Pars Technology FM20-HG and Windows 7 activation

[Lardboy]

Hello everyone

We bought 33 PARS FM20-HG machines just before they went bust. XP works fine on them but now we are now moving to Windows 7 across the school.

We are using the KMS way of activating the Windows 7 PC's and it is working well, until we came across the ICT Suite with these PARS computers in it. Our older PARS machines activate fine using KMS (as do all of the other PC's in the school) however these ones will not activate. They say they are genuine in the VAMT 2.0 tool but they stick with the "Out Of Box Grace Period" and will not activate. I have tried different keys (KMS and MAK) but no avail.

I have scoured the net for answers but I am coming up with nothing. The BIOS could be the problem but after ringing NSOptimum (the company that took over PARS), I may aswell have been talking to a chimp (no offence to chimps).

Has anyone had a similar problem or does anyone have these PARS machines and are having the same problems and have a up-to-date BIOS they could send me testing?

Thanks for any help,

Lardboy

[wagnerk]

Pars (when they were around) used standard motherboards (well on their GL series anyway). On some of the older MB's a BIOS update is needed in order for it to be compatible with KMS and MAK keys.

This doesn't only affect machines that pars build but other vendors also. We had this issue with 2 suites of Dell PC's.

Addition: If you don't have any paperwork to state what MB's are in the model of PC's, you'll have to open one up and find out if no-one here can send you the BIOS update..

[Lardboy]

I had a feeling that this was going to be the case. At least reading your reply just about confirms why it's not working.

Many thanks

[wagnerk]

No worries

[bfl]

Hi Lardboy,

By any chance did you manage to get a fix for this problem. I have the exact same PCs in my school and I'm having the same KMS issue. Did you manage to find a BIOS update?

Many Regards

[Lardboy]

Hello

Lets just say that since nsoptimum bought out PARS, they have been VERY less than helpful with their replies. I am still chasing, but if I can't, I am just gonna have to try it and risk killing a machine as I have no choice.

I will let you know if I find any way round this really annoying problem,

Lardboy

[Lardboy]

Hello Bfl

I have just had a HP nx6325 on my desk with the same problem as the PARS machine.

It was an old laptop so I didn't mind updating the BIOS to see. I updated it to the latest one and then ran the VAMT Tool and straight away it said it was genuine

I called the guy I have been speaking to at NS Optimum and one of the tech support is going to ring me tomorrow at which point I am going to get some sort of answer as it involves around £15000 worth of useless kit. Court methinks

I will let you know the outcome of speaking to their tech support,

Lardboy

[Lardboy]

Hello Bfl

I have spoken to NS Optimum and they tell me the company who made the board know about the problem but as the board is old, they aren't going to do anything about it.

Looks like unless I can find an answer, I will have 1 IT suite with 33 PC's that are useless. If I find anything out, I will let you know as this is going to be a huge problem.

Lardboy

[3s-gtech]

Long shot, but have you tried activating them by proxy through VAMT 2.0?

[bfl]

Hi Lardboy,

Thanks for the update. I have been searching for BIOS updates without much luck to be fair either. I have been told that we should be okay using our MAK keys instead of the KMS. Not ideal but I have been told that you can request more MAK keys if needed off the EES license. The other option is that the ours all have a windows key on the back of them which seems to activate fine. Again not ideal as we need to go round them all manually to get a list of all the keys but at least they will work without a license error message until we need to rebuild a PC.

3s-gtech - Thanks for the option but I have already tried that but it doesn't work.

BFL

[bfl]

This is Microsofts fix for the problem but as far as I can see we need a bios update from the board manufacturer which we cannot find. You receive an error message when you try to activate Windows Vista or Windows 7 on a computer that was obtained from an OEM