Compaq Gave Me Pirated Vista

[Maverick340]

I bought a compaq F733AU for a friend of my father's a while ago. The laptop comes clean without any OS. Thinking it would be a saner choice to use XP we took a clean laptop. The dealer however mentioned no incompatibility of the laptop hardware with windows XP (he probably thought we would load Vista)
We bough a genuine copy of Microsoft Windows XP and decided to install it. I installed it and activated the same. However the laptop started giving lot of problems (BSODs and sound problems ). After losing patience(and clumps of hair) we decided to take it to compaq service center. The guys out there told us how the hardware was incompatible with Linux/Windows XP (such a piece of sh1t) and that this mdel has been discontinued and the same has been launched with Vista Home Basic preloaded under a different model name. We told them how unhappy we were and that we shall never recommend compaq again. Also since we had a legit copy of XP they better give us some support. They took the laptop with them and told us that they would compensate us by installing Genuine Vista HomeBasic. We were impressed and thanked them. The next day they gave him the laptop with Vista pre installed. My father's friend then got the laptop to my place to install a few softwares. When i booted Vista , an activate Windows popped up claiming that the copy was not genuine and that I would need to activate it. I asked him if compaq had given any serisl key. He said no and compaq guys claimed it needed no activation. I told him that the copy was a pirated copy that had expired the trial period and thats why the message.

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Great going Compaq, Bill Gates hunts for thee ..

 

[rohan]

this is the kind of thing people do everyday.. a compaq reseller is still your local 'computerwalla'.

 

[hullap]

did this happen to u?

 

[Maverick340]

^^ as in ? It happened to a friend of my father. we went to buy the laptop together and he was relying on me for software support

 

[talkingcomet]

well..
something like this is happening to me right now!!
while trying to install linux, i lost my vista which came pre-installed on my notebook. and i lost the rescue disks created.. when i contacted hp for a replacement copy of my os, they asked me to travel 300kms to their service center in my state. thanks to them, am using a pirated copy of xp after payin for a genuine copy of vista home!!

hope bill gates will forgive me!

 

[chesss]

The guys out there told us how the hardware was incompatible with Linux/Windows XP (such a piece of sh1t)

btw I wouldn't blame compaq here.
My toshiba showed the same crappiness, designed (crippled?) to work with vista. and there are many acers with the same problem.
My laptop sets a random bios password if xp is used.. I have lost all faith in laptops,

My guess is that the bios is what makes the laptop vista specific. U probably have a phoenix bios.
some 'incentives' from M$ are to blame for this perhaps?

 

[Maverick340]

Thats not true man. Simple ,compaq should release a notice saying its incompatible with XP. And like 1dio+s they should not making hardware thats incompatible with different OSes. I think thats what sets companies like Dell apart..

If i wanted to i could sue compaq for distributing illegitimate software under pretext of original. But its too much of a headache ,dont even know if suing works in Indian judicial system. Will definitely write to consumer forum though

 

[chicha]

yes the same sh1t with HP too, they all come with that vista.
really bad OS, i really hope the SP1 makes it usuable.
XP does not work on my HP 6602Au.Last time i saw there were NO laptops without any OS's on them.

this is really really bad.

 

[chesss]

^see, practically all vista laptops seem to be made incompatible with everything except vista.

 

[Maverick340]

I hate MS for this. This is so clear monopoly ..

 

[praka123]

you have not posted what happened next.does the compaq guys gave the serial no (genuine)?

 

[Maverick340]

No, matter ends here. They gave no serial number or anything. Its pretty mush sure that they loaded a pirated copy. I am not bothering to take it back again..

 

[narangz]

^^ Send an email to customer care & a copy of that to some senior person in Compaq/HP India.

 

[aditya.shevade]

HP/Compaq sucks..... Enough has been already said about the 2.