Windows 7 not genuine. Then suddenly is. Thoughts?

MGCJerry

MGCJerry

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 18, 2005
Messages
144
I've just installed a new copy of Windows 7 OEM onto my rebuild. Bought from Amazon. Sold and shipped from Amazon, paid a little more for what I thought would help eliminate getting crap. Arrived in sealed envelope, and sticker and all. I broke the seal and installed about the beginning of the month.

Everything appeared to be fine until today. I went outside to mow the lawn, and when I came back in, I moved the mouse to "wake up" the computer (computer is set to stay on 24x7, only to use the 'blank' screensaver. All other power save crap is off). I then notice on the bottom right of my screen that my copy is "not genuine" (WTF?). I check my system properties scroll to the bottom and there's no genuine logo. After about 3 seconds or so, the logo pops up and the desktop message goes away.

Googled the problem and didn't find much except what could be errant updates. Now I remember why I carefully select updates back in the Win2k, & XP days. MS hasn't gotten better with system breaking updates. I did see a "Windows Genuine Advantage Diagnostic Tool", ran it and says I'm fine. I then Run "slui.exe", and it says I'm activated. No problem...

Except it *is* a problem, because of it appearing out of nowhere then suddenly saying "fabulous! You're genuine!" after checking system properties. Has anyone else encountered this issue? I did recently install 2 updates since I check for them and install manually. Automatic updates anywhere is playing Russian Roulette.

* Virus, malware, sfc, etc Scans come up clean.
* No "loader" or other dodgy kind of crap. This is a production machine.
* Locked down browser (no script, adblock, greasemonkey, & RIP to remove a major avenue where an "oops" could arrive) and I don't go visiting dodgy sites either (even scripts here are turned off, sorry [H]).
* Downloaded stuff is done through VM and scanned with tools before even being let loose to see the network, and only later to even end up in my filesystem.

Instead of troubleshooting any further, should I go yell at Amazon?
 
just goes to show what a lot of people already know...there's no difference between genuine and non genuine:D
 
I thought that too primetime. One of the reasons piracy is so rampant. Luckily I care enough, and I know how it feels to be pirated even if it was only lowly PHP code.

Ah, the dreaded '1033. And yup, that bastard installed on April 29, 2015. Why didn't I think about checking that? I have had many a mess to clean up after it on other people's machines (Acer, Gatewaty, Dell, Toshina, etc). I have automatic updates off. I can assure you that (unless if there's another background process not tied to windows update, and automatic update being "off" in control panel.). Uninstalling now... Lets see how it holds. Thanks for the reminder master shake.

Edit
I think we can mark this as resolved for now. Lets give it 45 days...

Guess I'll look into the traffic. I have a spare server doing nothing right now besides BOINC as a loading test, and I'll setup wireshark on it, and enable the port monitor on the switch (Procurve 2810-24G) and let wireshark have its fun with my LAN traffic. Its also been awhile since I traffic sniffed on my LAN.
 
Its activated now. It shown up as activated after a few seconds when I checked the system properties.
 
Any chance this has to do with corporate license activation server (aka KVS or maybe KMS?)? I know its activated now but I have seen this in a corp environment when a computer doesn't conect to the network right away.
 
It just did it again to me. Ran the "slui.exe" command, then it told me it activated successfully. I'm going to yell at Amazon. This is unacceptable.

JSClark. No, this is a home environment.

Update:
Amazon is going to replace it. That's why I like dealing with Amazon.
 
Last edited:
MGCJerry said:
It just did it again to me. Ran the "slui.exe" command, then it told me it activated successfully. I'm going to yell at Amazon. This is unacceptable.

JSClark. No, this is a home environment.

Update:
Amazon is going to replace it. That's why I like dealing with Amazon.
Click to expand...

Why would you yell at amazon? It's not their fault that there is some kind of problem with windows. This is a douche move, you could politely ask them to replace it...
 
^ uh because he does not know any better?

clearly a ms issue, not an amazon one.
 
No, I didn't yell at Amazon, that wouldn't help my case. I've worked phones, I've worked support, I've worked customer service. This is exactly the reason I think EVERYONE should work in customer support at one point in their life. ;) In reality, I only yell at people on the phone who deserve it. 10PM telemarketers, scammers and people who insist on being a douche. Bonus points if they hang up first.

I did talk to Amazon politely and I did get to talk to a few people who were helpful. They gave me a replacement (on its way) and a return shipping label. Told me if I have anymore problems to let them know and they'll help me out until my problem is resolved. Amazon knows how to treat customers.

If the next one does the same thing, I'm going to have to deal with Microsoft instead of dragging Amazon through it. I've had good experiences and bad experiences with MS while troubleshooting similar issues on other people's machines. This is why I went to Amazon first, and they are the supplier. Being my copy is OEM, its the system builder's responsibility to provide OS support (its in the license agreement. Yes I read those). However because I'm the builder I see this as my software supplier having some keys that may have gotten tagged due to pirates and crackers. Amazon needs to know this so this COA doesn't get re-sold.

Failing all this. I'll roll back to my copy of XP, Win98, DOS, and just stick with dialing into a BBS & newsgroups.
 
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