New
#1
Another Activation Problem
I'm pretty sure I'm screwed, but here goes anyways. I acquired a HP Elitedesk tower that came with no hard drive. I installed 10 off a flash drive but it doesn't activate. There is no COA since it was designed for Windows 8. But the sticker that is on it says that it was downgraded to Win 7 Pro. So if I'm reading it right, Windows 8's activation number would have been embedded in the BIOS, but it was downgraded to 7 so there is nothing in the BIOS, and the Win 7 number went with the old hard drive. I've verified that there's no number in the BIOS, RWEverything shows no MSDM table.
So what am I missing? Do I simply have a computer with no usable activation number? Any chance that talking with MS would help? Thanks!