OEM Windows 10 Reinstall

[Katagiri]

Phuturist wrote:

Where did you buy yours? Did you also get it from Banggood?

No, it’s from AliExpress. They had a nice deal of a complete bundle with keyboard and pen. It sure says Windows 10 Pro 64 bits.

[Phuturist]

Phuturist wrote:

John Macie wrote:

You can contact MSFT through the win10 “Settings” section either by direct chat OR a Call back. They will guide you to get to an activation page with slui.exe 4

That is awesome John, thank you for your effort. I will try this and report back here.

Unfortunately Microsoft is unable to help me. Slui.exe 4 is not working and “wmic path softwarelicensingservice get oa3xoriginalproductkey” is not giving any product key. It seems Cube or the seller has fucked up my tablet and there is no product key anywhere to be found. Not in the BIOS and not as a sticker on my tablet or packaging. So I’m now stuck with a nice paper weight. I will contact Banggood but I dont have much faith in a proper solution (replacement or a new product key).

Can someone else at least confirm that their Cube i7 Book did came with a UEFI-embedded key (meaning that you never have to enter a product key manually and Windows activates itself when reinstalled).

[John Macie]

I checked mine and there is no embedded key in uefi. Mine came from Banggood.

I sure they do OEM keys differently now on Win10. The OEM activates the os and uses a master key. This puts a unique hardware activation in asure. On subsequent installs you are supposed to choose ” I don’t have a key” on key install page, the os installs and when it goes online it re-activates. Are you sure you have the right os version? I stated to you already that I tried to put pro on mine and it wouldn’t activate,, mine uses home. When I re-installed home it activated Did you actually call Microsoft? What did Microsoft say? I know it’s possible to call them, because I did that recently. I had a windows 10 install that I changed the motherboard, and it required me to manually enter a new activation scheme by calling Microsoft.

[Wylver]

I just did a clean reinstall on monday and mine activated imidiately after the install finished and I conected to the Internet.

Also no problems whatsoever with any drivers (especially not camera), using the supplied drivers from this site’s download page from Chris.

[Phuturist]

John Macie wrote:

I checked mine and there is no embedded key in uefi. Mine came from Banggood. I sure they do OEM keys differently now on Win10. The OEM activates the os and uses a master key. This puts a unique hardware activation in asure. On subsequent installs you are supposed to choose ” I don’t have a key” on key install page, the os installs and when it goes online it re-activates. Are you sure you have the right os version? I stated to you already that I tried to put pro on mine and it wouldn’t activate,, mine uses home. When I re-installed home it activated Did you actually call Microsoft? What did Microsoft say? I know it’s possible to call them, because I did that recently. I had a windows 10 install that I changed the motherboard, and it required me to manually enter a new activation scheme by calling Microsoft.

I tried Windows Home, Windows Pro and I actually restored the Windows 10 image for the Cube i7 Book supplied by Cube (which is Windows 10 Home and took me 14 hours to download).

I have chatted with Microsoft Support about this issue and after trying out some stuff I was advised to contact the seller. They could not activate it without any sort of key present.

There just should be a UEFI embedded key in the BIOS as described by Wylver above. This is the way Windows digital licenses are handled even or specifically for OEM licenses. When it’s not present it won’t be able to reactivate after installation. Did you execute the command “wmic path softwarelicensingservice get oa3xoriginalproductkey” from an elevated prompt and did it not show any sort of license key? If it does you do have a UEFI embedded key. If not then I would be very careful with reinstalling Windows. If you also have no UEFI key it is the last time i buy from Banggood. Never had this issue from Aliexpress resellers.

