Windows XP on multiple computers?

[Doppleganger]

I have Windows XP on my laptop, but my Dad says we can't port it onto my desk top computer for some reason and have to buy another copy.

Excuse me? Why the fudge won't XP configure on multiple computers? Is there a way for me to get it to work on my desk-top?

[PiccoloNamek]

If you have Windows XP professional, you can install it on multiple computers without having to activate.

[Talon87]

If you have Windows XP professional, you can install it on multiple computers without having to activate.
Having just done this installation of Windows XP Pro with the computer my friends just helped me put together, I am going to have to disagree, apprehensively. The disk doesn't know that it has (or has not) been used before, so it still prompts you for activation. And while I have not yet been able to connect to the Internet to authenticate my copy on this new machine, I am told (by everybody) that you can't have two machines with the same instance of XP Pro on the Internet at the same time or else Microsoft will freak.

Obviously, businesses do what Doppel is asking for all the time, but businesses have a different OEM afaik.

[PiccoloNamek]

Having just done two separate (fresh, as in I formatted the HD beforehand) installs of Windows XP Professional, I can assure you it does NOT require activation. I have never been prompted for activation installing copies of WinXP Professional.

Also, both computers are using the same copy, and both are currently on the internet.

[Doppleganger]

So normal consumers get screwed by having to purchase multiple licenses per computer, but corporations can purchase a license that goes over many machines? :|

Defeats the purpose of buying "Microsoft XP Professional" if it's no different from a home version of XP, right?

[Talon87]

I just installed the drivers that came with my new computer and am typing to you from it as we speak. (So now you recognize your ethernet hardware! xp) I'm experiencing a few problems typical of a fresh install, but nothing too grievous?

1. My tower's power supply and/or power switch is ass. :| I have to hit it from one to six times to get the computer to turn on and stay on. (Failure to "stay on" equates to running out of juice as the BIOS stuff is saying hello to you.) I have even had to cut the power on occasion to get the tower to work, because sometimes, you just don't feel like hitting the Power Button 20-odd times.

2. For some reason, when I drag windows around, they jump like a Parkinson's patient's hands. No fluidity at all. Very jumpy. I have an AMD 64 X2 (4200+), whatever that means, and I also have two dimms of 1GB Kingston memory (so, totalling 2 GB). I really don't think it's an issue with those. Might have to do with the fact that I am running off of the embedded nVidea graphics card and not the GPU I purchased at the store, but we'll see.

3. Speaking of. When I put the GPU in, the computer tried to output visual data through the GPU's monitor port without even asking if that's what I wanted to do. Since I don't own a DVI-VGA adaptor yet, and since my monitor's VGA while my GPU supports only DVI, I have to use the onboard video (which supports both) until I can go to the store and get the necessary adaptor. At that point, I'll re-install the GPU, install the drivers, etc., and see if Problem #2 gets fixed.

==============================

Anyway, posting here to say not only my own schpiel, but to add on this ...
1. I had to verify I had Windows, Namek, or else I could not get the Windows Security Updates I needed.
2. So I did verify.
3. And it didn't give me any hassle.

I don't know why yours is doing what it's doing, but I have two guesses ...
1 - you have that corporate version of XP Dami was talking about (family friend, maybe?)
2 - you have that "it really is authenticating it but it's doing it all behind the scenes" situation

If they're both wrong, all I can add on is, I believe you, man 8) but I am confused given my own (immediate; THIS MORNING) personal experience. ^_^;

[Talon87]

It had to do with the lack of driver installation, dami, so problems 1 and 2 have been fixed. However, I've encountered a new serious problem ...

I mentioned before that when the video card was installed, the graphics would not show up. Well, now they do show up -- with the monitor in the onboard VGA port and using onboard nVidia. Not in the DVI ports of the gpu, and with Windows not even acknowledging the GPU exists. In other words, video is no longer being re-routed to the GPU despite the GPU being physically inside the machine. Unlike last night. Does this ...

a) indicate that installing the drivers for nVidia this morning gave their onboard chipset "the leg up" somehow?
b) indicate that I damaged the GPU?
c) indicate anything else?

There is also a minor grievance. I cannot get the DVI of the onboard nVidia chipset to work, only its VGA. The graphics card (ATI) only has DVI, so I have no way of telling if it would work given VGA or not.

[Talon87]

I have checked (and re-checked) the GPU earlier today, but I promise that I will try to do it once more. Do you have any tips for telling that the GPU is "in all the way?" Let me describe what I did with both words and imagery ...

I believe that I have inserted the GPU as fully as is shown with the checkmark in my image below. I do not believe that it is stuck halfway as shown in the image above demonstrating the incorrect place to stop.

I further believe I have done it correctly because the screwhole on the card lines up perfectly with the screwhole on the computer case and I am able to screw them together very easily. The ports on the exterior line up perfectly as you would imagine them to, which I take as further proof that the card cannot be out "too high." If the card were still too high and not fully lodged, then the ports on the exterior would be bumping into the casing and would not be fully sticking out of the back as they are. Also, the screw is only 4mm long; it would not be able to reach its target if the card were not as deeply in as it needs to be.

