hi iv had my laptop for bout 7 months now, it aint brand new but its ok. I got it off my dad. But recently i tried to update the system with sp2 and it said it couldnt as my windows xp was not genuine and now its not running properly.

Is there anyway of restoring this other than buyin whole new windows edition for bout £100?

Aaron

Azza, February 2007

Gary, I think that you should justify: "sp2 is rubbish anyway".

t, February 2007

Do you have WindowsXP sticker on the bottom of your laptop with the Product Key? If so, then this should be a valid copy of XP unless it's been loaded with another one.

You can only load XP 5 times before the key becomes invalid and, as Gary said, the windows validation check kicks in now when you try to update and says it's not valid anymore. If you're sure it is a real version, then ring the number given and give them the product key. I've done this when I've had to reload XP several times because of viruses/hardware failure and they are happy to comply. Either that or they'll tell you it's not a real copy, and then you can get a new product key for a charge of about £98.

The only drawback of not getting it validated is that with the validation check, you won't be able to get any security/program updates

Andy, February 2007

sp2 is rubbish anyway and by trying to install it you have activated the windows validation check. You can get around this but it is illegal, so unless you have a valid windowsXP disk you will have to go buy one.

Gary, February 2007