Device driver updates causing Vista to deactivate
section: windows, for your questions: KezNews forum, 24.10.2007
After weeks of gruelling troubleshooting, I've finally had it confirmed by Microsoft Australia and USA -- something as small as swapping the video card or updating a device driver can trigger a total Vista deactivation.
Put simply, your copy of Windows will stop working with very little notice (three days) and your PC will go into "reduced functionality" mode, where you can't do anything but use the web browser for half an hour. You'll then need to reapply to Microsoft to get a new activation code.
Just over a month ago I swapped over the graphics card on my Vista Ultimate box. There were some new DirectX 10-based titles out and I couldn’t get the benefit on my old DirectX 9 card. The swap-over went well and I went on my merry gaming way.
Then a few days ago I got a Windows Activation prompt – I had three days to activate Windows or I’d be bumped back to RFM (Reduced Functionality Mode). What the? My copy of Vista was activated, and a graphics card change shouldn’t have triggered deactivation... surely!
I was able to reactivate easily enough, although as the product key was already in use (by me!) I couldn’t reactivate automatically, but had to speak to a Microsoft customer service representative.
I got the code easily enough, but it didn’t explain why Vista had deactivated, so I got in touch with Microsoft about the problem.
They sent me some special utilities to run which gathered the history of hardware changes on that machine since activation, and it turns out that my disk controller had changed, so the graphics card change was the final change which tripped deactivation.
The only problem? I had never changed my disk controller at any point. Apparently because I had upgraded the Intel Matrix Storage Manager application, this was reported as a major hardware change event.
On their own, neither event was enough to trigger deactivation, but cumulatively they were.
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Comments(8)
what causes the activated vista;when you update your system to sp1 beta it becomes a 15
day time bomb
update your vista, noob. there are updates to prevent this problem since may.
the only noob around here is you, go out and play ball or something kid.
there
is no update.
just how many more time bombs, waiting to happen for windows vista customers?
oh the best is yet to come, do you know about tpm? that is the built in system board drm
chip, just itching to take over your data!
yes it is. search if not believe.
give me some links if it's true although i don't mind too much since i don't use
vista.
why should anyone purchase an operating system that doesn't work right to begin with
needing more upgrades with more patches?
shouldn't the operating system work
correctly, since it's been 6 years later to create, at a cost of 6 billion dollars?
james asked, where is the update patch which there isn't, because vista is
programmed by default for this deactivation type of behavior.
data got it
right, when he had mention reduce function mode and all the other unwanted features like
wga, tpm/drm, validation and of course activation.
vista has a tilt trip, two
points and deactivation occurs, for those that don't know.
are the tools to evaluate hardware changes available (or care to make them available if
licensing permits)? it would be nice to know what changes are impeding that may cause a
reactivation down the road...
sp1 beta
By revx on 25.10.2007 - 03:10