[moyra]

Hi guys
hope you can help, i have telephoned microsoft and for an $80 fee to start with they can help with the problem for a computer that is not worth that much.
i bought a new computer for myself and reformated the hard drive on the old one (very old) this was to be used for my son to do his homework and will not be connected to the internet. my son being 15 and knowing everything wanted to install the programs himself. i had two windows program as i bought xp and had ME for the old system. he has installed the xp edition and when activate product came up he would just close it, now of course it has locked on the activate product screen and i cant seem to get past it. i cant boot from cd and pressing F8 doesnt get me there. all i want to do is get rid of xp and put the ME on it.
have you any suggestions on how i can get around this problem other than throwing the computer out of the window.
cheers
moyra

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Hi there moyra

When you completed the installation did you goto activate straight away or did you exceed the 30 days? as if you exceed the 30days it will automatically lock you out of your system until you activate the product.

Regards

[wizzy2k5]

Hi there moyra

When you completed the installation did you goto activate straight away or did you exceed the 30 days? as if you exceed the 30days it will automatically lock you out of your system until you activate the product.

Regards

[moyra]

hi wizzy
no he didnt activate just ignored the warnings and after 30 was locked out. i did manage to get into safe mode but cant get to boot from cd. did get into bios but have no idea of the password to change it to boot from cd

[wizzy2k5]

Hello moyra

I have some bad news if you fail to activate after 30days your system will get locked out and you will be unable to use the product until you activate. You can do this one of 2 ways

Activate via the internet
Phone the Activation line

There is no way to bypass this screen until you activate if you are still unable to activate you will need to format and re-install and it only costs the price of the call to activate

regards

Edited by wizzy2k5, 04 June 2008 - 08:25 PM.

[moyra]

that is the problem. the xp program he put on his computer is the one i have on my computer and it is already activated. i rang microsoft and for an $80 fee to start with they will help me. the program that should have been used was windows ME. i am happy to reformat the whole thing and have all original cd's i just cant get in to do that.

[wizzy2k5]

Hello moyra

To get round this you will now need to buy a new licence as this is considered as piracy and since you already have one copy of xp on 2 machines we are unable to help you any further on this site and its against our terms of use.

Quote from terms of use

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Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

[moyra]

ok thanks for your help. all i want to do is get the copy off of the other machine as it should not have been put on in the first place. i am also totaly against piracy.
i will ring microsoft again (if this is the way to about it) and ask about buying another licence. they didnt suggest i could do that

thanks again
moyra

[Kat]

Hello. You may not have to pay full price for another license, either. Explain the situation to Microsoft, and they may give you an additional license for a discounted fee.

If you would like help in reformatting that machine and putting your legal copy of ME back on it, we will be happy to help you with that. However, it sounds like your son is determined to use XP.

[moyra]

Hi Kat
I had given up any hope of reformating the machine and putting the copy of ME on as was oringinally intended.
i rang microsoft 3 more times this afternoon before i finally got to the person i need to talk to only to find out that the cost would be a lot more than the $80.00 fee for them to help me. but he didnt know the actual cost of another licence as they dont have a price list?
if you can help me to re format and so that i am able to windows ME on the machine i would appreciate that very much

[wannabe1]

Hello moyra...

You might consider picking up an OEM copy of Windows XP Home Edition which would cost less than the $80 for the help you've been offered. This would allow you to have a legal XP operating system on that machine.

If you would rather put ME back on there, I'll be happy to help with that. I'm assuming you have a floppy drive on that machine....and hopefully on the machine you're on now...we'll need to make and use a startup disk (floppy) to install ME.

wannabe1

[The Skeptic]

I am not sure you have any problem at all. The installation on the old CD was locked, and probably wouldn't have succeeded without Microsoft's consent because it's already installed on your other computer. Only when you try to install XP on the newer computer you will find out if you have any problem. If this is going to be the case then I am quite sure that If automatic activation will not work then a call to Microsoft activation center will settle that free of charge.

As far as Installing Win ME, previous posters in this thread offered assistance. If you wish us to help you please ask.

[moyra]

i would appreciate assistance in getting around the windows xp activation screen. finding a way to boot from cd so that i can reformat the hard drive on the old computer ditch xp which should never have gone on that computer and install the intended program "windows ME". the main problem i have is getting around the activation screen.
i do not have a floppy drive on the new computer so downloading the boot disk set is not an option i am afraid, the old computer has one my new one doesnt.

thank you for your time
moyra

[wannabe1]

We're going to need to make an ME startup disk and it will have to be on a floppy disk. The reason for this is that the older machine will not have the necessary drivers to boot to the cd...those drivers are on the startup disk. It will also contain fdisk...which we'll need in order to format the drive if it's still using the FAT file system. If the file system has been converted to NTFS, we'll likely have to format using the XP cd, then use fdisk to set the drive up for ME. In any case, we're going to need the startup floppy. (This is not the 6 disk startup set for XP...it's a single floppy disk.)

Do you know anyone that might be able to download and create the floppy disk for you? I'll give you a link to the download if you do. I'd prefer to use the Windows 98 startup disk as it's a little better than the ME startup disk.

[moyra]

Hi Wannabe
yes i am able to get someone to download and make the floppy for me (my sister) but it will take a few days as she is a couple of hundred mile away. But she will download, and post it to me.

[wannabe1]

Have her download the following file and save it to her desktop. Win98SE OEM Bootdisk

A new formatted floppy disk will work the best for this. Once the file has been downloaded, double click on it and insert the floppy disk into the drive when prompted to do so by the disk creation application (it will start when the file is double clicked).

Let me know when you have the disk and are ready to begin...