I know that when I called the first person said that you can't clean install, the 2nd person told me the 'wait 24-48 hours'. That was a couple weeks ago. I did the chat a few days ago and this was the result. I'm still cruising, activated with a clean install.
As long as you were running a legit Windows beforehand there is no way they can tell you that.
I was given a new key through telephone support as on my 3rd clean install of activated 10 Pro (initially upgraded from Windows 7) I got this 0xC004C003 error (the first two activated fine as they should).
You do have to keep phoning though until you get someone who understands the problem - some of their techs are worse than others.
In my case I was given a Windows 10 Pro key and didn't have to give my Windows 7 key or PID and although the tech did ask to sign on remotely he seemed to forget about it and just told me the key over the phone which worked fine.
This is useful as my 7 key was retail and the 10 key I was given is (according to the tech) not transferrable so I can still upgrade on another PC (if I get one that doesn't have windows already) within the next year.
I just spent the last 24 hours trying to figure this out as well. Tried to reinstall Windows 3 times, but same result. I think the problem is when reinstalling, windows picks up the wrong key. It isnt reading the embedded OEM key in the motherboard.
Instead it picks up a generic key which looks like this:
XXXXX-8hvx7
After searching different message boards i noticed this "8hvx7" is the same product key showing when people are sending snapshots of their screen. So if you see this on your activation screen you just have to type in the real Activation Key of your laptop/computer.
So I googled how to find out what your OEM product key is and there are a few programs available which can extract the information from the motherboard. I'm pretty cautious when it comes to downloading random programs but i was desperate so i tried "https://neosmart.net/OemKey/".
As long as you can find a way to get the full 25 digit key and enter it manually into the activation screen, it should be fine.
Welcome to TenForums. Unfortunately your analysis is wrong. Windows 10 couldn't care less what your key was on some old legacy OS. Your install is activated (theoretically and normally) by a record of your hardware stored on MS servers.
You need to upgrade from a valid version of Windows 7 or 8 and this will register your PC. If you clean install without doing this it will not work. If you change your hardware too much it will not work. If you enter a key it will not work.
If you have previously upgraded and you got an activated Windows 10 and then you get this message then call them.
To be clear, normally if you are on an old version of Windows:
- You must upgrade first (not clean install) so MS can register your hardware. Check your Windows 10 is activated when you have.
- You must not ever enter your old key or any other key ever unless you have actually bought or obtained a Windows 10 one. Ever. Neither on your initial upgrade or on a subsequent clean install.
- If you clean install it must be the same PC (same hardware) and the same version (Home, Pro) and you must already be activated on that device on Windows 10.
- If it still doesn't activate call them (but be prepared to be on hold for a long time and perhaps to call several times).
By far the best key retrieval program for Windows is Showkey from right here on these forums -
Showkey - Windows 10 Forums
Oh, sorry about that - I just assumed (I guess I've got egg on my face then)....
In that case you could try slui 4 from command prompt (if you haven't already). This will open phone activation and then just follow the prompts. I have a Windows 10 key which was blocked and it was activated automatically (after entering the numbers displayed on slui 4) over the phone with their robot answering thing.
It will either activate you or put you through to talk to a real person...
1) Have a valid version of Windows 7 Pro and I upgraded from that the day 10 was released. About a week later I had to do a clean install of 10 because the windows.old wouldn't delete and was taking up a lot of gigs. Ever since then my 10 won't activate.
2) No hardware changes, I've even got all the additional external hardware (printer, speakers, etc) in the same USB slots.
3) I never put my old keys in.
4) Still no activation after what, six or more weeks? I tried doing a clean install of 7 then upgrading to 10 as suggested in a number of places. No joy.
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