No key not booting right?

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cujoman22

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Feb 25, 2014
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I bought windows 8.1 for my first build and built my second build while bringing over my hard drive that had the windows on it and cleaned it up. I bought a ssd for windows to be put on and the hard drive for storage. I installed windows and don't have the key cause I used it for my other build so I still have to buy one but can that cause it to not boot right? Like me having to restart my computer three times before I can even get into the bios and sometimes my hard drives art totally there and the next reboot they are? I'm stuck on what to think

All advice is greatly appreciated!
 
Solution
dodger46

Agreed you probably have hardware issues causing the boot problems, but as long as you only use your Product Key on one PC at a time you should be able to activate Windows without buying another key. But that can wait till after the boot problem is sorted.

Meanwhile make sure your RAM is compatible with your Motherboard, (Assuming you have a new one) Check the QVL.
Also you can create a disk to check your RAM without running Windows
http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

It's not impossible that your SSD has problems. Check it out.
http://download.cnet.com/SSDLife-Free/3000-2086_4-75323637.html


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dodger46

dodger46

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Nov 19, 2011
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Bit confused. By 2nd build do you mean you're trying to run 2 machines with one product key, or transferring all to one new machine? How did you install without a key?

 
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cujoman22

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Feb 25, 2014
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No my first build I bought windows 8.1 and installed it on my 2 tb hard drive. I decided to make another build because I was trying to build my setup I wanted so i7 4770k bigger power supply cause I planned going sli in the future but getting ahead of myself. I bought an ssd and reformatted my 2 tb harddrive for storage so I could get windows off it. When installing windows on my ssd yes it asked for the product key so I put the one that came in the box in and it installed windows it didn't day wrong key or key in use or anything so I assumed it worked cause it installed but when I actually boot into windows when computer let's me sometimes it takes me to window's registery and it asks me to purchase a product key so I think I have windows 8 but not toatlly? Like I said my computer restarts or hangs on booting up so I wonder if that's the cause or what cause idk what the issue is I checked my power supply my first one the fan wasn't spinning so I changed it and I did a diagnosis on the entire board and comments I heard no post error beeps. I cleaned my cpu and put new thermal past on it thinking it was being over heated and now I can only think of motherboard or the software.
 
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dodger46

dodger46

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Nov 19, 2011
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Well, you have installed Windows but probably not activated it.
At your Start Screen type 'Activation' an choose See if Windows is activated.
If not, try to activate via telephone if it won't do so automatically.
Meanwhile you don't need another key as long as you only install on one PC at a time.

As for your booting issues, try re-setting your BIOS to default values.
Other things to try...
Re-seat all boards, RAM, GPU, etcetera
Try booting with just the SSD connected. Ensure the HDD is totally clean by connecting it after you boot into Windows and format it.

Check out your Installation once you've activated Windows.
System File Checker
Winkey plus 'X'
Choose Command Prompt (Admin)
Type sfc /scannow then Enter

 
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dodger46

dodger46

Splendid
Nov 19, 2011
4,837
1
24,960

Agreed you probably have hardware issues causing the boot problems, but as long as you only use your Product Key on one PC at a time you should be able to activate Windows without buying another key. But that can wait till after the boot problem is sorted.

Meanwhile make sure your RAM is compatible with your Motherboard, (Assuming you have a new one) Check the QVL.
Also you can create a disk to check your RAM without running Windows
http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

It's not impossible that your SSD has problems. Check it out.
http://download.cnet.com/SSDLife-Free/3000-2086_4-75323637.html


 
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Solution
dodger46

dodger46

Splendid
Nov 19, 2011
4,837
1
24,960

Sure. Make certain to do a good job with the Thermal Paste, one blob about the size of a large pea in the centre of the CPU is plenty...and don't spread it, just allow the heatsink to spread it for you...

 
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