That error code means that the activation server is reporting that the product key is already in use.

Try this, I found this on the Microsoft answers support forum.

It would sure be nice if Microsoft would provide a deactivation procedure for those inevitable times when a clean install is needed, but we all know that they are not that smart or forward thinking. If brains were dynamite, Microsoft wouldn't have enough to blow their nose!

hth

hello criss plese cee your inbox

I don't know, unless phone activation isn't available for OEM editions of Windows because Microsoft always refers support requests for OEM editions to the OEM. Which means they expect you to call Dell, not them.

Where do I get key plus? The only thing I find is a sideloaded app for Windows 10 which isn't going to help me in this situation. I haven't made any hardware changes to the laptop, so I don't get why this is happening. Microsoft's licensing scheme is more complicated than it needs to be!

yup, thanks for that, post 10. you got to it before I could post it. that is indeed the right link. as for your latitude, I'm assuming it's a recent model? mine's a 2011 model, and the sticker is under the battery, I wouldn't be surprised if they changed it later, though. I believe Chris has a 4th gen Intel, so I would just assume that one still has it under the battery, at least I'm hoping it is, if for nothing else, it will be visible. otherwise, if it's at the bottom of it, trust me, I've learned the hard way, he's just not going to be able to get the key off the sticker. but then, win10 is always an option...
seriously, though. I activated all my hardware on win10, in case something was to happen, and it sure paid off on one of my PC's.

I just looked on eBay, before reading your post, and indeed, these were shipped with vista. I'm really curious what's the difference between the d, and e line series. at any rate, my latitude e6420, which is a 14 inch 2nd gen Intel, has it under the battery, so I'm thinking the same for the e6540, which, judging by the name, is a 15 inch, 4th gen. so you still using the d830 as your primary?
my only real issue with the e6420 are battery, major! overheating, and some rather weird wireless issue, that I'm failing to pinpoint.

when you click on check product key, do you see an edit box, where you can type? paste your key there, then I usually do a read all with NVDA, that being NVDA-B, and it will read out my exact addition of the key. then I use speech history to capture it. in my case, I used a different PC than to what the key belonged to, so you may want to use jelly bean to actually find the key first, then paste it.

I don't believe so, since the check product key is mainly if you want to check keys that aren't currently on the computer itself.

I entered the key into key plus and all it tells me is that it's a Windows 7 Professional OEM-SLP key. What now? Would it work if I erased the drive and installed a clean copy of Windows 10? I prefer 10 to 7 and I'll eventually have to do it once Windows 7 support is dropped in less than a year and a half.

Some organization just donated a computer to me, and I have Windows 10 installed on it. But this is might gone a bit off-topic here, but I have a question: What's the differences between Digital license and the product key? And also, does the digital license use like product key. Do they printed somewhere on the computer?

Thanks.

to Chris. if the laptop hasn't been activated on win10 in the past, you won't be able to install 10, at least not without first activating 7. what I did was install 10 over my fully activated 8.1, then reverted. so now that my 8.1 killed itself, I just installed 10, and as much as I miss 8.1, I have a fully activated, legit windows. so if you have done this in the past, it's certainly a possibility. so judging by key plus, it does sound like you have the right key, at least it's an OEM professional key.
you could get some sighted and see what's under the battery, depending on your win10 status, that is.
to post 21. digital licenses are ID's that are tighed to your hardware. as long as you don't replace anything major like motherboard, your windows will forever reactivate on win10. in fact, I've never! had win10 activation issues. digital licenses aren't physical codes, in fact, my old latitude, when it was on win10 pro, uses the same 25 character key, as my samsung picked up. they're both on digital licenses, so I predict that we won't see those licenses ourselves. hell, even my lenovo, claims it's on a digital license, yet I purchased that with win10 brand new, so I've no ideas why almost all say digital. not something to be worried of, in short.