I had to replace the hard drive in my compaq laptop. The one i got was cleaned/erased and used off eBay. I have the WinXP cd for it but i cant read the 5X5 code anymore. I have it installed and running but i keep getting the pop-up for activation. Im pretty sure i entered the 5X5 code wrong because its so hard to read... Ive looked threw all the .TXT files as well as did a search for a file containing: ?????-?????-?????-?????-?????. ((its ?'s NOT *'s right?)) Well no luck.. im thinking that the serial number is got to be on ths disk somewhere, right? Also it says that if i call CustServcRep to give them this number... 1 long string...
293516-
232383-
476073-
423223-
754321-
165923-
812625-
984563-
913380

The key is not on the CD anywhere. If it's a legit copy, you could try calling Microsoft and get a new key. Otherwise, look for a keygen.

GnatGoSplat said:

The key is not on the CD anywhere. If it's a legit copy, you could try calling Microsoft and get a new key. Otherwise, look for a keygen.

yeah its legit, is my all my stuff, cd and computer, yeah i should call them but at the same time i shouldnt have a problem re-installing software thats already mine..
Owell, better get me a full pack of smokes, i think im going to be in hold awhile

The software that is already yours is NOT already yours. What you have purchased is a license to use the software a set number of times. After a certain number of installs it no longer validates via the original key. So what you need to do is call Microsoft who will give you a new key to use during the install. It doesn't take that long and is fairly easy, if not a bit tedious.

-Litos

There is also a program that will search your computer for valid windows Keys. It works for most microsoft programs. If I was at home (not work) right now i would look it up. Actually I have the program on my computer at home. So if I remember when I get home I'll try to post the software. PM me if you are still interested and it'll help me remember. the program is actually written by microsoft and is provided to be a "Key recovery tool" :twisted:

That program is called Magic Jellybean and is a wonderful little tool. Unfortunately, since you had to replace your hard drive in this case....it's useless to you.

Nah it'll still work. I'm sure you have a friend with windows XP. Use their computer to search for Serial Numbers. Believe it or not the serial number algorithm actually IS on your computer. I'm not sure where it looks because of course it is a microsoft program so you know they know where to look. But what it does is run up to 99 attemps to find however many valid keys it can. It typically only gets about 2-5 keys out of 99 tries. But the good thing is these are valid keys that most the time will work even with the Windows Genuine stupid thing.

Btw the program I'm talking about is called XPKeyRecoverer5.12 which is the version I have. Magic Jellybean isn't as good i've gotten way too many invalid keys from it. If you have a 64bit processor XP Key Recoverey will find more keys faster and they are more likely to be valid.

I attached the program to this post like I forgot to do whenever I posted the last one. lol BTW This forum does not allow the attachment of EXEs so just change the extension back to exe and it will run.

did anyone read this whole thread that is a year old just cuz this message was added to it? :lol:

jeffrey.pimentel said:

did anyone read this whole thread that is a year old just cuz this message was added to it? :lol:

:shock: DUHH U got me!!!