Windows 8.1 activation key invalid after enabling Windows 8 features in UEFI? or was it a bad update?

[regularguy290]

so here's the story.
i had a liquid cooler i wanted to install last night, so i shut down my computer and installed updates. i installed the cooler. turned it on and went into the UEFI to check the temps. while i was perusing i noticed the windows 8 features were not turned on, so i set it to "Windows 8 WHQL" and also set the PCIe to gen 3 from auto because why not. when i went back into windows it now has the Windows 8.1 build 9600 watermark and is deactivated. the activation app says this key is being used by another computer. i enter my key and get the message "this key is invalid.

i set the UEFI back to the original settings and uninstalled the updates but they key is still invalid. i can't believe that a simple UEFI change would do this, i mean it's all the same hardware with the same serial numbers, i didn't even yank out my CPU.

i searched online and found some command prompt fixes which didn't work. the "sfc /snannow" command brings back a message about corruption that could not be fixed. the other steps are to refresh windows, which i don't have time for because i need to rip the .iso onto a thumb drive using a different computer (i got an H440 case and no DVD drive) because of some missing files and i'm heading to work very shortly.

Has anyone had this problem? i don't see any results on google about a correlation between UEFI settings and deactivating windows, just wondering if anyone else has had this experience.

 

[johnbl]

Pirate versions of windows block access to the real activation servers and use a local seflf activation tool. When you update, access to the real activation servers is restored and your key is checked against the real activation database and fails. If you don't think you have a pirate key then just call Microsoft support. You give them your key, they look it up. If there is a minor problem they just give you a new key. If threre are lots of activations on the key (thousands) they will tell you to buy a new copy.

 

[regularguy290]

Pirate versions of windows block access to the real activation servers and use a local seflf activation tool. When you update, access to the real activation servers is restored and your key is checked against the real activation database and fails. If you don't think you have a pirate key then just call Microsoft support. You give them your key, they look it up. If there is a minor problem they just give you a new key. If threre are lots of activations on the key (thousands) they will tell you to buy a new copy.

i am very confident it is not a pirate key. i bought the OEM disk and license new from newegg in january and was successfully activated until last night.

 

[johnbl]

if the system file checker can not do a repair you would then try
start cmd.exe as an admin and run
dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth

then try to reactivate.
if it fails, look at the error code and look here:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/activation-errors

windows will not activate if certain binary files have been modified. The dism.exe command will get clean copies for you. The system file checker will just try to restore a hidden backup copy of the files. (malware tends to modify the primary and secondary copy so sfc.exe does not work)