Iconia W510 - no OEM Key In UEFI, no SLIP nor MSDM tables present

Hyram_H

For the past two years I've enjoyed my little W510, and I never missed not having the docking keyboard. Last week, though, Windows suddenly reported that it was Not Genuine.

 

The past few days I've tried all manner of tools, all the updates, I've done a deep-restore several times and even a complete wipe and restore with eRecovery media. ShowKey Plus, NeoSmart OemKey, Belarc Advisor, they all reported that there was no product key in the firmware. NeoSmart OemKey complained it could not open the MSDM table, and Nirsoft FirmwareTablesView confirmed it.

 

I checked with the latest version of RWEverything and not only is there no MSDM table, there's no SLIP or anything related in the firmware either.

 

I even had Microsoft Support remote into it, and they couldn't find any thing about the product key in the firmware either. He even put me on hold for forty minutes so he could dig up confirmation (yes, all the W10's have an embedded PID) and a different utility to check which also showed no PID or SLP or OA key anywhere in the firmware.

 

It's as if this was a generic PC motherboard with an oldschool BIOS in it.

 

It's a shame, because I have to throw this tablet into the e-waste, unless someone here has a clue or two they can shed on what might be wrong.

billsey

The W510 was released during the Windows 7 years and it's pretty likely it uses the registry for the key storage. I know my W700 was setup that way, and it's of comparable age. The BIOS could have been developed pre-UEFI or done during the transition between BIOS and UEFI, leading to the older key storage instead of the newer flash storage methods.

Hyram_H

Depite having the 'Windows 8' sticker glued to the back? That's rather disappointing.

 

It would also explain why I I get a "this product key is blocked" error whenever I tried to activate after doing an eRecovery full-restore. It means whatever "legitimate" key that was added to the Registry via eRecovery is now dead in the eyes of Microsoft.

 

A pity, the W510 was the perfect e-reader with a standard browser built into it. Guess I'll have to get an iPad now, my faith in Acer just evaporated.

billsey

Normally when I get a message like that all I need to do is contact Microsoft and have them unblock it for me. Sometimes when someone gets ahold of your device, either before you buy it or afterwards, they copy the key out using any of the many utilities for that. If they use it on several machines MS will block it as a pirated key. As long as you can convince them yours is genuine there's no problem. If someone has wiped your machine and reinstalled using a pirated key you're probably out of luck though.

Hyram_H

Thanks, I'll call Microsoft back again and see what they can do. The number I've managed to extract comes from the registry after doing a full eRecovery install from Acer media, so they can't really fault that! Which makes me feel I'm also not the only one affected by this sudden authorised-one-day-ungenuine-the-next problem.

 

I'l report back with progress.

billsey

Yes, do let us know what you find, and perhaps what level of support you have to claw your way up through to get it.