I don't know what the hell happened. As a PC tech, you'd think I'd have an easier time with this. I was trying to play CS:Source through steam with a friend on my notebook. I haven't played CS in a month or so, and maybe a year before that. For some reason, hl2.exe (Half Life 2 Engine) kept throwing an illegal operation. So I figured OK, I'll reboot, after all I haven't 'shut down' in more than two weeks. I reboot, log on takes longgg time, then I get an error saying that the key I've typed is invalid for activation. I don't know what to do. I can still get on the net by clicking 'Access your computer with reduced functionality'. This is the only window I get when I do that.

I've looked up several solutions on google, and I DID re-type in the activation key, and nothing... says invalid. I also tried the going into command prompt and stopping and starting I think it was slsvc by typing net stop and net start. Anybody had a similar problem they wouldn't mind sharing the solution to? lol. I'm just hoping nobody took the key.

Nvm... I ended up calling it in. The computer on the line didn't do it, but the representative (that I could barely understand) did something to re-activate the key. He started out by saying reinstalling windows will cause this problem, then he added 'or a major laptop fix, or a major software disinstall or reinstall, or a format, or a major change in hardware, or just in general'. So I just kind did a wtf in my head and said ok thanks have a good one and hung up lol.

I don't know what the heck happened. Vista probably downloaded updates and choked on them :P. Only other hardware changes there were were my laser mouse and SD card for pix.

Wow. Vista sure sounds like a winner! I'm happy enough with XP, so I'm going to hold out as long as I possibly can before switching to a different OS.

Good decision. I'm an EasyTech @ Staples, and all I see now is Windows Vista. Typically the problems that I'm seeing from customers are either they can't figure out how to use the OS properly, so they explore and destroy it, or its driver issues on upgraded machines.

In my mind, it'* kind of like the Windows ME OS. It'* a halfway point OS. The goal for ME was to start it'* own file system to operate off of(which became known as NTFS), but it didn't work out, so they released it as FAT32 operating system. It also turned out to be the most horrible operating system released lol.

Now with Vista, it really takes at least 1gb of RAM just to run smoothly with everything that'* pre-loaded on the machines. Most people prefer a minimum of 2gb. I'm sure Windows Updates will come out with fixes for these stupid little bugs, but for now, since I was blessed enough to buy a brand new laptop, I'm going to have to deal with it. A downgrade would not make sense, and I'm sure I'd have driver issues.

strange that you would have issues... i dont think its vista that caused the problems.... i have had CS:* on my vista laptop since the day Vista came out, an di have never run into any issues with it?

I find too many people just want to point the finger at Vista and say it sucks.

Neither do I. I doubt it was a vista problem that was stopping CS:* from running. But after hundreds and hundreds of customers, and probably close to about 75 pcs in the past 4 months having problems because of Vista (compatibility, sucking up resources), I tend to lean towards not liking vista.

I loved Win2k. XP was alright... it was kind of like a skinned 2k minus some stuff as far as stability went, but I think Vista needs broken in a little better until people can really start liking it. When you have somebody you sold a printer to a year ago come up to you and say 'it'* not compatible with my new Vista PC', then there'* a problem there.

Please learn the subject matter before making comments about it. Its better to remain silent than prove you are clueless.

FYI - Fat32 was released during Windows 95 reign. Approximately 1997 iirc. It'* an extension of fat16 so that the OS could begin working with larger harddrives which fat16 could not ever support.

NTFS is the New Technolgy File System dates back to 1993 even before it became popular due to its nearly exclusive use in Windows NT and 2000 and certainly predates Fat32. Yes these are the good old days of DOS. It is not some malformed child of Fat32.
Its hard to beleive NTFS is almost older than Windows itself isn't it? Windows 1.0 debuted in 1985 btw.

Windows ME itself was a stopgap, introducing a few new 'features' , and borrowing many from Windows NT/2000. It real downfall was the lack of real dos mode. Many beleived it to be less stable than Win98/se but that was usually due to old/incorrect drivers. Many of ME'* better features were incorporated into XP.

Have not had any issues with Mac OS X tiger or leopard. My wife bought a compaq laptop with vista on it, and I searched for days for the xp drivers for it and put xp back on it. For it being a compaq laptop it is super fast now that it has xp instead of vista. Vista is just linux and Mac OS X gui features on top of ntfs.

You know it'* funny.

If you read about Vista and it'* wonderful anti-piracy technologies, it has done NOTHING to stop pirating, infact Vista has bigger holes for piracy then XP, literally now ensuring pirates a safe copy of the OS that can never fail or be de-activated. What this has done, although, is cause a ton of people with legit keys and such to have to go through leaps and bounds to keep their computers even running and activated. Want to change hardware in your PC? Have fun calling Microsoft to re-activate. Yet anyone with pirated copies doesn't have to deal with this....Gotta love Microsoft.

Why are you so vulgar?

To correct myself, because apparently I'm an idiot and don't read books and books and books of this because I have better things to do in life, Windows ME installer did not offer NTFS during the installation. There. I corrected myself. And if you don't agree that the way it managed its resources was horrible, then you're from another planet. I don't care that you corrected me, it'* in the manner you did it. Go read a book on etiquette and manners.