PCA Forums

I install a simple nic, then rebooted and xp says I must reactivate it. Ok np. I have around 5-7 times before and it was easy. This time it says I have exceeded reactivations and my serial is no longer valid. wtf!!!!!!!!

Ok, says to call ms, you know the ones who really have ms.

I call, I wait


and wait....





and wait...





Around 30 minutes later grandma answers and asks for the code. She has to give me another very long code to type in to reactivate it. It worked fine.

I ask her why do I need to do this and that I change hardware a lot so this may become a very annoying problem. She says, "we are always here to help".

Yes I know, but I had to wait over 30 minutes, are you telling me every time I change hardware now I'll have to call again and again wait? "Sir, it's no problem, we are glad to help"


Exsqueeze me maaam, you are missing my point. You are telling me each time I change simple hardware I'll have to go through this again and again wait on the phone to reactivate, therefore costing me probably 30 minutes or longer in lost time?? "Yes sir, we are always glad to help, it is no problemn whatsoever".

After another try, I just said have a nice night. runk :;




And they wonder why some go the warez route.

that's why i'm sticking to 2K until they no longer support it

Get used to it people. All software is going to be like this eventually. I predict Photoshop will be next.

yet another reason I wont even try xp


why call and waste your time to re-activate a glorified bloatware POS that is nothing more than a mac version of win2k with a lot of eye candy?

XP Corporate Edition to the rescue! It's nice working in IT

Grumble all you want, but the fact is we'll all be forced to move to XP eventually. Die-hard 2K lover that I am I had to finally do it a couple of weeks ago.

2K had a problem with my CompactFlash reader - it worked but it was flaky. Works fine under XP (both using native support). XP also fixed the ACPI issue I had with 2K. That's one of the biggest problems with 2K, and MS will NEVER fix it because they'd prefer you upgrade to XP.

Now if I could just get XP to CONSISTENTLY rmember my Explorer Windows sizes I'd be a happy camper...

Gee Blade, that new number is only 50 digits long. I'd say that is well worth the 30 minute wait. I've had to call them twice and usually do it at around 2am. Not much waiting at that time.

FP, I'm right there with ya! I do empathise for you guys that have to reactivate but, since I'm on a corp licence it has never been an issue.

I don't have XP installed, but it sounds like the best option would be to get the corporate version of XP right? I'm still on win98, but when my rig is due for a format, I was going to move to Win2k pro, as I've been running it on a spare pc for almost a year without a single issue or problem. It has service pack 2 only, as I've heard that service pack 3 installs some spy stuff.

No spy stuff in SP3 that I'm aware of.

He's probably referring to the Automatic Updates. That can easily be turned off.

How do I turn off the automatic updates for Win2k service pack 3?

I had one woman tell me, "Sir do you know how many times your copy of XP has been activated?"
I said, "WTF does it matter to you, if I paid for it already?"

Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Automatic Updates

I had that happen to me befor too. I got tired of them asking me "how many coputers do you have this installed on?". They made me feel Like I was some kind of theif or somethin. That when I found a corp version. I have a legal retail version for all my machines, most are still in the shrink wrap though.

I had to go through the call before too but for some reason the last time I formatted and reinstalled it accepted the registration on-line! I about crapped my pants. I fully expected to have to call. I haven't had a problem with it either.