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installaion key unreadable

conrail

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Posted April 24, 2010 at 11:09AM

sons laptop with vista home premium 32 bit hd failed, have replaced hd and borrowed installation disc, unfortunately the key is unreadable on the bottom of the laptop, can someone please suggest options, all help gratefully accepted.

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Pine Man

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Posted April 24, 2010 at 11:46AM

Does the company it was bought from have those details?

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conrail

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Posted April 24, 2010 at 3:09PM

thanks for reply Pine Man, unfortunately it was bought for Christmas 2008 and the company have told me they don't keep those details

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Woolwell

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Posted April 25, 2010 at 5:01PM

The retailer will not keep those details. The manufacturer might. What discs came with the laptop, was there a recovery partition and were recovery discs created?

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conrail

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Posted April 25, 2010 at 8:35PM

thanks for reply Woolwell, seller does not keep these details, the laptop did not come with any discs, I have created recovery discs, no recovery partition, unfortunately I have reinstalled wifes laptop with recovery discs, created for her laptop, and I was asked to imput the key, the one thing we don't have, I have looked on microsoft websitefor help but they want £47 just to talk to them, unfortunately I cannot find the box it came in, other boxes from my pc, wifes laptop and printers are all there, I was hoping the key might be on the box, the manual that came with the laptop was installed as a pdf file so can't access that.

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ame

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Posted April 27, 2010 at 12:16PM

The key will only be on the sticker on the laptop, not on the box, etc. You might try peeling it off (perhaps use a hairdryer to heat it up and help) and seeing if you can decipher by holding it up to a light. Otherwise you'd be better buying Windows 7 instead of paying M/soft or anyone else. If you're son is in education, you can buy the upgrade version for £43 from click here but I'm not sure it will install if your Vista O.S. isn't validated.

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conrail

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Posted April 27, 2010 at 12:19PM

thanks ame, I will look into your suggestion

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ame

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Posted April 28, 2010 at 9:43PM

Just a weird thought - I wonder if one of those ultraviolet lights they use to check banknotes in shops might show something up if a normal light doesn't? Worth a try!

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conrail

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Posted April 29, 2010 at 10:39AM

thanks ame, that is a thought, I will make enquiries to see if any of my friends can help or know someone who works in a shop

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conrail

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Posted May 10, 2010 at 10:15PM

didn't need key, vista installed from friends disc and when asked to register, as I could not do it online, could not find the network, I dialed the 0800 number imputted the series of numbers from the screen into the phone then typed in the series of numbers received from the phone to the laptop and laptop registered, went onto the manufacturers website on my pc, downloaded the network drivers run drivers on laptop and now everything is up and running

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