Missing CoA/Embedded Windows 8 Product Key

[PhoneSmart]

In short I own a repair shop and a customer recently brought in a laptop that they had factory reset due to problems they had with a virus. However upon the factory reset completing their copy of Windows would not activate.

I've looked up and down over this thing and have not ran into something like this before. It does not have a CoA, it has the sticker that denotes it is Windows 8 Home 64 only. The bottom of the laptop has printed on the casing "Product key and regulatory marks under battery bay". However there is no key only regulatory marks. I've also checked the BIOS there is no MSDM Table and the key is not embedded. On suggestion from a friend I also looked in the Ram/Hard Drive bay but there was no CoA information there either.

I called HP support, explained the issue in detail the support operator did not seem to understand english. He then decided it was easiest to tell me that the computer was not under warranty he could not help me and I had to be transfered to "out of warranty support". Of course he did this before I could object and was passed off to the dreaded "You will be charged 59 dollars minimum for help with 1 issue" message before being disconnected. I've tried the Microsoft phone activation, but because system restore is putting in the generic key it won't even offer to let me speak to a representative (nor is this really Microsoft's fault/problem).

Obviously I don't know the entire history of the computer but I do know it's a one owner machine. It was purchased from Staples and that it was activated prior to them doing a factory reset. The original drive is in tact with both partitions for system and recovery. I've tried a few system restores but every time it ends up with only the generic system key from HP that won't activate.

Any suggestions or other thoughts on where to look before I let this customer down and tell them they need to purchase a new key?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

if the PC came with W8 from the factory, the product key is in the BIOS.

This pertains to all PC's from any manufacturer starting with W8 or newer.  No more product key stickers.

The key should work automatically with the HP recovery media or a W8 OEM installation disk.

You can find the W8 product key by running this utility I zipped up and attached below.

If that utility does not show the product key then something happened to the BIOS and they would have to purchase a new OS with a key.

[PhoneSmart]

Hi thank you for your quick response. As said I did check for the BIOS key both with the tool you had suggested already and others. All resulted in not finding it as the MSDM table seems to not even be present.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

That is odd.

I see that OEM key is not in the firmware, so the customer will need to purchase a new key,

I can't imagine what happened to the key in the BIOS.

I wonder how the installed key even got there.

[PhoneSmart]

I had found this thread while researching. Another user who ran into the same problem and they were able to get in contact with HP Support members via the forum and get a key. Obviously that new key can't be stored in the BIOS but it is better than not having a key at all. I'm wondering if it's just bad QA and some laptops made it out with out it. Also it wasn't a requested downgrade to Win 7 version either.

Here's the thread I had found:

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Operating-Systems-and-Recovery/Unable-to-activate-Windows-8-1-...

Crossing fingers I can find someone who can correct the issue seeing as it seemed to ship from HP with the problem.

Edit: The installed key is the one the system recovery partition puts in. From my understanding it's a generic key that all the system recovery partitions use to install and then is replaced by the embedded later. Maybe someone can correct me if that is wrong or there is another issue going on here.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

OK, so basically that key works the same as a W7 OEM VLK which can't be used to activate windows either.

I read the link you posted and as you know, this is a peer to peer forum, so there isn't much we can do directly to resolve matters that HP would have to deal with.

But I will ask a forum moderator to escalate this thread, which means that they will ask a representative from HP to contact you via the forum private message system.

You will receive a reply to this thread from a forum moderator, once they have acknowledged my escalation request.

You will then be notified by an e-mail when someone from HP sends you a private message.

I wouldn't expect to see any private messages until Monday at the earliest.

And hopefully whatever they did for that other person, they can do for you too.

[PhoneSmart]

Thank you again, exactly what I'm looking for out of this. Maybe they can't do anything, but at least I can go to my customer knowing I did everything I could for them without just giving them the hard answer. I'm sure they can wait a bit longer. I appreciate your assistance in the matter I'll PM you either way to let you know how it turns out since this is a pretty interesting scenario imo.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Glad to have been of assistance.

I have my PM app turned off, so you can reply to this thread with any updates you want to share.

[PhoneSmart]

It's been a couple days, I haven't heard anything back other than a forum mod who deleted the image I posted because it included a generic key. I guess he didn't take the time to read the thread only check the image.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

I have asked for your request to be escalated at least 3 times...the most recent being this morning.

Not sure why you have not been contacted, or didn't receive any private messages by now, and unfortunately, there isn't anything else I can do to help.

The moderators escalate posts at their discretion, and I do not know what the internal HP guidelines are for escalating posts.

I suggest you contact the HP executive team at the link below, and explain the problem to them.

You may want to reference this discussion, and the one you posted where a similar request for a PC out of warranty was acted upon by HP.

https://ssl.www8.hp.com/us/en/contact-hp/connect-with-hp.html

The only way I can see the product key to have gone missing is if they installed the wrong motherboard at the factory, or if there is some way a virus could have attacked the BIOS, and deleted the product key, which I would find very hard to believe.

Some motherboards come with W8 product keys, and some don't.  

Some 15t models come with Linux or FreeDOS, which is why there wouldn't have been a W8 product key in the BIOS.

Since the one you are working on came with W8 from the factory, that should not have been the case.