Windows 10: Wrong Product Key Installed on refurbished Laptop

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.

:)

 

Windows 8 sticker but no product key in UEFI on refurbished laptop

I'm posting this on TenForums so others will learn from my experience upgrading to Windows 10. But I would really like to know if anyone else has seen a computer with the square Windows 8 sticker, but no product key either on a label or in firmware/bios? <- that's just bolded because that is the main question I have *Smile

I purchased a manufacturer refurbished ASUS X750JA laptop on ebay. It has the official Windows 8 little square sticker on the back, which to me indicates it should have a Windows 8 product key stored in UEFI firmware. It came with 2x 1TB hard drives. I didn't want to mess with Windows 8 or 8.1 at all, so I booted the laptop and it came up with the OOBE Windows 8.1 screen as expected. I entered audit mode and exported the drivers to a USB flash drive, then shut it down.

I pulled out the primary HDD and installed a completely blank SSD and clean installed Windows 10 Home. Created a local user account, and Windows 10 was not activated! *raise one eyebrow here* Ran showkey plus and no product key in UEFI/bios. So I connected the HDD to a USB adapter (which is why I did not bother making a back up image first - because I have lots of other means of making a backup image from the removed HDD). Looked at the software registry hive with showkey plus and it showed an OEM Windows 8 Home product key. Changed the Windows 10 product key and entered the Windows 8 product key and it activated just like it should.

If something had happened to that Windows 8 installation on that hard drive, though, without retrieving the product key, I would have been up the creek. I thought that if the Windows 8 was installed by the manufacturer that the product key either had to be stored in UEFI/bios or printed on a COA sticker?

 

I have purchased a refurbished laptop that has Windows 10. The Product Key had a sticker obliterating 4 characters of the Product Key. Is there a way to get the Product key by other means?

I purchased a refurbished laptop that has Windows 10 installed. When I went to activate Windows, the Product Key had 4 characters of the Product Key obliterated with a sticker. Is there a way to recover the entire Product Key in a different way than
the sticker on the laptop itself?

 

Product key on refurbished computer

Hello, I recently purchased a refurbished computer that has Windows 10 Pro on it; my old computer the mother board is going on it and has Windows 10 Home. I tried activating Windows on my refurbished computer using my old Windows Home product key, but to
no avail. When I try to change the product key, the response I get is: "The product key you entered didn't work. Check the product key and try again, or enter a different one. (0xc004f050)" Is there a way to do this? I have a perfectly good product key
on via my old computer, that I should be able to use and not have to purchase a whole new one. Thanks in advance!