You receive an error message when you try to activate Windows Vista on a computer that was obtained from an OEM

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SYMPTOMS

When you try to activate Windows Vista on a computer that was obtained from an OEM, you experience one of the following symptoms.

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Symptom 1

You receive one of the following error messages:

Error message 1

Error Code: Invalid Volume License Key
In order to activate, you need to change your product key to a valid Multiple Activation Key (MAK) or Retail key.
You must have a qualifying operating system license AND a Volume license Windows Vista upgrade license, or a full license for Windows Vista through an OEM or from a retail source .
ANY OTHER INSTALLATION OF THIS SOFTWARE IS IN VIOLATION OF YOUR AGREEMENT AND APPLICABLE COPYRIGHT LAW.

Error message 2

Error Code: 0xC004F059
Description: The Software Licensing Service reported that a license in the computer BIOS is invalid.

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Symptom 2

You receive the following error message:

Error Code: 0xc004f035
The Software Licensing Service reported that the computer could not be activated with a Volume license product key. Volume licensed systems require upgrading from a qualified operating system. Please contact your system administrator or use a different type of key.

This behavior occurs when the following conditions are true:

You are using the Key Management Service (KMS) to perform activation.
The computer uses an ACPI_SLIC table in the computer BIOS program.

Note An ACPI_SLIC table is used by an Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI)-compliant BIOS program to store Software Licensing description information.

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CAUSE

This problem occurs if the KMS server does not find a valid Windows marker in the ACPI_SLIC table in the computer's BIOS program. This problem occurs for one of the following reasons.

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Cause 1

You purchased a computer that has a qualifying Windows operating system installed. However, the Windows marker in the ACPI_SLIC table is corrupted. To resolve this problem, see Resolution 1 or Resolution 2.

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Cause 2

You purchased a computer that does not have a qualifying Windows operating system installed. In this case, the Windows marker is not present in the ACPI_SLIC table. To resolve this problem, see Resolution 2.

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RESOLUTION

Resolution 1

Update or replace the BIOS program by using a BIOS program that contains a valid Windows marker. To do this, you must contact the OEM who supplied the computer.

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Resolution 2

Change the product key by using the user interface in Windows Vista, and then use a Microsoft server on the Internet to activate Windows Vista. To do this, you must change the product key to a Multiple Activation Key (MAK).

For more information about Volume Activation for Windows Vista, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

929712 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929712/ ) Volume Activation information for Windows Vista

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MORE INFORMATION

The behavior that is mentioned in the "Symptoms" section may occur when the Windows marker is missing from the Software Licensing table or when the Windows marker information is present but corrupted. This behavior has been observed for the following BIOS versions of Lenovo portable computers:

Lenovo X60 - BIOS : 2.00 (7BETB3BL) 2006-08-07
Lenovo T60 - BIOS : 2.00 (79ETB3BL)

For more information about Volume Activation 2.0, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc303695.aspx (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc303695.aspx)

A computer that was obtained from an OEM and that has an ACPI_SLIC table in the system BIOS must have a valid Windows marker in that ACPI_SLIC table. This Windows marker is important for volume license customers who plan to use Windows Vista volume license media to re-image or upgrade an OEM system according to the re-imaging rights in the volume license agreement. A computer whose ACPI_SLIC table lacks a valid Windows marker generates an error when you install a volume edition of Windows Vista. You cannot activate such a system by using KMS. However, you can activate the system by using a multiple activation key (MAK) or a retail key. Alternatively, you can contact the OEM for a replacement motherboard that contains a valid Windows marker in the ACPI_SLIC table. Or, you can purchase a new computer that has an operating system and a valid BIOS installed.

The MGADiag tool

The MGADiag tool detects and reports BIOS information. However, the BIOS information for the ACPI_SLIC table does not appear in the GUI output. To see the BIOS information, click the Windows tab, click Copy, and then paste the output into Notepad or another text editor. The output will resemble the following example:

OEM Activation 1.0 Data-->
N/A
OEM Activation 2.0 Data-->
BIOS valid for OA 2.0: yes, but no SLIC table
Windows marker version: N/A
OEMID and OEMTableID Consistent: N/A
BIOS Information: 
ACPI Table Name OEMID Value OEMTableID Value
APIC DELL WS 380 
FACP DELL WS 380 
HPET DELL WS 380 
BOOT DELL WS 380 
MCFG DELL WS 380 
SSDT DELL st_ex
ASF! DELL WS 380

To obtain the MGADiag tool, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=52012 (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=52012)

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