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Well nothing like a blown power supply to slow all my plans down…. Took some time to put everything back together and up grade the storage space etc etc…. now onward and …. well… 👿

I have yet to tell you the whole horrid story behind the issues with my CherryPal, I promise it’s coming… the biggest problem, and the one that  I am now trying to fix is a licensing issue…. It would seem that a batch of computers, of which mine was one, had invalid/improper/fake license codes installed. Which, after “Windows Genuine Verification/Advantage” gets installed, flags the whole operating system as being invalid and possibly counterfeit….. Great…..

After Windows Genuine Verification checks the system and finds an issue ( like my unauthorized codes ) it goes along it’s merry way putting banners and messages all over your desktop ( many unmovable or removable ) screaming at you ( and anyone else who may pass by ) that you have been a victim of a fraud. They even go so far as to block the view of windows you may have open… Wonderful….

I have been told that this was a problem caused at the Chinese plant and that I would be sent a replacement – more on THAT in a later posting…. but after becoming extremely frustrated with waiting for the promised solution ( a new Bing ) I decided to tackle the problems myself… which is what this article is sort of about…. but not really because….

I’ve already run into a major roadblock with my own plans to fix the beast!

It would seem Microsoft in it’s “wisdom”, when the publish an Operating System  release actually publish several releases within one. What I mean to say is that each release is tagged as to the “source” or purpose of the OS. Whether it be bought off the shelf ( retail- you buy it and install it yourself ), sold as an OEM ( a computer store buys it and installs it for you ), or acquired by a third party ( usually installed under a bulk licence deal with Microsoft.)  Further inside each of these releases are yet other, smaller codes, that can go so far as to identify exactly where the software originated from, or was sold to.

With all the above it would appear that none ( or at least most ) of these licences play very well with each other, if at all… What this means is that one cannot just acquire a new license key/code and enter it into the computer and expect the OS ( operating system ) that is already installed, to accept it as a valid key. For example, I can’t take a valid Windows Dell XP Professional key and use it to make my CherryPal XP Professional valid – it will accept the key, but still tag it as “fraudulent” because there are other codes hidden in the originally installed OS that are also invalid.

From what I have read ( and I’ve done a lot of that already on this ) the only way to “fix” the problem is to:

1. Reinstall everything all over again with a valid OS and Key ( and lose the drivers that have already been installed ) as well as all the data and other programs currently installed
2. Buy the appropriate key from Microsoft for a “paltry” $200 ( over half the price of the CherryPal where I supposedly already bought a license )
3. Turn the Windows Genuine Advantage flags off ( and lose access to all future upgrades from Microsoft and who knows what else )
4. Get a replacement Bing and just transfer my data over to it ( still waiting on that one )

None of those leave me very happy, number 4 is my preference, but that is a story in and of itself right now. So I’m going to keep looking, if I find something you’ll be the first to know, but I have to tell you I’m at my wits end at this point and not very happy at all…. to the point that I have decided to remove CherryPal from my list of favourite recommendations from my blog.

Oh and if anyone has any brilliant ideas on how to “fix” this let me know!

Stay tuned…