[Katagiri]

Mine shows nothing. XD

EDIT: Download Show Key Plus, it’ll show the installed key. https://www.tenforums.com/software-apps/2577-showkeyplus.html

[John Macie]

Exactly where above did Wylver say there SHOULD be an embedded product key in the uefi/bios? There is none. I used aida64 engineer and rw-everything to pull up the tables and it is NOT there. After the initial Cube factory activation, the unique hardware key activation goes to the asure/cloud. You don’t need a key to install or activate if you have an internet connection. I won’t attempt to further complicate your endeavor, write to Banggood. that’s your recourse. You can always get a key on ebay

 

[Phuturist]

OK, I could be wrong about the UEFI key. Still, it does not activate even with the factory image of Cube installed. Another wild guess would be that my key never went to the cloud because I installed a fresh copy of windows straight away.

Anyway, I have already contacted Banggood but don’t have much faith. I don’t plan to buy another licence so I’ll probably end up sending it back

Thanks for thinking along.

[Katagiri]

It also doesn’t go to the cloud if you use a local account, I don’t know if it’s your case.

[Papa Yoyo]

Phuturist wrote:

I don’t plan to buy another licence so I’ll probably end up sending it back.

It’ll be a lot cheaper to buy a license on ebay (a few $s) than post back to China. I’d speak to Banggood first.

[JDP]

Phuturist,

So I checked out my Cube I7.  I has no OEM license key stored in BIOS.  In fact it has been activated by an Retail license Key.  That is strange, because Retail keys are more expensive than OEM keys.  (Cube may not be able to be recognized by Microsoft as an OEM).  So it would seem they are typing in individual Retail keys during each OS install.  Now the first time the computer connects online it will register with Microsoft and then the Key and Hardware hash will be tied together, and stored with Microsoft.  After that first registration no key is needed to do OS reinstall, it will then be able to be activated by its Hardware Hash alone.  Since you did a clean install before that first registration, that retail key has been lost.  You would think that Cube or the re-seller (who ever is doing the OS installs) would keep track of retail keys tied to Serial Numbers, but just as good of a chance they are not.  Maybe they can just send you a new Key.

For everyone else, the Retail Key is a bit better than an OEM key, in that it can be transferred to another computer.  It might be worth downloading showkey and saving the retail key, for future use if needed.

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[Katagiri]

Good to know, I’ll save mine for further reference.

[mrobi]

I don’t think these Chinese vendors are even paying for Microsoft (and definitely not buying retail licenses), that’s why there is no license in BIOS. Windows that ships with the devices is most likely just some kind of “hack” which manages to pass activation.

[Phuturist]

JDP wrote:

Phuturist, So I checked out my Cube I7. I has no OEM license key stored in BIOS. In fact it has been activated by an Retail license Key. That is strange, because Retail keys are more expensive than OEM keys. (Cube may not be able to be recognized by Microsoft as an OEM). So it would seem they are typing in individual Retail keys during each OS install. Now the first time the computer connects online it will register with Microsoft and then the Key and Hardware hash will be tied together, and stored with Microsoft. After that first registration no key is needed to do OS reinstall, it will then be able to be activated by its Hardware Hash alone. Since you did a clean install before that first registration, that retail key has been lost. You would think that Cube or the re-seller (who ever is doing the OS installs) would keep track of retail keys tied to Serial Numbers, but just as good of a chance they are not. Maybe they can just send you a new Key. For everyone else, the Retail Key is a bit better than an OEM key, in that it can be transferred to another computer. It might be worth downloading showkey and saving the retail key, for future use if needed.

Thank you for your explanation. Now I at least know what is going on. Guess i was a bit to eager to start clean. Never had this issue with Chuwi and Onda tablets though which always had UEFI embedded keys.

Banggood is still trying to reach out to the reseller for a solution. They seem willing to solve the problem.

[fewt]

Our Cube keys are digital entitlements.  Look in the Windows store at your account and see if your device shows up.  If it does you should be able to just reinstall Windows using Microsoft’s media creation tool and it should automatically activate.  During the installation tell it you don’t have a product key and it will continue.

Just to be safe though, use Clonezilla to take a backup of the previous install so you can restore if it doesn’t activate properly.

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