Mainboard Replacement & Xp License

On Wed, 31 Oct 2007 07:45:20 -0500, Red Green
<postmaster@127.0.0.1> wrote:


>Thanks for the reply. Of course, every mfgr is different depending on how
>much effort they want to put into it. A crapshoot.


It is a cheaper license for the OEM when they don't provide
the full OEM/holographed Microsoft XP installation CD... but
not being able to use a disc you have isn't necessarily a
problem, if you can get ahold of some other same version of
(OEM windows home version including service pack level?)
then you'd just use your installation key not the key from
the source of the disc). If it is a different version of
windows your key may not work, then it's time to hunt for
the right version disc instead. IOW, your license depends
on the certificate sticker on the case and it's key, not
whether you have a disc or have to get a copy of one from
somebody.

"kony" <spam@spam.com> wrote in message
news:ji7hi3d7ep0i9n6q52osk9i55r7cpiqhb7@4ax.com...
> On Wed, 31 Oct 2007 10:51:49 -0000, "GT"
> <ContactGT_remove_@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>>> It's genuine but I failed to mention it's one of those OEM eMachine OS
>>> restore CD's. Those restore CD always say it will only restore on their
>>> machine. I have no experience on that validity.
>>
>>I have a Dell laptop that came with an OEM XP restore disk. I used this
>>disk
>>in another PC and the only problem was that it tried to install drivers
>>for
>>hardware that I didn't have - the XP operating system part was fine.
>>
>
> I suspect you are confusing terms, and that what you had was
> an OEM XP Windows Installation disc, not a restoration disk.
>
> The typical restoration disc holds an image of the hard
> drive partition(s) and uses a bios string (once I had
> fiddled around with one and found it did something like that
> that string, use it (or a derivative of it) as a password to
> decompress the files on that restoration CD... and it would
> simply state it wasn't valid (or words to that effect) if it
> was not a very similar model, same make of motherboard (an
> OEM restore CD may work for more than one model # if they're
> similar enough).

Absolutely. I had the correct description, wrong term! The CD I have is a
Windows XP install CD, but has Dell branding and all drivers relevant to my
laptop. It does not have a drive image.