Aspire E15—Can't activate Windows after reinstall

SpiffyMcBang

I've had my Acer for about four years, and never had to reinstall Windows until now. It didn't occur to me to pull the product key while it was still installed, and now I'm being told Windows can't be activated. I know the product key is supposed to be installed in the firmware; I've tried going to the admin command prompt and using wmic path SoftwareLicensingService get OA3xOriginalProductKey to get it (my understanding is this gets the key straight from the firmware), but it gives me an error:

Node - LAPTOP-N6VVDE3RERROR:Description =

(No, there's nothing after the equals sign.)

I also used a program called ShowKeyPlus to get the key out of Windows, and it does find one, but even if I put that key in manually, Windows says it's an invalid key. I'm rather at a loss for what to do now. Any ideas?

ttttt

@SpiffyMcBang

Just how did you activate Windows after reinstall?

When activating, just answer "I do not have a product key" will do it. Windows will read from the motherboard for the digital license automatically.

SpiffyMcBang

ttttt said:

@SpiffyMcBang

Just how did you activate Windows after reinstall?

When activating, just answer "I do not have a product key" will do it. Windows will read from the motherboard for the digital license automatically.

The exact order of operations was this:

1. Reset Windows via pre-Windows/safe mode menu (full wipe, including personal data; tried to keep personal data first but that reinstall started failing on the second restart).
2. Let the process run.
3. Set up system after install (keyboard, time zone, all that).
4. Get into Windows and find out via system settings after running first set of Windows updates that "Something interrupted our troubleshooting. Make sure you're connected to the Internet" (I am), "wait a few minutes, and try again. Error code: 0x80004005"
5. Run Troubleshoot. "We can't activate Windows on this device right now. You can try activating again later or go to the Store to buy genuine Windows. (0xc0000022)"
6. Freak out and take a deep dive to figure out what was going on, which is where I verified that the product key should be in the firmware and also found the software I used to pull the non-functioning key that's apparently installed.
7. Click "Change product key" and try using the product key I got from ShowKeyPlus, even though it's apparently not working already. Unsurprisingly, the key is said to be invalid.

I do recall installing Windows on other systems and seeing the "I do not have a product key" option, but I didn't get one here. As I recall, the other option is to input a product key, and clearly I don't have one, so I would have had to say I don't have a product key if I had seen it.

ttttt

@SpiffyMcBang

From what you have presented, I just cannot figure out what is wrong that caused the issue. 

I'll suggest doing a clean install agaain by downloading the latest Win 10 from the Microsoft website.

1) Have a 8-32GB flash drive ready ( with MBR partition table and FAT32 format), new flash drive preferred.

2) Visit the Microsoft site:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

3) Download and run the 

Create Windows 10 installation media

of that site to get the latest Win 10.

4) With the Win 10 on the flash drive, bootup your PC ( tapping the F12 or Fn+F12 key) to the boot menu, select to boot from the flash drive

5) Do a clean installation of Win 10

6) After reboot, when activating with product key, select "I don't have a product key". This time I hope the option is available.

SpiffyMcBang

I appreciate your response, both because it makes me realize I'm not crazy and it gives me something real to try. It'll be a couple of days before I can do it (this all happened while I was out of town, which makes it even better), but I'll definitely give that a shot.