New
#1
Windows 10 reinstall on new hardware - activation error
Hi folks,
History:
a) Had Windows 7 (bought the DVD in a box with a genuine product key years ago) - was running fine.
b) Upgraded online to Windows 10 during the free upgrade period after W10 went general release.
So it was a digital license linked to my Microsoft account.
It ran fine until last week when I decided to move to new hardware.
Reasonably significant hardware change:
- Different motherboard
- More RAM
- Different Hard disks
Current State:
Had some issues coming up with an upgrade scenario to reinstall W10 on the new hardware, but thanks to some very helpful folks over in the Upgrade Forum here, I got that solved quick smart. Ended up creating a USB key to install from (new mobo has UEFI BIOS which is new to me)
W10 now installed fine, but I get an error trying to activate it:
"We can't reactivate Windows on this device. Try again later".
When I installed W10 I selected the "I don't have a product key" option as I believe it should then activate later against my MS account, but that's the bit that's broken.
(I did read somewhere that in my situation I could also provide my W7 product key at the prompt [which I still have] and that should work, but I haven't done that yet. Happy to reinstall and do that if that's what you guys think I should do, but would rather run this to ground first !)
As per the troubleshooting tips here, I have run the Activation troubleshooter. Contents attached to this message (I hope).
Any tips / suggestions much appreciated !!
Sal