[DonnaB]

Hi catholatho,

I'm going to have one of the Mods edit your attachment above. It includes the Product ID to your OS which is never a good thing to post on open forum to prevent someone from stealing it.

I snipped what Ztruker needs from the image for him to see and will attach to my post below.

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Edited by DonnaB, 13 November 2012 - 09:58 PM.

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Click on the Activate Windows Now link, follow the onscreen instructions and use that product key to activate your Windows.

Keep us informed. It should change to say:

Windows is activated

[DonnaB]

Click on the Activate Windows Now link, follow the onscreen instructions and use that product key to activate your Windows.

Keep us informed. It should change to say:

Windows is activated

[DonnaB]

Catholatho,

I just figured out that you can delete the attachment yourself. Click on the Edit button at the bottom of the post that includes the attachment, then click on Use Full Editor at the bottom and click Delete to the far right of the attachment. That should remove the attachment.

[catholatho]

Hi,
Thanks for your help. I tried that and got this message.

Cheers
Cath

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[DonnaB]

Hm. Ok. That is the OEM product key and it won't work. I believe that in a previous post you mentioned that you tried to enter the product key that you have. Where did you get it from? On the outside case of the computer? That should be the one to use. In the past, I have used a program called Belarc Advisor that performs an audit of the computer and will include all the product keys to all MS software installed that requires a product key. Here's the link to that download if you'd like to try.

Belarc Advisor

Or you could try The Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder. Choose the free version.

If you only performed a repair install, one of those programs should find the product key.

Let us know if that helps. Besides having to call MS, Ztruker may have another idea.

[catholatho]

Hi,
Ok, so I used the jellybean finder originally to find the product key as my sticker has worn off, however it doesn't give me any key that matches the one on my sticker. I can tell that as I can make out about half the characters on my sticker. So I called ASUS to get a copy of the product key and they said there is no way to do that and even if I had it it wouldn't work for the reninstalled version of vista and I would have to use my ASUS recovery CD and clear my machine back to the original settings. So he said to save all my data and wipe my machine back. Not ideal, but do you see any way around this?
Cheers and thanks for all your help.

[Ztruker]

No, I don't see any way around this. The key you used is the OEM generic key. The one you need is on the COA sticker that you can't read unfortunately. You're going to have to restore to factory and start over, no other choice available.

MAke sure you cave any data you don't want to lose first.

[catholatho]

Thanks for all your help with this.
C