Hi,
I'm working a laptop that have a bad key installed. (I'm assuming it was a flagged corporate key.) The owner of the laptop bought a legit key from a local retailer. I did a factory restore to reset everything on the system. Every time I try to activate windows I get error 0xc004009 (grace time expired). Fine, I try to enter the new key, I get an error that I can't change the key until windows is activated. (the new key is an upgrade key for 8.1 pro). I've tried the activation procedures with secure boot both on and off. I've called the activation number for offline activation and that didn't work. I've tried the different suggestions on this site and they didn't work. I don't want to go back the owner of the laptop and tell him that he has to spend another $100 to get a 8.1 premium key just to upgrade to 8.1 pro. Is there anything I can do to force windows to take the new key without activating the OEM key? Any help will be appreciated as I've have already spent several days on this.
Thanks