T1B

Question for the Tech gods, from one of the tech challenged, little people of the board....

About a year and a half ago, my in-laws lost their home due to the river they live next to, flooded -- BIG time. The water level inside the house was almost at 6 ft. We totally had to gut the house, and start over. Insurance didn't do much, because the area wasn't considered a flood plane prior to this event, and FEMA loans had to be secured to get them back into their home. (*Backstory) One of the things they had to replace was their 3 week old custom built Compaq computer. Great system for the money...just ruined by sitting in floodwaters for 3+ days. They gave the computer to me, to see if I could use any of the parts or the case, to build a system for our family to use. I never got it done, as I was told by several reputable sources that using any parts that went through the flood, could possibly damage other components of a system that I built myself.

Forward to today: My wife buys a used Gateway computer on E-bay for me for Christmas, as I wasn't getting a lot of online time, since the kids are always using the systems we had. (4 kids, 2 adults -- 3 computers-- I was the last one home each day, so I usually waited till the kids went to bed to get online). The system isn't too bad ($60.00 + shipping for a Gateway case with a 1.7 Ghz processor). The only problem is the Windows XP pro installed in the new system doesn't have a COA with it. (the sticker is there on the side of the gateway case, but it is for Windows 2000 Pro, not XP pro).

So, without the COA, I can't install any updates.....nothin'.... I'm basically stuck with the initial version of XP pro, with SP 2. So, I'm trying to figure out how to stay within the law of copyright, and not have to purchase yet another copy of their overpriced OS, when I have one that we ("my family") purchased already, and isn't being used.

The question is: since I rightfully own the COA for the XP home (from the flood), how hard is it going to be to transfer the COA to my new computer via reregistration; and how many hoops am I going to have to jump through to get this accomplished? I know I am going to have to dump the hard drive and load XP home to use the COA that I have (which is gonna be enough of a pain in the ass itself), but what am I looking at with the reregistration process?

I won't go into how much bullshit this whole issue is, as far as protected software. I realize there are people out there profiting form Microsoft's intelectual property, but the hassles involved for the rest of us is insane. That's not to mention the whole can of worms about being forced to buy new OS's every couple years, because they don't support the older ones, with updates after so long. (yeah, I am tightwad with my money, and I don't like padding Bill Gates' pocket any more than I absolutely have to).

Any tech guy advice, on how to do this, so I don't "infringe" on the software licensing protection and cause a snafu that I can't recover from?

Learn me, ohh great ones of higher knowledge!!!

TIA for any opinions, or insight you may be able to offer.

Tim

Too long of a story. As far as Windows XP goes, if its already installed, does it pass the MS License verificatin check they run for updates? If it does, just go ahead and update your PC. Sure its not legal, but Microsoft hasn't started sending agents to houses yet to check on licenses. As far as the other XP license goes, technically its not transferable. When a reseller sells an MS OS License with a prebuilt machine (dell, compaq, hp, etc...) those licenses are non transferable licenses that go with that machine only. If you destroy the machine, sell it, or retire it. The license stays with the machine. Thats why you don't get the OS CD and the license/authenticity sticker now gets put on the machine. So technically speaking, if you want to stay legal, your only options are to go out and buy Windows XP home or Pro, wait a month and buy MS Vista (if your pc is compatible) or install an open source OS, like Linux OR you can get your hands on a Windows 2000 CD and install that on the machine because that is what it is licensed for and then buy an XP Upgrade and upgrade to XP. Technically if you have your Windows 2000 license # and buy the XP upgrade CD, you can just install XP. It will just ask you for the Windows 2000 License key to verify that you have one.

If you aren't doing anything special with your computer, don't have any special requirements for software or hardware and don't play games, you might as well go with Linux. It has every internet tool available you would need to browse the web, read email, open MS Office documents and create your own. It could save you about $100+, but you may need to find a geek friend to have them install it, although the installation on most Linux distros now is as straight forward as it is for windows.

As far as your parts from your old PC go, if it was off when the house flooded, you could probably clean it out and maybe even use it. I would take it apart, maybe wash it off with some clean water and let it dry out for a few days. The Boards/cards and the case will be easy to clean up and make sure everything is order. You can't check the power supply without opening it up and cleaning out the inside. Also any other parts like the HD, Floppy drive, CD rom will be impossible to clean up so you can just gamble on them working or not. The problem isn't the water as much as all the other crud that was in the water and maybe the fact that it sat in the water for 3 days. I probably wouldn't put the components in a new PC, but you may be able to re-furbish that PC and get it running with a little investment. After cleaning it all up, start by pluging it in and see if it starts. If not, you may need to pick up a power supply. A cheap one will run you $30. Then try again. If it powers up, as I said, your big question marks will be the HD, CD-Rom and other closed part components.

If you get it working, you could always turn around and sell it on Ebay or donate it or some other crap.

ElTaco,

Can't he go to Microsoft and download the updates and then manually install them ? I did this after rebuilding a machine for a friend of mine. His COA'd software was locked in storage (flood) and needed to get up and running quick after an HD failure.

Anyway, I told him it was going to be a pain in the ass, he didn't care so I went and downloaded SP2 then manually installed it.

I'm thinking IT techs have to be able to download these things to push the updates out to their users without relying on AutoUpdate.

Yeah, but as i understood his question he wanted to be legal, not just update. He can always just update his current XP installation or just get his hands on an illegal version. You can connect to the ms website and download each security update individually, it will take a while, but you can do it.