OEM install (technical discussion)

[jronald]

After emphatically telling my wife I did not work to work on anything but IBM/Lenovo, and further stating I would not work on the OS.....I got drafted.

Can not get 7 to activate.
What I have done
Confirmed SLIC is fine in the BIOS
I do not have recovery media, Im using an Retail Disc (factory) of unknown origin.

Used the standard slmgr (purposely truncated) command and received a page full of "installed successfully"
Followed with the next standard slmgr (purposely truncated) command and got confirmation that it accepted the serial
Used the final slmgr (purposely truncated) command, confirmed the last 5 digits....and told me 28 days to activate.

What am I missing?
I have purposely been vague.

Thanks
Ron

[Neil]

Im using an Retail Disc

Has this license been activated before?

[systemBuilder]

I think you are missing a phone call to the aholes at Microsoft. It's why I don't want to deal with Microsoft any more. Even when you have all the license rights, including the OEM sticker, they often FORCE you to make a phone call to India to get your OS activated.

Go ahead, get on your hands and knees, bend over, and make the half-hour phone call. It's only your life you are wasting.

That bit of BS + Window 8/8.1 is why I am seriously considering NEVER installing windows EVER again. I will put Linux mint on my older thinkpads and say goodbye to microsoft forever. Their Cinnamon GUI is about 87% of Windows-7, lacking 100% of the microsoft racketeeers breathing down your neck whenever you want to do a reinstall.

[jronald]

It should be self-activating, based on everything Im reading.

Once again because of the nature, of the use (abuse) Im trying to be discrete. Hoping that someone who has used this method will recognize what Im doing, legally. I dont mind calling the sloth, but I should not have to. If it were mine no questions, Linux.

Ron

[RealBlackStuff]

Is that a modded BIOS from MDL or something else?
And in what machine?
Using any Lenovo W7 recovery disks on any Slic2.1-modded [T43 or higher] Thinkpad always immediately activates W7 upon installation.
You don't use/need slmgr with recovery disks!
My guess: the 'Lenovo' key you use does not play nice with retail.

[jronald]

Its not a Lenovo machine, and its entirely possible the HP-Compaq BIOS does not like the Retail disc. I broke down and bought an OEM recovery disc, I guess Im stuck until then.

Stay tuned
Ron

[ajkula66]

Its not a Lenovo machine, and its entirely possible the HP-Compaq BIOS does not like the Retail disc.

Exactly the case.

You'll be fine with their recovery set, nothing else will work as you were initially expecting.

Good luck.

[pianowizard]

they often FORCE you to make a phone call to India to get your OS activated. Go ahead, get on your hands and knees, bend over, and make the half-hour phone call.

The first time that I needed to activate Windows (which happened to be XP) over the phone, I did have to talk to an actual person, who happened to be American. That was about 8 years ago. Since then, I have always been able to activate Windows including Vista, 7 and 8 either over the internet which takes less than a minute, or by calling the automated phone system which takes 5 minutes max. I lost count of how many times I've activated Windows but it's probably close to 100 times.

When was the last time that you needed to talk to someone for half and hour?

Its not a Lenovo machine, and its entirely possible the HP-Compaq BIOS does not like the Retail disc. I broke down and bought an OEM recovery disc

You could have just downloaded the ISO file from Digital River for free. The ISO files from that site have worked for every single Windows COA sticker I've tried. Here are the links:

Windows 7:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... 3be24e3d15

Windows Vista:
http://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology ... load-links#

[jronald]

Its up, took the HP disc. Glad the buyer agreed to let me pick it up in Raleigh. I now work next door in Durham. Grabbed it at lunch, and spent the last 2 hours installing it.

Ron

[sktn77a]

Interesting - the Windows 7 images are supposed to be the same whether OEM or retail (I've used a retail disk to install on a Lenovo machine and used an HP OEM CoA to activate it). You do have to be talking the same version, though - eg a Win 7 Pro disc cannot be activated with a Win 7 Home Premium CoA.