Originally Posted by
Loren Pechtel
Replacing the NIC by itself shouldn't trigger a reactivation but it comes close to the threshold. The problem is one of the pieces of system identification information is the MAC from the NIC.
Did you perhaps do something else in the last 4 months? You could have had another change that was below the threshold and then added the NIC on top of it and put it over the limit. Various changes have various point scores, too many points and you need to reactivate.
Note, also, that many people with apparently legitimate copies of Windows have had trouble because the manufacturer did something they shouldn't have. Sometimes innocently (they had the licenses, they just copied the HD image), sometimes not so innocently.
I may have changed a hard drive or two (though not the system drive). I removed a USB card to make room for the new NIC.
I'm the manufacturer of this machine -- I built it from scratch in its present incarnation about two to two-and-a-half years ago. I've re-installed the OS twice since building it.
I've had to activate Windows on this machine each time I re-installed the OS. It activated over the internet with no problem, though I recall I once had to call MS and tell them why I was activating the same OS again. That process took no more than 2 minutes and did not include a request for any personal information.
I own two legal copies of Windows XP, one of which runs on my laptop and the other runs on this desktop. In roughly 4 of running XP, I've never had to reactivate the OS and, frankly, this process is intolerable. I'll put up with a 2 minute anonymous phone call or an instantaneous internet connection. I will not stand for 90+ minutes of my time wasted arguing with idiots who demand personal information that I
never give out to anyone without a legitimate need to know (because of this personal policy, I've never had a problem with identity theft, and rarely was bothered by telemarketers).