Just A Newbie Hello

It's comforting knowing that people with computer knowledge make themselves available to those of us who for whatever reason find themselves backed into a corner that they don't know how to get out of, and they know if they start TRYING things often get worse.

My Dad passed on a few year back and sadly my Mom allows grandkids and others use it when they visit. Now, I find myself in one of those corners and need some help fixing whatever happened to give me this message way more often than should be occurring.

Sorry, what I thought I could do I suddenly can not do: I thought that I could make a copy of what I'm seeing on the screen and paste it here. But for reasons I can't figure out I can hit SHIFT and PrtScn, paste the image in WORD PAD give it a name and copy and paste the image here. But, no such luck.

It's better if you can SEE what I see rather than to use words to explain it; wouldn't you agree?

Maybe a suggestion or more can help.

Thanks!

IMSA GUY

 

Hi, and Welcome to MajorGeeks.

Start by telling us what OS you're using.

 

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thanks LauraR and Eldon for the replies.

Win 7 Home Premium, Dell,


Inspiron 560

Pentium (R) DUAL-CORE

CPU E5500@
2.8GHz 2.79 GHz

6.oo GB RAM

64 BIT OS

NO PEN or TOUCH INPUT

is available for this display







THE AUTHENTICATION NOTICE

This computer is not running Genuine Windows
0x8004fe21
*****************************************************************************************

My Dad purchased more PC's in his life, [ most top of the line, back in the days when the top ender desktops were 4 figures ] than anyone I ever knew.
He crashed this high end Dell which he loved. He goes to Costco and buys this high end HP at Costco; he hated it! I found the above Dell on sale at Staples and purchased it for him. It was $600.00. I gave it to him but he must have looked it up as soon as it was online and he hated not having THE BEST and would lament about the older Dell saying " That Dell was my FAVORITE PC EVER "!

Knowing way more about PC's than he did, I set out to rebuild it; which meant spending numerous hours talking on the phone with a Dell tech who 1 had to figure out why it crashed. He decided that the hard drive got a nasty virus which prevented us from running a virus program. He suggested buying a new hard drive, calling back ( this tech even gave me a specific phone number to reach him especially since he and I both spent many hours trying numerous ways of getting around the virus with no luck ) Although I don't recall exactly how I came up with this idea to run a virus program that my club president suggested. I do recall running it remotely which did require a new hard drive. That said, I purchased a stand alone hard drive in it's own external case and got it via the new Dell which didn't yet have a chance to get messed up by Dad. [ I loved my former POW WW2 Dad, but the man somehow messed up EVERY PC he ever owned. Dad passed in 2014.] Obviously, this Inspiron 560 is not right and to be fair it may have been someone else who caused this current problem. My Mom still pays for high speed internet ( she has her own Chromebook which she will not allow anyone to use except me. The Dell is in his old " man cave " which is exactly as he left it, and it ( the Inspiron 560 ) is for guest or my brother and I to use.

I know that I like to " tell stories " and in this day and age most people HATE " long stories ". I don't think that it is disallowed here in Major Geeks so I'm trying to provide the short story above the ********** line and the long story below because, at some point I'd like to post a theory that I have which is almost always labeled " a conspiracy theory ". Background is essential to understand it. But for now I would like to know how and why this PC is trying to tell me that this OS is not "GENUINE" and in the process making it near impossible to UPDATE/Submit all of the info on the factory tag that came on this PC and the Older one which you might be interested in what I did to resurrect it.

My free styling will stop now, for the most part; I do think that anyone who might want to help me might want more specific info. So, I'll wait to hear what THEY want/need to know.

Very much appreciative of any help rendered.

IMSA Guy

 

Sorry... Can't help.

 

Well, technically we can't help because your version of Windows isn't "genuine". As the machine is OEM Dell, that's odd but not unheard of. Now, if you used the license key supplied with the machine then your copy could be legit. But, W7 is no longer supported by Microsoft. If you have the key, it may work for a W10 install. Perhaps...

 

Thanks mekanic,
after reading the post about the passing of the beloved MG member I started to read random posts and read one ( I should have clicked WATCH because I've forgotten a key word(s) and when I came back later to contribute my 2 cents; I couldn't find that post) about
W7 " no longer being supported "

I have a longer reply which is now saved to a WORD PAD doc. I'd like to post that one but before I do, an unexpected home situation popped up which requires ' now attention '

I'm going to post this for now and will get back to this after the emergency is settled.