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Tom's Hardware > Forum > Windows XP > General Discussion > [Solved] Refurbished PCs Bought On eBay

[Solved] Refurbished PCs Bought On eBay

Forum Windows XP : General Discussion [Solved] Refurbished PCs Bought On eBay

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mgjr1973   08-05-2010 at 03:04:54 PM

Hello, I just bought a refurbished Dell OptiPlex GX520 on ebay. It came pre-installed with XP home and the COA sticker is for XP Home. The seller included a Win 7 Pro and XP Pro reinstallation discs but no XP Home reinstallation disc. I'm sending this PC to my kids in the Philippines but I'm worried that in the event the PC crashes and they need to reinstall the OS, will they be able to install the XP Pro... even Win 7 without any activation problems? Thanks in advance!

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hang-the-9   08-05-2010 at 04:38:51 PM

This all depends on whoever you bought the PC from. If they keys for Win 7 and XP Pro are not pirated or used already, you will have no issues, but it's impossible to say without knowing how those other 2 disks came to be with the system.

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mgjr1973   08-05-2010 at 04:55:12 PM

hang-the-9 wrote :

This all depends on whoever you bought the PC from. If they keys for Win 7 and XP Pro are not pirated or used already, you will have no issues, but it's impossible to say without knowing how those other 2 disks came to be with the system.



They are both DELL OEM Reinstallation discs and are still sealed in their paper sleeves. The XP Pro disc is blue and the Win 7 is brown.

The eBay seller is a refurbisher, probably of off-leased computers. They wipe the drives clean and do fresh re-installs of OS. This is my second off-lease Dell PC.

From what I've read on other threads, as long as you use these reinstallation discs on a DELL pc you won't have a problem but the question is, it's a different version from what is currently installed. Isn't it correct that with these OEM manufacturers, the license is registered with the hardware, hence the COA stickers on the case, so it doesn't matter where it goes?


Message edited by mgjr1973 on 08-05-2010 at 04:58:10 PM
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hang-the-9   08-05-2010 at 05:05:52 PM
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The issue here is that the PC should not have come with 3 different OS disks to begin with. Where did they get the other 2? There are OEM disks that are tied to the code, usually within a range. So if you buy a Dell with an OEM disk, you can use the key with that disk. If you try to use that disk and use a key from Sony, you would probably get an "invalid serial number" error. But if you use that same OEM disk with another Dell, that code would probably work.

Unless you check with the seller or maybe with Dell, or actually try to install the OS, there is no way to tell if it will work for sure, since that sytem would not have come with 3 OS vertions from Dell.

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mgjr1973   08-05-2010 at 10:04:08 PM

hang-the-9 wrote :

The issue here is that the PC should not have come with 3 different OS disks to begin with. Where did they get the other 2? There are OEM disks that are tied to the code, usually within a range. So if you buy a Dell with an OEM disk, you can use the key with that disk. If you try to use that disk and use a key from Sony, you would probably get an "invalid serial number" error. But if you use that same OEM disk with another Dell, that code would probably work.

Unless you check with the seller or maybe with Dell, or actually try to install the OS, there is no way to tell if it will work for sure, since that sytem would not have come with 3 OS vertions from Dell.



Thanks! That makes sense. I think the refurbisher just packed it without looking. He was selling a lot of refurbished Dell PCs. In fact I even got new mouse and keyboard in sealed plastic. The box that it came in with are all Dell marked boxes. I did try to contact the seller but I haven't gotten a response yet. I'll try Dell even though they probably won't cover off-leased products. Thanks again.

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lazyperson17   08-06-2010 at 12:09:06 AM

hang-the-9 wrote :

The issue here is that the PC should not have come with 3 different OS disks to begin with. Where did they get the other 2? There are OEM disks that are tied to the code, usually within a range. So if you buy a Dell with an OEM disk, you can use the key with that disk. If you try to use that disk and use a key from Sony, you would probably get an "invalid serial number" error. But if you use that same OEM disk with another Dell, that code would probably work.

Unless you check with the seller or maybe with Dell, or actually try to install the OS, there is no way to tell if it will work for sure, since that sytem would not have come with 3 OS vertions from Dell.




If the Dell computer came out when Vista was just sprouting, the computer (from original lease) might have come with an upgrade disc if the user decided they wanted XP at the time of order. Additionally, to help the reseller, Dell might have handed them an OEM copy of Win 7 in bulk for cheap if computers were registered with the Dell corp. It also helps the reseller to sell them for a small bit more saying "we have an upgrade".

I dont know if thats the case here... but i just went through all that BS with my office so i do know that thats possible :)

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