Bezalel

There are 2 different Academic programs available. The first is an Academic License, this license actually belongs to the school and must be upgraded or removed once the student leaves the school. Technically this is only an upgrade license but the media doesn't check for compliance. The second is Academic Editions of Full Packaged Products. These can be used perpetually by the owner but some products have limitations on commercial use. These are available in Full or Upgarde versions.

Thats probably the best idea. Lenovo may not have included the nessasary files for the text mode setup to run. I personally have the Hologrammed CDs and designed these scripts for use with those CDs.

If you remove activation with nLite you won't be able to activate your PC. If the PC requires activation you won't be able to use it once the grace period runs out.

Here are a few direct quotes from the microsoft OEM site.

Can you post your MGADiag.exe report?

Once a Multi-pack or Single-pack with the a yellow COA is opened it can only be sold with a "Fully Assembled PC" and must be preinstalled on that PC. If you want to purchase a single copy you must buy a sealed Single-pack. These are harder to find because most resellers would rather buy a 3-pack or a 30-pack at a discount and break it apart and most end users aren't familiar with the new rules. A sealed Single-pack will be packaged as follows:

The 323E2E81 set will not work with this BIOS but the D4D8DCA9 set should work.

The OEMBIOS set you are using requires that "NECC_" be in the bios at exactly F000:F4F0. On the few systems that I looked at this coresponds to the BIOS version string (not in the SMBIOS table). To start debug open a command prompt and type debug. The command S F000:0000 FFFF "NECC_" will tell you every time the srting NECC_ occures in the BIOS. The other OEMBIOS set that FreeStyler mentioned will accept the strings "NECC_", "NEC-PC", "NEC Computers", or "NEC_Product" anywhere within the BIOS. FreeStyler: The 323E2E81 set should be considured obsolete, the D4D8DCA9 set should be used as a replacement.

Open debug and type the following line S F000:0000 FFFF "NECC_"and post the results here. Also check the CRC32 hashes for (all 4 of) the oembios files just to make sure the fileset you are using is the same set that I'm looking at. BIN:323e2e81 CAT:82d4d6a4 DAT:9fb16bbc SIG:f8a681a8

Buying OEM Windows licences without a computer has always been legal. The sale of licenses is covered by the SBLA and not the EULA. If the COA is purple, green, or blue then the software can be resold in the sealed multi-pack or with non-peripheral hardware. If the COA is yellow it can only be sold in a sealed single-pack or a sealed multi-pack, individual units (with yellow COAs) from opened multi-packs can no longer be sold with non-peripheral hardware. OEM Office licences can only be sold in sealed single-packs or sealed multi-packs. There never was an exception for non-peripheral hardware for Office licenses

NO, 1.5.540 still reports SLPBIOS flawless, u sure the oembios files set u are checking is original royalty vendor? I didn't spend too much time dignosing the issue. I know that the files were SLP files and it stopped working as soon as the version number changed to 1.5.540.0 (maybe it just needed a reboot). I removed the notifications and changed LegitCheckControl.dll to version 1.4.389.0 and now its working again. One thing I am sure about is that WGA upgraded itself without my consent and it didn't get the upgrade from my WSUS Server.

I just noticed something interesting today. When I started working I had installed a WGA version earlier than 1.5.540.0 (I dont remember the exact version) and WGA notifications. While I was working WGA got updated to version 1.5.540.0. When WGA got upgraded MGADiag.exe stopped reporting the SLPBIOS strings. I than booted up in safe mode and was able to see the SLPBIOS strings. All my computers without WGA notifications are runnning WGA version 1.4.389.0 and still report the SLBBIOS strings.

CD1 has the same structure as Pro. Here is the structure for CD2 CMPNENTS MEDIACTR I386 MEDIACTR.CAB PLUS.CAB SONIC.CAB NETFX I386 NETFX.CAB TABLETPC I386 TABLETPC.CAB

OEM Licenses cost less than half of what a retail licence costs. You would have to be transeffing the OS to a third PC before you realize any savings if you buy retail.

You can try ending processes and stopping services until you find what process or service is preventing you from logging out. Once you have this information we might beable to give more helpful advice.

You are using a pirated CD-Key, I recognize that key just from the last 15 charachters. The only advice I can give you is to purchase a legitimate copy of XP.

Run MGADiag.exe, copy the result to the clipbuard and post them here.

Since you left out the oembios files the origional OEMBIOS files are left intact. In the future you can use the scripts at http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=63258 to make a manufacturer specific CD.

was the *****-*****-J4DWT-P4MHG-3JHJ3 key from the "Dell" COA or from an "OEM PRODUCT" COA? What is the modified date of the WPA.BAK?

Run MGADiag.exe on the PC, copy the report to the clipboard and post the results here.

For your own unattended CD checking the registry for the location of certain shell folders seems to be overkill. The only situation you would need to do this is if you want to use the same scripts for multiple languages.

This should not prevent you from logging on. Currently MS is using this technology to get end users to report resellers selling counterfeit software and MS claims it is to protect the end users. There is no gaurantee that MS won't change their tactics in the future and prevent you from logging in but such an action would probably result in legal action.

UPHClean might be the answer to your problems. Take a look at the Knowledge Base article 837115.

You can login using the builtin administrator account from safe mode.

The problem is that the keyboard only works if you have Update Rollup 1 or later installed. Since I don't have MCE installed I cant apply the Update Rollup. If I knew which files from the update rollup were for the keyboard I might be able to install them manually. Overall the keyboard is a big dissapointment. Since it does not emulate a legacy keyboard I can't use it to access the BIOS or during Windows Setup.