RJM Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 Sunday I had decided to update my ATI video drivers. First I made a drive image of my C drive with Acronis I then uninstalled my ATI drivers and ran Driver Cleaner.I then booted to safe mode ran Driver Cleaner again and deleted the ATI folders.Upon re-booting to Win XP to install the new drivers I am greeted with the WPAscreen that says that my hardware has changed significantly and that I have three days to reactivate windows. Not wanting to spend half an hour on the phone with Microsoft I just restored myC drive from the image that I had just made ( it doesn’t want to call home). Does anyone know how I can upgrade my video drivers without having to reactivate Windows? I know that I on the edge of WPA because I’ve already replaced my motherboardand video card this year. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eyeball Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 A video card driver update is allowed under the OEM license, just do it and call MS again they will activate it for you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJM Posted October 29, 2007 Author Share Posted October 29, 2007 I'm just trying to update my drivers, I shouldn't have to re-activate windows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmaugyGrrr Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 (edited) 1) Go to C:\windows\system322) Copy wpa.dbl and wpa.bak to a safe place.3) After reinstalling Windows reboot into the Safe Mode by pressing F8 continuously while the computer is starting up4) Go to C:\windows\system32 or C:\winnt\system32 (depending on where you installed Windows)5) Rename wpa.dbl and wpa.bak to something else (e.g. wpa.olddbl and wpa.oldbak) in the current folder6) Replace the wpa.dbl and wpa.bak which you had backed up earlier into this system32 folder7) Restart the computer in normal modeThe computer should be activated as it was before Edited October 29, 2007 by SmaugyGrrr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJM Posted October 29, 2007 Author Share Posted October 29, 2007 (edited) Thanks SmaugyGrrr, I'll try that. I forgot about that, as a mater of fact after my last re-install last December when I had to reactivate windows I had savedwpa.dbl and wba.bak on my F drive. Maybe I'll try them and windows will only see the two changes that I've made since thenand not all the swapping of boards. Edited October 29, 2007 by RJM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gosh Posted October 29, 2007 Share Posted October 29, 2007 Why don't you just activate online? You can activate online up to 3 times during a 3 month span.-gosh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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