alistair

I bought 6 used Dell PC's with Windows 7 installed - everything worked perfectly until today when they all started saying they needed activating & that I may be the victim of counterfeit software !

I cant find any COA stickers on the units themselves

I've looked at buying the licences, but at ~£150 that's what I paid for the PC's in the first place

It appears to be a Dell specific install - I tried another key I have on a knackered PC, but that wasn't accepted.

Is there anywhere I can buy 6 copies of Win 7 Pro 32bit for reasonable money ?

CREWJ

Nope.

Have you asked the seller about it? Maybe they were just using them as they are and just ignoring the message.

scooby_me

iTrader: (1)

If you have any family in fulltime education, you can make use of software for students. they offer very reasonable priced software.

BlkKnight

Doesn't make it legal for business use though - even though the CD Keys work.

scooby_me

iTrader: (1)

sorry did not realise it was for buisness use

alistair

Not business - home use - me, 2 kids, 1 holiday home & 2 on plasma TV's just for web browsing.

The seller is no-longer a registered user of eBay

They came witha Dell reinstallation disk & I've figured out what they did - not that it helps me much. The Dell OEM reinstallation works fine, but then requires you to enter a key within 30 days - or the messages start popping up.

The other alternative is to upgrade the BIOS to a version that Dell shipped with Windows 7 - but these PC's are too old to get that level of BIOS (A15).

I'll look into educational - but I'm sure last time I looked it needed a .ac email that my kids don't have.

JackClark

Try Ubuntu, it's like Android for old Dell's.

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

Windows loader, and be done with it.

boomer

If they are DELLs, is there a Service Tag sticker on them?

You should then be able to go to the DELL website and check on the original configuration (and thus whether they came with an OEM licence).

Without a COA or similar from DELL you are probably stuffed (with regards to included Win7)

mb

alistair

stevebt - you're a star