Product Key activation exceeded?

[LeftEyeBlind]

Alright so I stuck a new stick of ram in my PC today, the final peice of my new build.. and windows tells me I have to reactive, but I can't because my key has reached the maximum number of activations? I'm surprised it took me this long to reach it, Had this copy since 2004 and have been changing my computer ever since..

Now I know its LEGAL for me to install this copy of windows on this computer as many times as I **** well please, so this activation exceeded thing is just some type of ploy.. How do I get around it legally? This copy of windows is legal, so do I just call and activate over the phone? Whats that like?

 

[Eric1]

Yes, just call them to activate your copy of windows. Just tell them you made a hardware change and you need to reinstall. Then it is usually good for something like four or more times to activate with internet.

 

[KSoD]

Eric is right. Just call. You will get a animated system where you put in a bunch of numbers and it gives you the access code. If they give you any hassles just ell them the hard drive died.

 

[peterhuang913]

We're all right. Just call Microsoft.

Tell them it's same computer, only used on this computer, and you need to activate because of hardware changes.

 

[Harper]

Just activated it over the phone and say that your previous install was affected by virus.