Activation problem when updating sound card driver

I have a AMD 4200, with a Abit KN8 Ultra motherboard and I recently installed
Vista on my computer. Immediately after I installed VISTA I activated my copy
of VISTA (I'm using it at a Educational institute).
The only problem I had with Vista was the RealTek AC'97 Audio codec was not
installed nor recognised. I found a driver for VISTA from the RealTek Website
6243_Vista_APO.zip, that allowed the multimedia adaptor to be recognised.
Immediately after installation, I received a message stating that my
configuration has changed and I need to register my copy of VISTA again. I
tried to but I get a message that my copy of VISTA is already being used, and
prompts me to either buy a new one online, or type a new vista number now.
How can I resolve this problem? I am a test user for migration from the XP
to Vista and this is definetely a significant problem should we decide to
migrate.

Kind regards

Hi,

Now that Windows Vista can detect your sound card, it thinks that the
hardware has changed. Well, your hardware has changed :-) but it makes Vista
think it is actually running on a whole new PC; not just the same PC with a
new sound card. So, it is asking you to re-activate Windows. It sees that
your "old" PC (ie without the sound card) was already activated, so it
throws up the error message.

It is easily fixed - you ring Microsoft and get an activation code, over the
phone. Then you plug the activation code they give you into Vista, and
you're activated. It usually takes 3 to 5 minutes. When you get the "already
activated" error message, there should have been a link to the phone number
to ring, for your region. If not, run this command at a command prompt "slui
4" - it will bring up the dialogue box with phone numbers.

The algorithm Vista uses to detect whether it is running on the same PC, or
has been copied to a new PC, is pretty complex and completely undocumented,
publically. It takes into account various component serial numbers etc.
Unfortunately it seems to be a bit over-sensitive sometimes; very minor
hardware changes like adding a second hard disk, or, oh, installing a sound
driver, makes it think it is running on a new PC. But other times, you can
make big changes and Vista hardly notices. I hope they will refine the
algorithm (or better, totally abandon it) in future releases.

Hope this helps,
--
Andrew McLaren
amclar (at) optusnet dot com dot au

Hi, I have recently bought this computer and when I try to have chat on MSN
internet I get a message that my computer does not have a sound card or the
sound card is not activated. What do I do? Now if I play music on my computer
I can listen to songs and music does this mean i have a sound card in my
computer? and I just need to activate it? please let me know how to activate
a sound card if this is the case?

"Andrew McLaren" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Now that Windows Vista can detect your sound card, it thinks that the
> hardware has changed. Well, your hardware has changed :-) but it makes Vista
> think it is actually running on a whole new PC; not just the same PC with a
> new sound card. So, it is asking you to re-activate Windows. It sees that
> your "old" PC (ie without the sound card) was already activated, so it
> throws up the error message.
>
> It is easily fixed - you ring Microsoft and get an activation code, over the
> phone. Then you plug the activation code they give you into Vista, and
> you're activated. It usually takes 3 to 5 minutes. When you get the "already
> activated" error message, there should have been a link to the phone number
> to ring, for your region. If not, run this command at a command prompt "slui
> 4" - it will bring up the dialogue box with phone numbers.
>
> The algorithm Vista uses to detect whether it is running on the same PC, or
> has been copied to a new PC, is pretty complex and completely undocumented,
> publically. It takes into account various component serial numbers etc.
> Unfortunately it seems to be a bit over-sensitive sometimes; very minor
> hardware changes like adding a second hard disk, or, oh, installing a sound
> driver, makes it think it is running on a new PC. But other times, you can
> make big changes and Vista hardly notices. I hope they will refine the
> algorithm (or better, totally abandon it) in future releases.
>
> Hope this helps,
> --
> Andrew McLaren
> amclar (at) optusnet dot com dot au
>
>