Activate Windows 10

[ZiggyM]

Long story short, over the weekend I installed some new RAM and it didn't work. The system would beep a bunch of times and I'd get a black screen. I powered down and back on a few timesm pressing the F10 and Esc (and Delete and F2 and who knows what else) hoping to get into the BIOS. I pulled the new RAM and installed the old RAM. I powered up and got a blank screen a few more times. I removed the video card and plugged in the RGB to the integrated graphics and the system booted up and said "Activate Windows", like it did, years ago when I first bought it.
I tried 'system restore' to 12/15/22 and while it did it's thing, I went to bed. I woke up and it said there was an error and it couldn't/didn't restore (and the 12/15/22 restore is gone).
The only restore left was from yesterday, after all the hell had broken loose, but it said "undo" so I ran it, thinking it would undo and put me back to before the RAM install fiasco. This morning, it said there was an error doing the restore and it hadn't restored.

It appears to have reset to factory defaults. I tried some programs and many aren't working. I tried an old game (Red Baron 3d) and it ran, so I tried to record it and it recorded. But when I try to play the recording, it tells me the codec doesn't exist. My NIC wasn't working, saying it couldn't find the driver, but I managed to load one from a thumb drive and can now get on the internet.
NR2003 runs (Delta server is up for testing, BTW) but AC Content Manger is telling me -

I think my activation key is with my mic, in storage, in a box, somewhere I can't find. So....
Is everything not going to work until I find that activation key? Does windows activation disable all my stuff, like the video card, until I do the activation thing again?

Have I ever expressed just how much I hate Bill Gates?

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Mystical]

I've always had a licensed Windows 10, but pretty sure if someone uses Win10 with no key it still works fine but may pop up with an annoying watermark or activation registration every now and then.

I think you need to do a repair, looks like win10 is missing some crucial files.

I'm not a window tech expert but if the OS kept having issues for me I'd download the ISO and see if I can restore any missing win10 components from that until you can get you key: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

 

[Blogospheros]

Hello !

I am not a computer specialist at all. Please excuse me if this post is unnecessary or out of place. If it is about damaged files, why not use the sfc /scannow command? It will scan your entire system and repair damaged and corrupted files.

I hope you will get over your problems.

Good luck.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...em-files-79aa86cb-ca52-166a-92a3-966e85d4094e

 

[Kevmire]

Is there an option to activate it online? I think that’s what I’ve done in the past.

 

[Blitzman]

Long story short, over the weekend I installed some new RAM and it didn't work. The system would beep a bunch of times and I'd get a black screen. I powered down and back on a few timesm pressing the F10 and Esc (and Delete and F2 and who knows what else) hoping to get into the BIOS. I pulled the new RAM and installed the old RAM. I powered up and got a blank screen a few more times. I removed the video card and plugged in the RGB to the integrated graphics and the system booted up and said "Activate Windows", like it did, years ago when I first bought it.
I tried 'system restore' to 12/15/22 and while it did it's thing, I went to bed. I woke up and it said there was an error and it couldn't/didn't restore (and the 12/15/22 restore is gone).
The only restore left was from yesterday, after all the hell had broken loose, but it said "undo" so I ran it, thinking it would undo and put me back to before the RAM install fiasco. This morning, it said there was an error doing the restore and it hadn't restored.

It appears to have reset to factory defaults. I tried some programs and many aren't working. I tried an old game (Red Baron 3d) and it ran, so I tried to record it and it recorded. But when I try to play the recording, it tells me the codec doesn't exist. My NIC wasn't working, saying it couldn't find the driver, but I managed to load one from a thumb drive and can now get on the internet.
NR2003 runs (Delta server is up for testing, BTW) but AC Content Manger is telling me - View attachment 144567

I think my activation key is with my mic, in storage, in a box, somewhere I can't find. So....
Is everything not going to work until I find that activation key? Does windows activation disable all my stuff, like the video card, until I do the activation thing again?

Have I ever expressed just how much I hate Bill Gates?

Any help is appreciated.

Heya Ziggy, Just saw this.
A computer that has been activated on Windows 10 should always freely Re-Activate once connected to the internet. Any Motherboard that has been activated should automatically activate once re-built into a system and connected to the internet, forever till Microsoft dissolves or?.

Try a progran called ProduKey(sp?) It can find many Keys on the system, depending, Don't know if KeyFinder would find any.

You should use MalwareBytes on your system when poking around for some of these programs, just to be safe. It does not let bad things happen to your PC unless you let em in.

Run ScanDisk on your system. SFC will check and repair/replace Windows Core files, usually with older ones and you will have to do updating again.

Will try to remember to check back on ya.
Good luck and Stay well!
Duane

 

[Blitzman]

Oh, and the KeyFinder things are for if you cannot find your GAME keys, not the Windows one. They often just show an OEM Windows key that does not help.
Oh and, No Windows itself should not be disabling anything like that due to needing activation.

Sounds like you somehow corrupted some files, try the ScanDisk to see if the file structure has been left corrupted first.
Sometimes you can get the option to undo last update(s). Pop up the Taskbar and type "Startup". Look for something like Change advanced startup options, select that and the system should restart(doing from memory). Look in the options for something like undo/uninstall(forget) last update.

Maybe best to just try the "System Reset"(after running ScanDisk). At Start menu typr "Reset" and choose Reset this PC or whatever it says similar, choose keep my programs or similar.
Windows should work fine basically then, you will need to update.

Peace and Good Luck!
Duane

 

[ZiggyM]

Stange thing happened last night, after getting home from work and running around a bit, I booted up the system and noticed the "Activate Windows" watermark was gone. I double clicked on a video and it ran. I recorded a moment or two of me browsing, saved it and opened it and it worked. I got into CM, ran a 'benchmark' on AC and it worked.
Things look to be 'back to normal' except almost everything asks me "do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device" even when I have 'run as admin' checked.

I'm guessing it did what Blitzman is talking about "A computer that has been activated on Windows 10 should always freely Re-Activate once connected to the internet." between my first and last post. I wasn't able to connect until I loaded a NIC driver by USB so that was probably it.

So, as far as I can tell, it's running like 'normal'.

Thx for all the help! I'll try to system scans and all the rest over the weekend.

 

[Blitzman]

Great it ended up straightening out!
On the programs that ask for permission, if you can find the main .exe file to them, right-click on it and select properties and check that it does not say "Blocked". If so, tick the box and Apply. Just might be it...
Peace!

 

[Pablo500]

Sorry for off-topic but just look at this

Microsoft support 'cracks' Windows for customer after activation fails

In an unexpected twist, a Microsoft support engineer resorted to running an unofficial 'crack' on a customer's Windows PC after a genuine copy of the operating system failed to activate normally. It seems, this isn't the first time either that a Microsoft support professional has employed such...

www.bleepingcomputer.com