Computer woes

[mickcant]

Hi all,
My Computer a: AMD Phenom 9350 2.0 GHz Quad Core Skt AM2 CPU
Motherboard: Nvidia K10N78 with Geforce 8200 Chipset.
Duel Channel DDR2 8000 Memory (4X1 GB OCZ X 800) = 4 GB.
Microsoft XP Professional 32 bit
Nvidia 9500 GTS 512 MB PCI Express Graphics Card

Had been playing up and very erratic then became impossible to use!
As the computer is a hand built one not a commercial model, I could not reset it to factory settings!

So I gritted my teeth and did a full format and re installed windows! And of course everything that goes with it

Microsoft however decided that the copy of XP I bought with it is not genuine and wants me to upgrade and pay again for windows 7, which are no good to me, most of my programs will not run on it.

I phoned their customer service and explained everything to them, they happily gave me a new key code, but the link to install the key code had by then gone on my computer !

The technician suggested I reinstall the software again to get the key installation box back to enter it, I said “what” and she assured me it was the only way!

I was demented but decided to try “google” to see if there was a way of getting the box to show, when the phone rang, it was another Microsoft technician, who had herd his colleague and had phoned me back to explain how to re enter the code easily.

Within a few minuets it was all done, and I was much relived.
Mick

[Steve.r]

I like a happy ending.. well done Mick

[Terpe]

Thank goodness you managed a happy ending Mick

Luckily there was someone who took the time to help.

[lordna]

Mick, now you have reinstalled windows it might be worth looking for some imaging software and take a full backup image. That way if you get a problem again you just copy back the image. I use and old version of Norton Ghost backing up to a seperate drive. I believe there are some open source imaging products which will do the job just as well (also free).

[Dedworth]

Phew that was a relief Mick

Thanks Lordna re the imaging software thought - I'll speak to my ex software engineer mate tonight

[mickcant]

Mick, now you have reinstalled windows it might be worth looking for some imaging software and take a full backup image. That way if you get a problem again you just copy back the image. I use and old version of Norton Ghost backing up to a seperate drive. I believe there are some open source imaging products which will do the job just as well (also free).

Thank you for the tip

I do make monthly regular backups but am mistrustful of auto back ups, I prefer to keep regular backups of the data so I can go back if I mess something up.

I keep meaning to do both to be sure.
Mick.

[grahamw48]

I've no idea what any of you are talking about, but I just keep feeding my 2003 model with dust and crumbs, plus adding an extra hard drive every couple of years.

Death must be near.

[imagine]

i had the same thing happen on my old lap top, a few month after updating from vista to win7,
i went on microsoft web site forum where they gave me tools to correct the validation,

glad you got sorted