or is there something else I have to do?

Thanks in advance

You should not have to activate Windows after a factory restore.

goofyGAguy, you should not, but sometimes you have to I have a refurbished T60 with a Windows XP Pro Refurbished PC's IBM COA on it and when I did a recovery using recovery partition I was asked to enter the product key during the install process. But it worked in my case.


zeldafreak42 - what COAs do you have on back of the laptop? I have 2 of them - the old one and the new "refurbished" one. I didn't try the key from the old one yet but I suppose is a good one.

My XPP recovery partition has SP3, which is not the case for the original set that has SP2; I think if you use an original XPP SP2 set you'll not be asked to activate it.

Hello,
Thanks for the replies. Much appreciated.

Now, sorry I wasn't very detailed, but I DO have XPP SP3 installed (from the recovery). As with the activation service, a balloon tip from the system tray tells me how many days I have left to activate Windows every time I boot up, and when I proceed to do so, entering the key once more after entering it during re-installation, a message tells me this:

"According to our records, the number of times you can activate Windows with this product key had been exceeded. Please enter a different product key..."

Answering your previous question, yes I have 2 COAs on the back (The refurbished and the original) I'm using the refurbished key. If I try the original it states that the key has been mistyped.

I guess my question is, can you only use the refurbished key once period?

Thanks

Call the Microsoft activation line and they will reactivate it for you.

Thanks, sktn77a, that worked.