Paul Caldwell
New member
Those who know me, know I rarely rant, but after yesterday, I felt I need to post this.
I have been working up a new machine to run the 64 bit version of XP. For those not that familar with this code, Microsoft only offers it as a 180 day eval. It's very easy to get the eval, and the actual install of the software went without a hitch.
On this machine I am using a Adatper SCSI card and during the physical install of the card, I somehow got a NVRAM corruption issue. I am using a ASUS board and their soltuion was to clear the CMOS to see if I could get around the corruption error. I cleared the CMOS and sure enough the problem cleared up, but then I went back into XP, I got an error stating that my eval had run out and I had to purchase the code. NOTE, you couldn't even get into the OS to enter a new code, instead the machine just rebooted.
I called Microsoft hoping for a easy fix. Not to be the case, net, after almost 2 hours and I lost count on the number of "tech support specialists", I found out that there is not a way to conver the eval to a full licence. And nowhere on the Microsoft site does it say this! So if you were using this OS for a few months, you can use it up to 6, then decided to buy it, you have to fully reload the OS and start over. I find that totally amazing that Microsoft would have it desinged this way. As it is putting a 64 bit OS on a machine right now is not a text book operation as the support is sketchy at best.
So be warned, if you are looking to load the 64 bit version of XP, Don't start with the eval, thinking you can buy the full license codes at a later date and just add them to your current OS.
Paul Caldwell
I have been working up a new machine to run the 64 bit version of XP. For those not that familar with this code, Microsoft only offers it as a 180 day eval. It's very easy to get the eval, and the actual install of the software went without a hitch.
On this machine I am using a Adatper SCSI card and during the physical install of the card, I somehow got a NVRAM corruption issue. I am using a ASUS board and their soltuion was to clear the CMOS to see if I could get around the corruption error. I cleared the CMOS and sure enough the problem cleared up, but then I went back into XP, I got an error stating that my eval had run out and I had to purchase the code. NOTE, you couldn't even get into the OS to enter a new code, instead the machine just rebooted.
I called Microsoft hoping for a easy fix. Not to be the case, net, after almost 2 hours and I lost count on the number of "tech support specialists", I found out that there is not a way to conver the eval to a full licence. And nowhere on the Microsoft site does it say this! So if you were using this OS for a few months, you can use it up to 6, then decided to buy it, you have to fully reload the OS and start over. I find that totally amazing that Microsoft would have it desinged this way. As it is putting a 64 bit OS on a machine right now is not a text book operation as the support is sketchy at best.
So be warned, if you are looking to load the 64 bit version of XP, Don't start with the eval, thinking you can buy the full license codes at a later date and just add them to your current OS.
Paul Caldwell