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Stephen Howard wrote:
On Thu, 26 Jun 2008 01:47:48 +0100, "<p>sychotic <c>hicken" <"\"Bill
Jillians\""@mysteryisp.com> wrote:
Lurching erratically into the sunlight holding
<g3uaf9$iee$2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, it appeared Dr Zoidberg
<AlexNOOO!!!!!!!!@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> had made a clean getaway:
"<p>sychotic <c>hicken" <"\"Bill Jillians\""@mysteryisp.com> wrote in
message news:ymQcm7AFdaYIFxfS@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
I have a question about the XP operating system and adding new
hardware to my system. Is this the right newsgroup for this question
and if not can somebody point me to a more appropriate one? Perhaps
something in the overblown Microsoft hierarchy?
Specifically ... if I want to add more space to my computer in the
form of adding a new hard disk which I would have to do by taking out
a zip drive or a DVD drive, would XP pick up that a major change had
made and require me to activate again. I don't have the XP
installation disk for this computer so I'm not going to upgrade until
I can be sure it won't then make this computer unusable.
It might , it might not.
Even if it does , you just click "activate online" and it does it for you.
If that fails then it's a three minute phone call to an automated system.
Perhaps more to the point I don't have the Serial Number for the XP disc
this version was installed from. It was installed from a multiple XP
master disc by the person I bought it from. It has never indicated it
is anything but genuine but if I do have to make that call then I can't
tell them the serial number of my version and I'm sure that would be
something they would want to know. At least they did last time.
Seek out Magical Jellybean Keyfinder - it will tell you what your COA
key is ( valid or otherwise! ).
I seem to recall there being a page on the web which details the
weighting that the XP registration system gives to each hardware
component. It's something like there's 12 points available, and as
long as you don't exceed this number in so many months, you're ok.
Things like the network card and graphics score 3 points each. It was
designed to prevent swapping out motherboards ( essentially a new
machine ) rather than hassling upgraders.
As I understand it, you're also able to 'save' the activation files
and restore them to a 'new build' under certain circumstances. Might
be worth doing some browsing along that line.
Regards,
ISTR a suggestion that there is an "amnesty" after 6 months of no change
(possibly on the weighting site), where the changes may be "forgotten"
in the calculation - I was able to change a motherboard and
chipset/video/network/HDD components with an automated on-line
activation after about 12 months of no changes.
The WPA.BAK and WPA.DBL, in \windows\system32, contain the information,
but you should probably save these after each change to get the benefit
of recovering them after a rebuild.
One problem I did have with on-line activation was due to a duff battery
- the internal clock stopped when the power was disconnected and was in
error by more than an (unknown) acceptable limit.
--
PeeGee
"Nothing should be able to load itself onto a computer without the
knowledge or consent of the computer user. Software should also be able
to be removed from a computer easily."
Peter Cullen, Microsoft Chief Privacy Strategist (Computing 18 Aug 05)
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