T
TaydraCole-Williamson
Guest
Around 2 years ago I bought a laptop from a reputable online retailer that sells refurbished electronics for a discounted price that is a Thinkpad with windows 10 installed, and the key/licence was already pre-input when I received it, like most windows items bought online. I have bought refurbished items from them twice before this and I have never had an issue. But a few months after getting a laptop I started getting blue error popups claiming that there was an issue with my windows account when nothing seemed wrong. Apparently several people have had issues with this error. My laptop became unusable and I could not return the laptop at that time because I was in the middle of exams and needed a laptop. By the time I had the opportunity to return it, the 1 year warranty had expired. I deactivated windows, and after I did that I used powershell admin to retrieve my product code and tried to reinput it to see if that would fix it. But it would not accept the code, saying it was incorrect despite me literally copy and pasting the key from powershell. I have now had "activate windows" in the corner of my screen for a year, and the system is getting worse and worse, allowing me to do less and less. Recently it finally allowed me to troubleshoot scan my activation system and it says that my original key is windows 10 home, while the system is windows 10 pro. I was given the wrong key or wrong system, either by an error in it's initial production, by the company that refurbished it, or by the previous owners.
Obviously, I cannot return the product, it has been too long (and I don't know if the New Zealand Consumer's Guarantee Act would cover something like this), so what can I do? Since I did not return it in time (despite the issue only showing up shortly before the warranty expiration), is my only option to buy a windows pro key/licence or a windows home system, both of which are expensive and may even be a waste of money if I do it but continue to get the error messages once reactivated? I have evidence that it's the wrong key via powershell and troubleshoot, showing that it's the original key that's the issue. I don't think going to a store for advice would be good, I'd just be paying a bunch of money for them to most likely tell me to just buy a new key. Would you recommend finding someone trustworthy to trade keys/licenses with? Or is the risk of getting scammed of my key too high? Not that it would matter since I literally can't use the key anyway, so it's likely worth the risk.
I just thought I should finally try to ask professionals since my pc is really struggling with windows deactivated and I think the lifespan of usability is going to be highly reduced if I don't try to get it sorted. Buying a new key is my last option because of the unfortunately high cost (for me).
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Obviously, I cannot return the product, it has been too long (and I don't know if the New Zealand Consumer's Guarantee Act would cover something like this), so what can I do? Since I did not return it in time (despite the issue only showing up shortly before the warranty expiration), is my only option to buy a windows pro key/licence or a windows home system, both of which are expensive and may even be a waste of money if I do it but continue to get the error messages once reactivated? I have evidence that it's the wrong key via powershell and troubleshoot, showing that it's the original key that's the issue. I don't think going to a store for advice would be good, I'd just be paying a bunch of money for them to most likely tell me to just buy a new key. Would you recommend finding someone trustworthy to trade keys/licenses with? Or is the risk of getting scammed of my key too high? Not that it would matter since I literally can't use the key anyway, so it's likely worth the risk.
I just thought I should finally try to ask professionals since my pc is really struggling with windows deactivated and I think the lifespan of usability is going to be highly reduced if I don't try to get it sorted. Buying a new key is my last option because of the unfortunately high cost (for me).
Continue reading...