Episode #34
I got this co-worker who got a second hand laptop dell inpiron e1505. Got locked out since nobody knows the administrator password. Thinking that it’s a second hand, I might as well clean it up and start fresh. This was a mistake. In the process I had a lapse of memory and deleted all the partitions and lost the device drivers. All of them. I was able to recover by downloading one by one. But after all those hours “genuine” validation hit me while trying to download service pack2. I had the original pin number that came with the dell pc, but Microsoft still locked me out. I’m frustrated already, so I’m thinking of just installing a Linux. But my friend had a couple of specific requests. She needs IE6 or up and windows media player 9. This was the requirement of a website she subscribes to. She watches TV shows from the Phil. through this website. Her only purpose of her pc is to watch on that website, to do online transactions, and a little office work. So far I haven’t quit on a call for help, it is always fun and a challenge for me. But this was frustrating. What's your take on this? Sorry for the long message.
Earl, El Monte, CA
The first question is at what point was the Windows key rejected? If you were reinstalling from the recovery disk that came with the notebook itself, there should be no problem with the Windows key being accepted — if you tried to use that key with another Windows installation disk, it may be rejected at that point because there are different batches of Windows available, and sometimes OEM versions (like the one that came with the Dell) cannot use the Windows key from a full version, or vice versa.
If the key and the disk were both from the Dell machine, activation may be failing simply because that machine has been activated too many times — Microsoft is pretty good at allowing you to re-activate the machine if you take the time to call them over the phone and explain that you had to wipe your drive and start again. The only thing you need to be really careful of is that that Windows key is not in use for another machine — if it’s continually activated multiple times, they’ll just cut you off altogether.
If you absolutely must get that machine up and running with Windows, you should also have the option of simply purchasing a new Windows key for that machine, and activating it online. The downside is that it’ll cost you some money to do so.
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Air Date: June 15, 2007
TranscriptCaller Questions
- Pierre, Campbellton, NB
- Mark, Waterloo,ON
- Earl, El Monte, CA
- Jonathan, Edmonton, AB
Yewell's Jewels
- Flash Circle TDwindowsmaclinux
Thee aim of the game is to control the number of monsters in the maze at any one time by building towers which can stop them. To build a tower, simply click on its icon on the right of the screen then place it on the map by clicking again. Towers can only be built on the raised ground around the paths. All towers can be upgraded to improve their strengths, to do this click on the tower then click on the upgrade button which appears on the right.
You can also sell towers to make back some extra money. How many levels can you last?
Flash (any browser that can handle flash)Desktop Tower Defense is a fun flash based puzzle/strategy game where you have to protect your desktop from invading creeps by spending money on attacking pieces and building a maze for them to follow. Strangely addictive yet stress relieving… how many levels can you survive?
Flash (any browser that can handle flash)
DesktopTD