Vista activation

Alright, so here's my Vista upgrade story:

I had XP on my machine, and finally decided to try Vista. As I didn't want to put any money down to simply try it, I borrowed a disk from a friend to install it. Apparently, it's a "cracked" version that uses the timerstop.sys and whatnot crack... there was no product key or anything. I wasn't attempting to use a cracked version, I simply wanted the trial version, and figured I would buy a product key if I liked it.

Well... I like it. So, I purchased a legitimate product key online, went to the Change Product Key (remember, I never entered a product key in the first place), entered my purchased key, and it came up with error code 0x004e003. Of course, I tried both links ("More information", which simply opened an error message stating "The Software Licensing Service reported that license evaluation failed", and "You can also contact Microsoft by phone to help resolve this problem", which opened up the Windows Help window, with absolutely no links or information to anything regarding phone activation.

Nowhere in the Activation windows is there ANY option to activate by phone... at all.

Edit: Also, FYI I did a "clean" install, NOT an upgrade within XP or anything.

The disk I borrowed was apparently a generic OEM Vista x86/x64 (I installed x86) disk (with the cracks and whatnot included, unfortunately). Windows Update apparently downloaded some kind of WGA, because it told me I was attempting to get around activation (which is when I started rummaging for the cracks and whatnot) and "offered" to repair it (which I let complete successfully). I searched for, found, and removed the crack files (timerstopx86.sys, timerstopx64.sys, and one other file... timerstop.exe maybe? I know it was an executable).

The product key I purchased is an Vista Ultimate OEM key.

So... what's the issue? Are there differences between generic OEM Vista disks/installs, that would prevent my key from working with the installation I used? How can I fix this problem?

Is there a little known way to force Windows to give me the phone activation? I've Googled around, booted with my internet adaptor physically disabled, and booted into safe mode (apparently that's a dead end... Windows sez no activation possible in safe mode).

I'm just not sure what to do, and I really don't want to reinstall Windows again.

Oh yeah... and I did update to SP1 before trying to activate... does the service pack change anything regarding activation?

 

If you legitimately purchased a "license" online, you would have had a download option (or CD delivery), that is the route you need to take & do a clean install, you literally have a illegal copy of windows installed on your PC & you REALLY need to get it off of there

 

First of all, I don't have an "illegal" copy on my machine. I stated that I removed all cracks/activation circumvention files already, so all that's left is genuine Microsoft software. I even completed a virus scan (Avast) to ensure that I removed all of the offensive files. I simply have a trial version that needs to be activated within 28 days now.

Yes, I have a download option with the key I purchased online. However, my internet is slow... I'm cringing at the idea of downloading over 4GB. Also, reinstalling everything would be a big hassle that I hope isn't necessary... which is the purpose of this thread (to see what other options, if any, there are... mainly the phone activation option that seems to be elusive to me).

If I do have to download and reinstall, then so be it. I just hope it doesn't have to come to that.

 

I apologize if I sounded harsh, but can you REALLY be sure it's legit if it was a "cracked" copy, I imagine there are probably a few registry keys that aren't quite right still in there.

 

I suppose it's possible. I'm planning on downloading the install anyway... it will just take me about a week (if not more) and again, I just don't want to reinstall everything (I had to download over 200MB of updates NOT in SP1... that took forever in and of itself!).