This stated, there are no lights flashing on the GPU even when I return power to the unit without closing the case up; I don't remember for certain if there were lights last night or not, but I could have sworn there was an orange light involved. Also, the fan on the GPU does not appear to spin when the power is on, further suggesting that it is not operational.

Finally, the GPU does not appear to have any 4-pin or 6-pin power connectors, but I will look again, not discriminating in terms of size or color. No cables were included with the GPU's package -- only the card, drivers on a CD, and a tiny pamphlet.

[Talon87]

Also wondering ... my FAQ for my video card (ATI Radeon VisionTek® X1550) says that I may need to disable the onboard video and that one way to do it if the BIOS fails (which it has) is to try to disable it from within Windows. My question for dami (or anybody who knows) is this: if I disable the onboard video through Windows and it doesn't fix the problem, will I be able to see Windows in order to change things back? Or will I be visually blind and totally unable to switch it back on? :?

[Kasumi Violet]

If you disable the only video card in your computer it won't boot...
Your BIOS only lets you edit it from windows? Weird.

[Talon87]

My bios doesn't seem to show any option for disabling graphics. Here is what it does say ...
PRIMARY DISPLAY ADAPTER [PCI-E]
Where the PCI-E bit in the square brackets is what you can change in the BIOS to either PCI, PCI-E, or Onboard.

My BIOS also has the word "nVidia" here or there, but never about graphics. Example:
nVidia LAN [enabled] (my ethernet is embedded)

[Talon87]

Fixed the video card problem. Along with it, I was able to confirm that my DVI port #2 on the video card does work while my DVI port #1 does not appear to work. Frankly, I wasn't planning on running the dual monitor feature anyway, so I'll take a break for today and consider this "a success." Maybe I will decide to return the gpu and get a refund/replacement, and maybe I won't. Or maybe I'm still the one who is fucking up the matter and it works after all. We'll see.

My newest problem is this: Windows XP keeps telling me to "Safely Remove Hardware" when said hardware is my two SATA drives. I've looked online and found that quite a few people seem to have this problem, and I'm wondering if there is a quick fix which does not involve wiping the machine or rolling back drivers. Frankly, I would love for somebody to suggest (and explain how) to disable the Safely Remove Hardware message altogether since I rarely use it and often right-click on flash drives and tell them to "Eject" that way (after months of experience of dragging flash drives to the trash bin in MacOSX) rather than thinking to go to the taskbar anyway. :|

[Talon87]

1.Are you sure the first DVI port is really DVI-Port Number 1? By default, the second DVI or graphics output port on a monitor will not output the primary display (it's used for the secondary display in the event you have multiple monitors). The order of the DVI ports should be listed on the back of the card (they should be numbered).

2.What kind of safely remove hardware message? Are you talking about the little icon in the system tray (where the clock is)? Or a message box?

1. See the attached image. The one with the number "2" beneath it is the one I am currently plugged in to.
2. The system tray one, bingo. (The green arrow above a gray keyboard or something.) Again, see image.

[Talon87]

1.Try disabling the onboard video card in your BIOS setup. To enter it, depending on your BIOS, you'll have to push the DEL key, F2 key or F12 key when the computer first boots.

2.SATA hard-drives are designed to be hot-swappable; that is they are designed so that you can add and remove SATA hard-drives while the computer is running. As such, the safely remove hardware icon appears to provide a mechanism for removing a currently installed SATA hard-drive with a minimal of dataloss.

To my knowledge, there is no way to disable this feature but I'll look around on my SATA systems and see if I can't find an option somewhere.


I have been in the BIOS numerous times, and no fewer than three PC competent friends have been over and seen (with their own two eyes) that my BIOS does not appear to offer an option for disabling onboard video. It only seems to offer the option to disable onboard LAN, onboard IEEE, and other stuff. "Primary Initial Display" is set to PCI-E, and nowhere (in my entire bios) are the letters "VGA" to be seen in that order. :| I may be PC incompetent, but I'm not illiterate. I have (with the help of Friend #3 who visited today) upgraded my BIOS to the newest version Asus has put out for my model, but there did not appear to be any significant differences. (One difference we did notice is that the startup screen now tells you, "You may hit DEL to enter BIOS Setup." You had to guess before! :lol: )

As for Problem #2, cool, I guess. I can live with it, but you see my complaint, right? As a Windows user, I am trained (with years of XP use and months of Vista use) to associate that image with flash drives and USB sticks. So it really bugs the hell out of me (now) to see it down there. But I can learn to just think of it as "my cute wittle SATA icon" if I have to. Whatever. :| If you can find a solution, though, and it doesn't break your back, that would of course kick massive ass.

By the by, dami ... suggestions for my 60 GB Linux partition? (Given how incompetent I am with PCs?)