Acer XC-1660G-UW93 - Issues replacing/upgrading NVME w/clean Win11 install

Recently received an XC-1660G-UW93 about 10 days from a deal on Acer's refurb Ebay store at the beginning of the month. I played around with it on day 1, picked up another 8GB DD4-3200 from Microcenter to take it to 16GB. I wanted to try 10 first, and then upgrade to 11 for a bit to decide what I was going to keep. Originally, I was going to build a whole new PC so I actually had parts, which I recently brought back except for the NVME 1TB WD SN750SE.

The original NVME on this machine is a Kingston OM8PCP3512-AA 500GB. After seeing the performance on both drives on the discussion forums, I used the Windows Recovery Creation Tool to create a recovery on a usb. The older version of Acer Care created a recovery through the app, but apparently the new version redirects you to the Windows recovery. I got the new drive installed and did the recovery. Everything went well.

This was the odd part. Bios identifies the SN750, certain settings in Windows recognized the SN750. Device Manager and Acer Care identifies it as the Kingston. Looked at the event viewer and it logs it recognizing the SN750 and then applies the restore attributes to change the identification name. Everything was working - no big deal. Because of the larger capacity and better performance, I do want to do a clean install of Windows 11 on the SN750.

My first issue encountered during the clean install with the downloaded USB windows 11 was windows not seeing the new drive, but after a bit of research, I finally got it done. Turns out I needed a separate set of drivers to load during the installation to recognize the drive. I deleted all the partitions that were created from the initial recovery and proceeded to install. Everything went well, except for now, it won't activate. It gave me an error of a major hardware change. My understanding, since I'm new to the whole digital licensing is that, you can do minor hardware changes/upgrades, with no issues and that it's primarily a motherboard change that causes that activation error. Can someone please help with the assist? The original Kingston/partitions haven't been modified so it is currently back in the machine and restored to its original Windows 10, upgraded to 11 and is associated/tied to my microsoft account.

Sorry - it's alot of info but I figure I provide as much info since sometimes minor details can end up with different results.

Accepted answers

StevenGen

lsvtec4dr in Win-11 type in Actvation > System > Activation then go down the bottom "get help" and go throug the steps and guides like the one below, as it goes through every activation scenario.

Activating after reinstalling Windows

If you activated a free upgrade to Windows or bought and activated Windows from the Microsoft Store, you'll have a digital license for your device instead of a product key. This means you can reinstall the same edition of Windows that your device has a digital license for without entering a product key.

During reinstallation, if you’re asked to enter a product key, select Skip. In most cases, if Windows 10 was activated on your device before you reinstall, it will automatically activate after you go online.

All comments

ttttt

@lsvtec4dr

It is good that you provided enough info when asking a question. I hate those just provide a couple of simple sentences without giving the full model number and just want people to sort out the issue with that.

If your PC came with Win 10/Win 11 pre-installed, the digital license should be embedded in the motherboard. Just changing for a higher capacity SSD should not be a major hardware change.

When you activate the Win10/Win11, I'll suggest you to answer "I do not have a product key". The product key will be read automatically by Windows.
If it won't work, we can try something else.

lsvtec4dr

ttttt said:

@lsvtec4dr

It is good that you provided enough info when asking a question. I hate those just provide a couple of simple sentences without giving the full model number and just want people to sort out the issue with that.

If your PC came with Win 10/Win 11 pre-installed, the digital license should be embedded in the motherboard. Just changing for a higher capacity SSD should not be a major hardware change.

When you activate the Win10/Win11, I'll suggest you to answer "I do not have a product key". The product key will be read automatically by Windows.
If it won't work, we can try something else.

Thanks. I used to do a lot cell phone repair and support for years, so I figure it’s best to be detail oriented.

So to update, I had researched before I did the NVME upgrade and I’m not sure why it threw that activation issue. I was activated on 10 and 11 multiples times trying out different configurations of how I wanted my setup. Usually, I do that to see which setup/configurations/apps used first- and once I once I figure out that “smooth” configuration, I’ll wipe it and set it the way I liked best. Can’t explain. I guess it’s an OCD thing. Anyways, today I doubled checked my settings on the original hardware, it was activated on windows 11 and linked to my Microsoft account. Installed the SN750, did the clean install using the intel drivers, went through setup, like I’ve been doing and when it came up, I checked the activation status. It was activated and linked to my ms account. I’m wondering if it’s because my last configuration before doing the ssd upgrade and clean install of windows 11 was on Win 10, and that’s what threw the activation error. I did so much to figure out the original nvme detection that all my previous steps are a blur. But thanks for the response, everything is up and running good. Maybe later, I may consider upgrading the GPU. Been hearing some decent things about the Low profile rx6400 with this machine. I know it’s an entry level card but it’s not like this machine was intended to be a “gaming” machine, so I have no high expectations for that matter. But that’ll be later.

ttttt

@lsvtec4dr

Glad that everything is up and running good for you. Thanks for reporting back.

In the future, if you want to upgrade the GPU, keep in mind that your PC uses a 12 volt only PSU, which is not easy to find in the open market other than Acer.

StevenGen

lsvtec4dr in Win-11 type in Actvation > System > Activation then go down the bottom "get help" and go throug the steps and guides like the one below, as it goes through every activation scenario.

Activating after reinstalling Windows

If you activated a free upgrade to Windows or bought and activated Windows from the Microsoft Store, you'll have a digital license for your device instead of a product key. This means you can reinstall the same edition of Windows that your device has a digital license for without entering a product key.

During reinstallation, if you’re asked to enter a product key, select Skip. In most cases, if Windows 10 was activated on your device before you reinstall, it will automatically activate after you go online.