How To re-activate Windows or Change Product Key
Thursday, October 29, 2009
If for some reason you need to update your Windows product key in Vista, XP or Windows 7, it can be done. This is usually needed in Windows XP if a problem occurs with Windows Genuine Advantage notifications.
Microsoft has a PKU (Product Key Update) tool available here:
http://tinyurl.com/ykgnvw9
Once the tool is run, Windows will re-activate once you have rebooted.
Labels: microsoft, windows 7, XP
posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 3:00 PM,
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How To Disable Windows Genuine Advantage Notification
1. Boot Windows into SAFE MODE.
2. Open REGEDIT.EXE, search for the WGALOGON folder and delete it.
3. In your \Windows directory search for files wga* and delete them.
Labels: XP
posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 2:57 PM,
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Windows 7 Hardware Requirements
- 1Ghz processor
- 1GB RAM (32-bit) or 2GB RAM (64-bit)
- 16GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
- DirectX 9 compatible graphics card with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
Labels: windows 7
posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 2:53 PM,
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Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor
If you'd like to see if your hardware will work with Windows 7 try out the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor.
You can download it here:
http://tinyurl.com/ygckjqq
Labels: windows 7
posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 2:49 PM,
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Windows 7 64bit will NOT work on Core Duo laptops
Laptops owners have been asking us if Windows 7 64bit editions will work on their Core Duo laptops. The answer is no. Core Duo processors are 32bit.
Core 2 Duo CPUs are 64bit.
Labels: windows 7
posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 2:45 PM,
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Windows 7 Install Error 0xC004F061
If you receive error "0xC004F061" during Windows 7 activation, it means you're using a Windows 7 upgrade product key and a previous version of Windows wasn't on your computer when Windows 7 was installed.
So far, we've been pleased with Windows 7, however, this little "feature" will cause a lot of problems. When upgrading an OS like XP to 7, there are a wide variety of drivers, applications and other things on your computer that aren't going to be compatible with 7. Also, many people who are do for a clean OS install don't want to move all of their problems to the new OS.
Until there is a workaround, if you want a clean 7 install, we're recommending you back up your data, do a format, put a clean copy of XP or Vista on, then do the 7 upgrade.
If you had a perfectly working Vista install, the upgrade to 7 may not be so bad. We'll be testing that more tomorrow.
REF: Microsoft Article ID: MSW700057
Labels: windows 7
posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 2:34 PM,
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Windows 7 is officially released today
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Windows 7 has officially been released today.
Labels: windows 7
posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 12:19 PM,
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Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change?
Thursday, October 15, 2009
A couple years ago we decided to start participating in “Blog Action Day”. We like to keep our blog updated and this gives us something to bog about once a year, so why not. This year BlogActionDay.org was taken over by Change.org and this year’s topic is climate change. The topic is a little “too hot” for us. Many people have various opinions on climate change.
Global warming is a theory. In North Carolina, our 2009 summer had the best air quality in over 30 years. Nevertheless, we’re always concerned here about being friendly to our environment and we are adding a page to our website that walks about Absolute Computers’ environmental friendliness. You can visit the page here:
http://absoluteraleigh.com/green.html
Labels: climate change, environmental friendliness, global warming
posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 2:04 PM,
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MSI Laptop MS-16332 Video Problem
Today we had a MSI MS-16332 Laptop come in for video problems. The MS-16332 has an nVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 graphics chip, which has known problems (see: nvidia GPU problems).
Apple, Sony and others are all helping their users with laptops sold with the defective nVIDIA chips.
We just spoke to MSI on the phone and they said they will not be replacing any of their laptops sold with faulty video chips.
Labels: MSI
posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 1:34 PM,
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Dell XPS M1730 Power Jack Problem
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
We have been seeing a few M1730 gaming laptops come in with broken power jacks. As of October 2009, the jacks are not available anywhere. This is one of the very few jacks we can not get our hands on. Of course, we have a repair solution. We’re not extremely happy with it but we can make the machine work again. We use a similar, smaller jack, and convert the PA19 AC adapter to fit the new, smaller jack. We aren’t excited about it as the smaller jack will be easy to break. The adapter is very large and if the weight of the adapter pulls on the jack too many times it will break. Most of our power jack repairs leave the jack better than new. But not this one. The good news is we can rescue the $2,000 machines using our standard jack repair service. To get the correct jack we must buy another motherboard from Dell and they are $700 - $900 depending on which rep answers the phone. At this time our jack repairs are $149.
Labels: Dell, power jack
posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 9:00 AM,
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HP, Compaq Laptop Motheroards No Longer Replaced Here
Effective immediately, we will no longer replace motherboards on the following models. They have defective nVIDIA graphics chips. Even with a replacement board they will fail again. Unfortunately, the manufacturer never released a board without the flawed parts.
HP:
DV2000
DV6000
DV9000
Compaq:
V3000
V6000
F500
F700
Out original link pertaining to the nVIDIA GPU problem is here.
posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 7:35 AM,
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Twitterfeed Test
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
We just used twitterfeed.com to export our blog feed to our twitter page twitter.com/absoluteraleigh.
Labels: twitter
posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 8:52 PM,
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DELL Closes NC plant & Eliminates 905 Jobs
As we mentioned last year on our blog, Dell is closing factories. They do not manufacture most of their own computers so there is no need for factories.
Against many taxpayer's wishes, the North Carolina General Assembly gave Dell over $240,000,000.00 in tax breaks to open up the Winston-Salem plant less than 4yrs ago.
Labels: Dell
posted by AbsoluteRaleigh @ 12:44 PM,
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