Office Pro. 2003 Re-Activation

[4W4K3]

Been FOREVER since i was here, glasd to be back Anywyas...

Situation: I recently moved and switched from wired to wireless internet connection (D-Link 108Mbps "G" connection). After the install of the Wireless card, ALL of my Office 2003 products de-activated and requiore me to reactivate them (Don't you just LOVE M$?)

So i go through the re-activation wizard and it tells me my CD-Key is used up (which i say is BS, used it once to install). So i clock "activate over the phone" because i've done that with Windows XP before and it worked like a charm. Clicked "Next" and poof...wizard closes and nothing hapens. I redo this proces about 10 times, with the same results, and jsut give up.

Called M$, got put on hold for a while (im patient, no big deal), transferred twice for some reason...then i was told this phone call will cost me $35 for any more additional help. Well first off i hadn't been helped yet...just told them my problem and they transferred me. And i can't afford $35 for a hpone call...so they gave me the automated activation number i wanted (hooray, i found it...right?)

Turns out it was the WINDOWS activation #, i needed Office, are they deaf? Looked online for about na hour and found the Office # (FINALLY!) and called that. went through maybe 2 steps...and was told i would be connected to a real life tech support person for additional support.

Well, i was fed up, i was back where i started, except i wasted about 2 hrs. of time.

Question: How the **** do i activate Office Pro. 2003? I am definetly not going to purchase it, just because i changed my network card. With XP M$ told me this was no problem, and i could re-activate XP as many times as i wanted if it was just a hardware change-out. But for Office...i can't seem to do this.

I have already started making the switch to Linux...all these years with M$ trouble have jsut NOW started to irritate me. I downloaded OpenOffice and Linux Mandrake/LiveCD to test out. All i want now is a secondary HDD to dual boot with.

Anyone know how to re-activate M$ Office Pro. 2003? I went through M$.com for a looonnngggg time looking up all their info...no help

Thanks

 

[4W4K3]

And just to clarify, i'm not looking for CD-Key's to use. I appreciate the offer but my answer, as always, is going to be "no." I just need a solution to re-activate with the CD-Key i already have, cuz i did it with XP after M$ told me it was "expired."

 

[dumdum8684]

Well the reason it is causing you to reactivate is because of the way Windows (and Office) works. They use i think 10 hardware caracteristics that they use. 3 are from the network adapter. if you change more than 3 or maybe if you change three the hash they made doesn't match. That is prolly why its not working...

What i would try is to hardwire your laptop into the wall and activate it again. or see if it is back to normal. Keep your wireless card in a first and then if that doesn't work then take out your wireless card

Hope that helps,
-Aaron

 

[4W4K3]

it's not a laptop, it's a desktop with a wireless card, jsut to clarify. i can't go back to wired, because router is on other side of the ohuse...main reason we all got wireless cards for our desktop.

i just un-installed Office completely and am going to do a reinstall after i get Linux on the other HDD. Right now i'm using OpenOffice and i must say it's just as good if not better than Office i think. And it's free...big plus...