Reinstall XP with Old Key

[thesk8man]

Hi. I have HP Pavilion Media Center a1268c Desktop which got shipped with windows XP media centre ... Obviously it had boatload of software and adds and stuff i never needed so 1st things 1st i made recovery disks. ( 1cd and 3 dvds )

Later i decided format it with just a windows xp cd that i had laying around.

I entered the cdkey which was on the sticker that is on my desktop but it says its not valid.

my only option left is to bootup from the backup dvd's that i made which will install all the software again which really slowed it down to begin with.

what can i do? Thanks.

 

[MrLinux]

You can't use an XP Media Center CD key to install XP, you need the XP product code; you also need to read the EULA (End User Lisence Agreement) before accepting it.

 

[aadilugy90]

hya,

i don't know muh about computers but i think my problem is similar to the 1 above.

I start my computer up and a black screen appears saying that 'windows did not start successfully. A recent hardware or software change might have caused this.
Then options are given to start windows normally such as:
safe mode
safe mode with networking and several more.

i've tried all of them none of them seem to get the computer working.

WHAT SHALL I DO?

 

[montyuk]

aad - id suggest putting in the windows cd and selecting repair from the options given.

 

[aadilugy90]

i've tried to do that but woun't either reinstal or install a new version of XP

 

[aadilugy90]

i've tried to do that but woun't either reinstal or install a new version of XP