Unable to activate Windows 10 on 14-cf0098ca notebook...

[JayBCTech]

Hello, HP community! First time topic writer here.

We have a notebook currently in our shop here, model 14-cf0098ca, product ID 5MT17UA#UBL that was in because it wasn't booting into Windows, was in an automatic repair loop and our attempts to fix were fruitless. I did do a backup of the drive and proceeded to reload Windows 10 Home on it, it reinstalled fine, but when trying to reactivate Windows, I got this error:

"Windows reported that no product key was found on your device. Error code: 0xC004F213"

So then I determined it was actually Windows 10 Home S Mode. So I tried downloading and creating HP recovery media from the cloud, it created fine but when I went to use it, I got the following error code: 0xFFEE016 and got no further.

So then I created Windows 10 media with S mode enabled, wiped and reloaded and got the same activation error.

I have even tried activating using their Microsoft account and still unable to activate.

I have used the CMD code and the tool that allows you to see the Product Key in the BIOS and both come out blank.

So I am stumped. I know there's an option to purchase recovery media for this laptop but what needs to be done to get Windows 10 reinstalled and activated on this particular laptop?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Jay

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, Jay:

From what you posted, it sounds to me that HP installed the wrong motherboard in that PC. 

One that would have gone into a notebook that came with FreeDOS.

I have seen a few posts like yours on this forum.

Windows works fine because the image HP used to install W10 was a pre-activated volume license.

When you install a new hard drive or reinstall the OS, there is no product key present to activate the installation.

Ordering recovery media would be fruitless too.  It would also look for the product key.

The only suggestion I can offer would be to contact HP and see if they will send you a W10 Home product key you can use to activate W10.

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