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Alright, here's the deal. I built a PC, it works beautifully but here's the OS situation... I used my Laptop's Factory OS install disc, which doesn't ask for anyything at all it just makes your HDD Windows Vista. Awesome. Well I had a formatting issue later caused by all kinds of BIOS whoopsies... to straighted that out, I upgraded Vista to Windows 7 because I had a Windows 7 upgrade just sitting around. Well the problem is I installed Windows 7 Home Premium but my CD key is for Professional. Now Windows (rightfully) thinks my copy of windows isn't genuine because the genuine one would be Windows 7 pro. I tried entering the Windows pro key into the anytime upgrade thing but that didn't work and I dont know enough about windows to do anything other than just reinstall my OS... which I will do if I have to... I just dont want to. And I would just leave it ungenuine longer but I got a webcam and there's a drivers issue and windows is freezing the device saying it won't handle the drivers because my windows isn't legit... which is fair. It's not legit. But I have a CD key plz let me use it. I just dunno how.

So I've been experiencing two errors, and I'm not sure if they're connected or not: First, I began seeing a popup telling me that "Windows could not be activated." I found this strange as I had just successfully installed Windows 7 Pro 64-bit over my "Not Genuine" copy of windows 7 home 32-bit (installed by the folks at office depot when I used this Hard Drive for the laptop I bought there). Re-Typing the product code in the box containing the OS disk did not work, so I decided to ignore it until my dad could help me with this problem. We haven't got to that yet. Today, out of nowhere, my computer shut down with a blue screen , telling me vaguely something about a "DRIVER_POWER_FAILURE" and an unknown error that caused my computer to reboot. I decided to reboot in Safe Mode, paranoid as I am, and a message popped up upon logging on telling me Windows wanted to check for a solution online. My Wi-fi dongle did not appear to function while the computer was in safe mode, so I eventually would decide to click "Check Later," in hopes that it would actually do that. It didn't. :( Below that message, in the same window, was what I perceived to be an error report, so I copied that and put it in a notepad document. The report contained the following: Problem signature: Problem Event Name: BlueScreen OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48 Locale ID: 1033 Additional information about the problem: BCCode: 9f BCP1: 0000000000000003 BCP2: FFFFFA8012A04440 BCP3: FFFFF80000B9C3D8 BCP4: FFFFFA800EE02250 OS Version: 6_1_7601 Service Pack: 1_0 Product: 256_1 Files that help describe the problem: C:\Windows\Minidump\020113-36083-01.dmp C:\Users\Computer\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-62041-0.sysdata.xml Read our privacy statement online: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=104288&clcid=0x0409 If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline: C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt The files mentioned in that report are not on my hard drive, even while allowing hidden files/folders/drives to be viewed. Consequently, I decided to come here and post both errors. Maybe they're related, I don't know. I just don't want either to keep happening, because I like this computer. Any assistance you can provide will be greatly appreciated, thank you.

After hard disk failure I installed a new hard disk and needed to re-install Windows 8 Media Center Edition which had originally been properly installed and activated in October 2012. After a false start (i.e. installing Windows 8 without first installing Windows Vista - why does the upgrade disk let you do this if it is not going to work?), I re-installed Windows Vista from the original OEM CD, Then I re-installed the Windows 8 Pro upgrade from the original CD pre-ordered and bought from Microsoft. This installation activated but only after I had used the telephone service and confirmed that it was being used on a single computer. I then added Windows Media Center using the free key originally sent to me on 30/10/2012. Now the computer gives me frequent instructions to activate the software but, when I click the button, it tells me "Windows could not be activated", and cites error code 0xC004C4AA unhelpfully described as "unable to find detailed error description". I have contacted Customer Support as instructed but the representative told me that I must have a technical problem and that I need to contact technical support. It seems unlikely that it is a technical problem. I suspect I have wrongly fallen foul of an anti-piracy measure following the Media Center activation deadline of 31/1/2012, and Microsoft wrongly thinks that I am trying to use the Media Center code on a different computer. I expect I am among the first of many people who will need to re-install who will experience this problem. To make matters worse, I have re-installed Microsoft Office Professional 2007 from my original OEM disk with the original key but when I start an Office program, it tries and fails to start MS Office Hybrid, which is the trial version of Windows that runs for up to 60 days on a new computer. I assume that it is doing this because it thinks that it is running on an illegal copy of Windows. What can I do? I am not inclined to go through the entire re-installation process again, partly because it takes so long, and partly because I suspect that, if I did, Microsoft would start to think that I was installing one copy of Windows on an office block full of computers.

Forthcoming information ? - It is all about getting the computer user back on the road as swiftly as possible, and by whatever means available and possible. Sometimes the very answers to problems that we ask people to talk us through are right here on the forum all of the time. As a voluntary forum there is not always someone around with the time free to come back with an immediate reply. Guides offer answers to simple problems in one consolidated area of the forum. Not much point in running over everything twice when you can read and understand it once. You will soon have that computer of yours up and running again very soon now. :) GUIDES FOR WINDOWS 7 ACTIVATION How Many Times Can I Activate Windows 7 Windows 7 Activation - This copy of Windows 7 is not genuine Windows 7 Activation Error How to Activate Windows 7 Manually How To Activate Windows 7 by Phone How to troubleshoot Activation error codes Activating Windows: frequently asked questions Where do I Find My Windows 7 Product Key