I sold my uncle's old Dell system on ebay, together with WinXP COA and upgrade CD. Guy didn't like the system and returned it. I am pretty sure he stole the COA, because when I tried to reinstall WinXP (for security purposes, since it was used by the buyer for who knows what) I got a message telling me that the key was used too many times. That is weird because my uncle used the CD/Key only once, and I did only once, (both on the same Dell machine), this leads me to believe that the guy who bought the system must have installed it plenty of times. Any ideas how I can report the key as stolen, and maybe get a new key?

on edit: I did contact MS support by phone and I was given a long (very long) key that helped me validate the OS (this was not a new product key), but where do I report the key as stolen? and get a new key?

Edited April 8, 200620 yr by Lunac

Quick answer, you don't.

... everything you listed is normal with activating a factory built pc that is meant to be "pre-activated" (using the recovery cd's provided). If u use a Genuine OEM copy to reinstall, it will ask you every time to contact microsoft.

Wpa nazis. I understand that they want to protect their software, but for someone who abuses windows as much as I do (I crash it as a hobby x.x) it can get pretty annoying.