Installing and activating XP with third-party OEM disk?

[krisdunn]

I just got my first thinkpad, a used R30 with a wiped hard drive. It has the XP Home sticker on the bottom, so that is what I wanted to install. The only copy of XP Home I have is a dell oem recovery disk from a desktop.

I installed this, but when I go to activate with the code from the sticker I get an error about invalid code. Is this normal? Is there something about the dell disk that won't allow it to activate with the sticker's code? Could the code on the sticker be bad? Any other options?

Thanks
--Kris

[jdhurst]

You can't move OEM codes around like that. You need the code that came with the CD you are using. That is, you need the Dell code to go with your Dell CD. The IBM code is only good for IBM recovery CD's. ... JD Hurst

[krisdunn]

So the code on the sticker on the bottom of the thinkpad is not good without an IBM oem copy of XP Home? ...what a pain...

What about a non-oem copy of XP Home, can I use the activation code from the sticker with that?

That old dell is not actively being used and I still have it, but will it allow me to use that code if it has already been activated on another PC?

Thanks, I guess I have 30 days to get this figured out...
--Kris

[jdhurst]

The OEM license on your ThinkPad lives and dies with the ThinkPad. So you need to use the code from any other CD you use. Otherwise, try to look for the recovery CD's on eBAY. ... JD Hurst

[tselling]

You can try calling Microsoft to activate XP Home on your thinkpad. That is what I did with my X31. I have a generic OEM XP Home CD that I used. The COA on the bottom of the machine is blocked from activating. A Microsoft rep can activate it for you if you call. They may ask you a few questions.

[krisdunn]

Thanks I'll give that a try...

[Melvyn]

I've installed with a Dell OEM CD and everything looks fine.

You can do it with whatever licence key works and finally when you have your XP wrking, then you write to microsoft to request activation. They ask you for your cd-key (sticker on your thinkpad) and will give you a new activation key that will work pretty good.

Enjoy

[krisdunn]

Thanks for the suggestion, I call MS Activation and finally talked them into giving me an activation code.

When I told them the disk I used was from another computer they kept asking if it was a retail copy and had been uninstalled from the other computer. Then they told me I needed to buy a separate retail copy for the thinkpad.

I finally got them to understand that the thinkpad came installed with oem version as well and I had a separate activation code for it, I just didn't have the original disk.

I got they impression that if you talked to them long enough and had a good story, they would probably give in and provide an activation code to anyone...