Windows 7 no longer genuine??

Hi,

I built my first custom PC about 4 months ago. I bought windows 7 ultimate off Ebay, installed it, entered my product key, installed Microsoft Security Essentials and everything worked fine. At the time it said my copy of windows 7 was genuine.

Now 4 months latter my computer randomly pops up with a message telling me my copy is no longer genuine. Microsoft Security Essentials is no longer running, my desktop background has turned black and in the bottom right hand corner of my screen there is a message saying

"Windows 7
Build 7600
This Copy of Windows is not genuine"

As far as I can tell my copy of Windows 7 is genuine. It came with a sealed COA, a proof of License label and holographic discs.


So does anyone know why this has happened, and what I can do to fix it? If you need more information from just let me know. All help is much appreciated.

Thanks so much

I have seen folks with this problem before and there are probably several threads about this. I do believe this might be related to Windows Update and allowing it to check your system. Active X is required, I believe and on some occasions a special utility will be loaded by Microsoft to do the checking. But I do not know this for sure and I have not seen anyone that has verified such a situation.

You might call Microsoft and explain your status, maybe they can give you more accurate information.

If you have made any changes to your Plug and Play security settings, it might be involved so see this Microsoft site.

If you bought it from Ebay, the percentage chance is it is acopy from a technet or MSDN download. Unfortunately, there are many who do this. They are skilfiul in gift wrapping and writing what are apparently genuine covers and DVD lables. Your purchase has probably already been sold several times over and was probably originally activated by the seller or one of the purchasers.
If you are a victim of this, I am afraid you will not get any help from Microsoft, but it is worth a try.

I have just had something like but it is from a fresh install of my Windows 7 on my laptop, given to me by Microsoft at the Tech day at Wembly. When I try to activate I have to ring in and after inputting all the numbers I am told it is not genuine and hangs me up. Does anyone know the MS UK phone number to ring an sort this out? I have had to put Vista on as a temporary fix :-(

Basher

There could be problem with the original product from ebay but I think it unlikely as it registered ok in the first place. The whole validation business is getting very hairy as software providers tread the fine line between genuine products and the increasingly sophisticated pirating techniques. I quite often have an unusual experience with validation with my laptop which triple boots linux, XP and Win 7. All valid products. I also run Acronis True Image to make regular backup images of all three systems. Quite often when I run Acronis from within Win 7 to restore XP, for instance, after running the restore Windows 7 reports that is not genuine! I then goto control panel, system, change product key, re-enter my key and it runs the validation check ok. Odd - but it works so I've never investigated further.