Windows 8 laptop can't KMS activate with it's new Windows 7 OS (BIOS Windows Marker)

[chazzy2501]

I purchased a Windows 8 laptop (Packard Bell TE11 with Windows 8 Home) I assumed like OS of old that I could blow the old OS away and install Windows 7 Enterprise. KMS refuses to activate windows and it seems that error I'm getting is based on something called the Windows BIOS marker not being present or valid.

 

Is there a new rule I don't know about?

 

I can activate with a MAK but would I be in breach of my volume licence?

 

I also note that this Windows 8 laptop does not have a COA just a Windows 8 Sticker with no key?

Edited December 18, 2012 by chazzy2501

[FN-GM]

I can activate with a MAK but would I be in breach of my volume licence

 

It wouldn't but i would get to the root cause of the issue.

 

What version of Windows 7 have you used?

[Arthur]

I also note that this Windows 8 laptop does not have a COA just a Windows 8 Sticker with no key?

The product key is now embedded into the BIOS. Windows 8 will detect this during installation and activate itself automatically.

Edited December 18, 2012 by Arthur

[chazzy2501]

@FN-GM

 

Windows 7 Enterprise 32bit

Edited December 19, 2012 by chazzy2501

[sted]

is there a bios up/down grade for the pc as iirc the flag (slic2 iirc) that win7 pcs have in their bios (which again iirc was literally a flag that said i came preinstalled with windows) has been replaced in win 8 with an individual product key so laptop one may have a key of 12345-12345-12345-12345 another 54321-54321-54321-54321-54321. I believe the idea is so that you dont need the sticker on the bottom for windows to activate as it can just pull it from the bios but i suspect unless you run kms on 2012/win8 it wont know about the change

[sonofsanta]

Just had the same with a Toshiba laptop. Gave it the MAK key in the end as this is a one off, but it's p155ed me off a bit - and gotten me worried about future bulk purchases.

 

One of my techies here says the only way around it, as far as he can recall reading, is flashing with a modified BIOS. Which is a PITA.

 

Gotta love progress

[Quackers]

I had that issue with an Acer last month that came with Windows 8. I had to contact support and get an older BIOS and flash it. The normal support did not have a clue what SLIC was and i had to get it escalated to real tech support.

[FN-GM]

All the issues with this are with consumer laptops. If you had a business type i should image you wouldn't get this.

[sparkeh]

All the issues with this are with consumer laptops. If you had a business type i should image you wouldn't get this.

Agreed, HP announced that they would no longer support downgrades for consumer grade devices but business grade devices would still be supported.

 

Oh and apparently Windows 8 does not come with downgrade rights, Windows 8 Pro does

https://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9233388/HP_urges_consumer_customers_not_to_downgrade_new_PCs_to_Windows_7

[chazzy2501]

All the issues with this are with consumer laptops. If you had a business type i should image you wouldn't get this.

 

I understand but we're talking £220 vs £400 I just can't afford bussiness class laptops. Does anyone think that this issue will be resolved? I know this only affects academic sector as businesses can't upgrade / dowgrade home versons.

[FN-GM]

I understand but we're talking £220 vs £400 I just can't afford bussiness class laptops. Does anyone think that this issue will be resolved? I know this only affects academic sector as businesses can't upgrade / dowgrade home versons.

 

We dont purchase consumer laptops for various reasons. You can get a good Dell business laptop with 5 year on site warranty for a good price. By the time you have shelled out extra and messed about with consumer devices its not worth it.

 

Generally on consumer laptops the max warranty you can get is 3 years.

[sted]

I understand but we're talking £220 vs £400 I just can't afford bussiness class laptops. Does anyone think that this issue will be resolved? I know this only affects academic sector as businesses can't upgrade / dowgrade home versons.

 

i suspect the answer is use a mak key or i would hope server2012/win8 will b able to recognise a slic 3 bios and allow activation (dont have a way to test this atm)

[sparkeh]

I understand but we're talking £220 vs £400 I just can't afford bussiness class laptops. Does anyone think that this issue will be resolved? I know this only affects academic sector as businesses can't upgrade / dowgrade home versons.

Going forward it might not be viable to choose consumer laptops if you want to downgrade to Win 7, HP aren't supporting any consumer laptops on Win 7 now so drivers could be tricky to come by.

[Quackers]

We dont purchase consumer laptops for various reasons. You can get a good Dell business laptop with 5 year on site warranty for a good price. By the time you have shelled out extra and messed about with consumer devices its not worth it.

 

Generally on consumer laptops the max warranty you can get is 3 years.

 

We go the opposite way, the warrentys are not worth it.

[FN-GM]

We go the opposite way, the warrentys are not worth it.

 

Of course they are. Computer breaks, its fully fixed the next day. Minimum disruption to users.

[chazzy2501]

We go the opposite way, the warrentys are not worth it.

 

This is our consensus, out of 60 laptops only 2 or 3 fail early (usually batterys) I'd rather I took the risk and had the spare funds at hand. If I were running a larger laptop store 200+ I'd go with the warrantys as man power would go up.

 

 

(this isn't how I view my servers of course)

[sted]

Going forward it might not be viable to choose consumer laptops if you want to downgrade to Win 7, HP aren't supporting any consumer laptops on Win 7 now so drivers could be tricky to come by.

 

arnt vista/7/8 the same drivers as they are basically the same kernel

[sparkeh]

arnt vista/7/8 the same drivers as they are basically the same kernel

But the point is (and taking HP as an example but I wouldn't be surprised if others followed suit) that your whizzy new Windows 8 HP consumer laptop might not have any drivers written for Windows 7 whereas my whizzy new Windows 8 HP business laptop will as they have (for the moment) committed to providing Windows 7 drivers.

[sted]

But the point is (and taking HP as an example but I wouldn't be surprised if others followed suit) that your whizzy new Windows 8 HP consumer laptop might not have any drivers written for Windows 7 whereas my whizzy new Windows 8 HP business laptop will as they have (for the moment) committed to providing Windows 7 drivers.

 

possibly but id lay odds the chipset/video drivers etc can all be got from intel/nvidia etc if not from hp direct or even just find a similar business hp and download its drivers

[sonofsanta]

I would say it is not up to the hardware manufacturer what software I run and they should keep their grubby little fingers out of that pie. The whole thing reeks of collusion and kickbacks, personally.

[sparkeh]

possibly but id lay odds the chipset/video drivers etc can all be got from intel/nvidia etc if not from hp direct or even just find a similar business hp and download its drivers

Interestingly I have just setup a new Toshiba laptop which had the option of Win 7 or Win 8, looking through the drivers there were a few Toshiba specific drivers. If they decided not to have given Win 7 drivers for those then there could be problems trying to downgrade?

[sparkeh]

I would say it is not up to the hardware manufacturer what software I run and they should keep their grubby little fingers out of that pie. The whole thing reeks of collusion and kickbacks, personally.

No its not up to them what hardware you run, but it is up to them what drivers they wish to write/provide.

[sonofsanta]

No its not up to them what hardware you run, but it is up to them what drivers they wish to write/provide.

 

Of course, but if I choose to deal with that problem then I should be allowed to; blocking my KMS activation is ridiculous.

 

Plus, as @sted says, they should be pretty much the same anyway, I doubt there would be significant challenges.

 

Windows & Office are just feeling more and more locked down to me these days, like I'm only being allowed to use my machine in the way that MS predicted I might want to use it. Really might have to take the plunge and investigate Linux again one of these days, been a decade since the last time I looked