Suggestion computer problem

Yeah, I suppose you hit the nail on the head Steve. I bought this "prebuild " cpu by Octagon. In a short time it busted but since it was under "guaranty" they send it to Manila but refused to give me a substitute. After a over 3 month's hassle and with the help of the DTI they gave me an other "new" comp without COA sticker. I tried to upload my "genuine " starter from the disk but it will not work. I downloaded Linux but get stuck in installing it mainly bcs I do not understand the "computer speak" so I will go on living with my pirated version. Thanks for all the info you all. And btw : the DTI helped me out with success on two more occasions and last week solved a small back pay problem by only mentioning that I may seek their assistance.

 

I believe you are talking about the difference between a single use builders disc and the full licensed copy which I could install on a certain number of computers at any given time, basically an unlimited amount of computers, just not more than a few at one time.

With builders model single use, generally a power supply or peripherals like video or sound cards, usually even processors can be changed and it makes no difference. Change the motherboard and it will likely, almost certainly, show up as a new computer because as I understand it, that is how Microsoft identifies computers by the "white noise" like static they receive from the motherboard. My stepfather even replaced his motherboard with the same series and model motherboard and had to call Microsoft who were willing to authenticate his builders copy for the new motherboard after explaining that he screwed up the old motherboard while taking classes in repair. Nothing he replaced except the motherboard made any difference.

 

Pretty much but in some Windows versions its been tied to the CPU, Motherboard, or even both. Nowadays they more likely tie it to the motherboard. OEM starter editions come in bother single use disk which only allows restores or the kind that you can reinstall multiple times but is tied to a specific motherboard or cpu. With either though if you replace that key component your screwed if a restore won't work and rarely it would until Windows 7 and even then caused issues w/o a professional license or better.

The catch between if its tied to the motherboard or CPU depends on who they get the OEM from as many of these OEM use computers get licenses not from Microsoft but through the motherboard or CPU manufacturer which plays middle man in a way. Dell would tie it to the motherboard as would pretty much any major system builder like Dell, the smaller guys it would be tied to whatever manufacturers board/cpu they got the deal from. AMD, Intel, Gigabyte, MSI, and all the others all offer these builder deals for OEM Windows.

On a note on Octagon though.... worst place to ever get a computer here in the Philippines. Massively overpriced for subpar very old spec components and absolutely horrible customer service.

 

"On a note on Octagon though.... worst place to ever get a computer here in the Philippines. Massively overpriced for subpar very old spec components and absolutely horrible customer service". I hundred percent agree on this