Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Activate Windows?

Dec 25, 2014 11:26PM PST

Hopefully I won't be one of those frequent questioners, here. I just have one last confusing bit I want to share.

I took my laptop in to get the OS reinstalled. I kept getting "No boot device found" errors. For some reason the OS was wiped and it is yet to be determined as to why or how. Now I turn on my laptop, it functions as it used to, but I keep getting prompted to activate my OS after log in. My laptop NEVER CAME with an OS disk/product key. The shop that sold me my laptop confirmed it, saying the key was programmed in during manufacturing. No new Dell Inspiron 15-3521 (my type of laptop) will ever come with a disk.

So, do I just ignore it as a slightly annoying obstacle? (I guess I can do that) Or is this a bigger issue that needs fixing and how do I go about doing that?

Thanks.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
True in many ways.
Dec 25, 2014 11:31PM PST

The change to a preactivated OEM version is well discussed. So that's true.

About the restore media. ALL Dell machines over the past decade have some procedure that Dell documents to create restore media. There has NEVER been Dell document to create OS CD/DVDs so I want to be perfectly clear that OS media and Restore media differ. Some folk need that called out.

Yes, a lot of folk ignore the need to create such media and today I think such costs about 50USD on average to order up a set or a memory key with the restore system.
Bob

- Collapse -
Answer
Re: activation
Dec 25, 2014 11:33PM PST

I assume this is a continuation of your post in http://forums.cnet.com/7723-6122_102-633067/what-the-heck-was-wrong-boot-issue/?messageId=5641357#message5641357.

The original OS installed by Dell was already activated. So it seems the shop installed something else on your brand new SSD and forgot to activate it. So back to the shop and let them fix it. If they ask you to pay another $150 for the Windows license (not unlikely) you'll have an additional problem, but let's hope they don't.

If you don't activate, Windows will be crippled, if not disfunctional, in 2 months. I should have this fixed as soon as possible.

Kees