I bought my daughter a refurb laptop for Xmas that came with Win-10 Pro installed. It's now failing Windows Authentication. The problem is the product key format is xx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx, while Windows Authentication is expecting xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx.
The product key is labeled "Windows 10 Pro for Refurb PCS", which I found a couple hits on google for, but nothing about the format difference of the product key or how to authenticate it. Any ideas?
From what I can find, a Win10 product key should always be 5 groups of 5 characters, there are no alternate key lengths.
Sure you're getting all the numbers? Is it possible there are three pre-printed on the label then the rest of the initial group is printed in a different font? Or did three numbers rub off? I've had good luck calling Microsoft for activation problems. I've never had this exactly problem, but have had to call in before and ended up with a successfully activated computer each time. The computer should give you a number to call when it fails to activate, if I remember correctly.
The computer was previously showing activated before, right? There's an activation troubleshooter that you can go through the settings and tell Microsoft that you've made hardware changes recently, and that will re-associate your license to the computer.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/20527/windows-10-activation-troubleshooter
This is the place where some no-good wise-acre says something like "You wouldn't be having this problem with an open-source OS like Linux, now would ya?" Not gonna be me, but you wait, somebody's gonna say it.
I found out a bit more detail. Apparently for smaller refurb shops(less than 500 PCs per month), they don't receive actual Windows COA labels from Microsoft. What they get is the "...for refurb PCS" sticker, which they then use to log into the Microsoft portal and obtain the actual COA. They're supposed to print out the COA from the portal and include it with the PC, but ours didn't have it.
I opened a ticket with Newegg, and they replied last night with the contact info for the refurb shop. I'll try contacting them today and see if they can provide a resolution.
Amazingly enough this very issue just came up for me today. I bought a new refurb system to replace a dying system in one of our mechanical rooms. The Windows 10 COA had the same number format as yours. However, there is a silver area that says "Microsoft" on it - that's a scratch off bit to keep the COA secure. Yes, like a lottery ticket. Scratch it off and there should be a full 5 groups of 5 characters product key.
In reply to dculberson :
Wow, awesome. Thanks!
In reply to Pete Gossett :
Did it work?? :-)
In reply to dculberson :
Yes, that was it - thanks!!! I had no idea Microsoft was doing anything like this now.
Awesome. It surprised me too!
Caution: 5 Year Old Thread revived by spam and spam deleted.
Wait, Windows 10 is 5 years old? I just put it on a new computer!
I kid, I kid. I know how old it is, and that it is approaching end-of-life, but I had to do it anyway.
Wait, Windows is still around?
You'll need to log in to post.
