WinXP Pro disc - identical serial numbers ?

**Channel Hopper** · 07-04-2009

I've just had some time to play about with a laptop bought off Ebay

a couple of months ago, it came with both a recovery disc and a WinXP professional one, complete with sticker underneath the chassis.

I still have to replace the screen and some keys, but having started up the hard drive and reinstalled the operating system, the code to enable the XP operating system (Version 2002 with Service Pack 2) has exactly the same 25 character sequence of numbers/letters as the PC I am currently sitting at (also with its own Win XP disc but without a sticker, the case was changed earlier on this year).

My question - if I start up the laptop on the internet, and get the various upgrades, will Bill Gates do his best to lock out the operating system of one, (or both) computers, even though I have two physical discs in my possession ? I have looked for answers on the net, but this seems to be a first.

By the way both look entirely genuine, both have the MS hologram, and have stencilled numbers round the inner ring

***2cvbloke*** · 07-04-2009

Originally Posted by Channel Hopper

I've just had some time to play about with a laptop bought off Ebay a couple of months ago, it came with both a recovery disc and a WinXP professional one, complete with sticker underneath the chassis.

I still have to replace the screen and some keys, but having started up the hard drive and reinstalled the operating system, the code to enable the XP operating system (Version 2002 with Service Pack 2) has exactly the same 25 character sequence of numbers/letters as the PC I am currently sitting at (also with its own Win XP disc but without a sticker, the case was changed earlier on this year).

My question - if I start up the laptop on the internet, and get the various upgrades, will Bill Gates do his best to lock out the operating system of one, (or both) computers, even though I have two physical discs in my possession ? I have looked for answers on the net, but this seems to be a first.

By the way both look entirely genuine, both have the MS hologram, and have stencilled numbers round the inner ring

Hmm, that's unusual, it's normally not possible to have identical numbers on different systems, but then again I suppose that with billions of computers worldwide, there is bound to be duplicate numbers here and there!!!

As for whether ol' billy boy tries to ruin your computers, well, it's not happened to me yet, I've shared codes between laptops and PCs, and to date they have worked fine, even with the "Windows Genuine Advantage" checker thing...

As for the discs, they don't really matter, Windows has the decryption stuff that accepts or denies codes, it's just whether they have different Service Packs on the discs which can muck up installations with different codes...

You should be fine...

***compufunk*** · 07-04-2009

I cant say I have ever heard of this happening before. Are both machines from the same manufacturer?

If the key is dodgy, running/installing 'Windows Genuine Advantage' will muck things up for you. You need to run this to prove your machine is eligible for certain updates. It will check if you are using a known pirated key.

I've always been prompted to to install this, therefore I had the choice of opting out. But I couldn't say for sure that it would not be installed during an automatic update.

I would turn off automatic updates on the laptop until I figured out what the situation was.

_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Genuine_Advantage

Philthy · 07-04-2009

When you connect the second PC, it will check its key against a list on Microsoft's servers. When it finds it is a duplicate, it will probably reject the update. There are ways to circumvent this.

***BombedOne*** · 07-04-2009

Large vendors (HP, Dell, etc). Have volume licenses for windows XP, and it's same for a lot of their products (4TCTC-WGWHT-..... etc) . So here we may have similar case.

**irart** · 07-04-2009

If you want to disable WGA, and find out if in fact it is on your computer the following link will show your how quite easily:- _http://digg.com/d1FlB

**dig deep** · 07-04-2009

Originally Posted by Channel Hopper

I've just had some time to play about with a laptop bought off Ebay a couple of months ago, it came with both a recovery disc and a WinXP professional one, complete with sticker underneath the chassis.

I still have to replace the screen and some keys, but having started up the hard drive and reinstalled the operating system, the code to enable the XP operating system (Version 2002 with Service Pack 2) has exactly the same 25 character sequence of numbers/letters as the PC I am currently sitting at (also with its own Win XP disc but without a sticker, the case was changed earlier on this year).

My question - if I start up the laptop on the internet, and get the various upgrades, will Bill Gates do his best to lock out the operating system of one, (or both) computers, even though I have two physical discs in my possession ? I have looked for answers on the net, but this seems to be a first.

By the way both look entirely genuine, both have the MS hologram, and have stencilled numbers round the inner ring

No, there will be no problems. I have a disk that has the same number as 99 more disks out on the market. They work fine but there is no support on them as they are sold as mounted in a computer. Support shall be done by the computer maker.

So boot up and download all You need

**Channel Hopper** · 12-04-2009

Originally Posted by compufunk

I cant say I have ever heard of this happening before. Are both machines from the same manufacturer?

If the key is dodgy, running/installing 'Windows Genuine Advantage' will muck things up for you. You need to run this to prove your machine is eligible for certain updates. It will check if you are using a known pirated key.

No, these are two completely separate machines, one is a Sony laptop and the other a Mesh PC.
Neither of these machines would normally come with an original disc, I believe they would be preloaded at the factory and have a recovery disk (or some volume recovery system on separate drive in the case of the Mesh).

Just to confirm

Two completely independent Windows XP installation discs, in jewel cases with manual/stickers/
1) XP Pro-Version 2002 - 0601-Part No. X08-33951
2) XP Pro-Version 2002 - with Service Pack 2 -0504 - Part No.X10-59871

Both have the same 25 digit number on the sticker, starting QT79C-HH9X7 etc.

I have reinstalled the second disc onto a spare laptop hard drive, just to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

I was advised years ago that XP discs required a unique 25 digit code to run otherwise they would not pass the verification page, the combination of unique codes being a much as - 36 to the power of 25.

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