Question Bios update deleted windows activation/bios question

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

P0tluck94

Reputable
Nov 22, 2021
346
17
4,685
I didn't know where else to put this as it's a bit complicated of a post.

it involves a few different things, I bought my pc may 1st 2023 I paid quite alot for a pc without a gpu ($2200) as I had one already but just upgraded to a 4070ti super (just getting the cost out of the way so it hopefully makes sense)

I have $3100+|into the tower which leads to the issue , I've had problems with this pc since I bought it, (overheating, programs dissappear, network not working several issues)
no response from the pc company i bought it from, you all helped me fix a couple of the issues (thank you) so onto the issue.

I had the free Windows 11 pro upgrade and it was the last day for it so I decided to upgrade, everything was great no issues but I had a chipset upgrade i couldn't do unless I upgraded the bios so I did that and then I couldn't use my pin to get into the pc i had to use Microsoft password, I did all the walk arounds to fix it but without success so I had to reset windows which deleted my windows activation key, this pc even though I paid so much for it did not come with the activation key and the company wouldn't respond so I had to buy one ($211.00)


So onto the bios , both build numbers are the same 3405 but the one in hwinfo says bios date 2023, the one on Asus website says 2024, why are the dates different but build numbers the same?

is the pc good if the dates in the bios dont match or would I definitely know if something was wrong with the bios? im confused (im a stroke survivor so I have memory/ thought issues)

have you all heard of a bios deleting a windows key and have you ever heard of a pc not coming with an activation key?

I'm currently trying to get refunded for the windows key but they aren't responding so im curious, if i can't get reimbursed do I risk legal trouble if I call them or publicly with all the issues I've had with this thing when they are supposed to have a year warranty on everything? $211.00 dollars is alot for me to have to drop right then and there being disabled
My main question is about the bios deactivating windows key and the bios dates not matching if you all dont want to comment in the company issue.

View: https://imgur.com/gallery/vCY6NJE
 
Without reading the whole thread I offer my assessment of what happened.

- They sold you a PC with a Win10 "license" (an OEM SLIC hack flashed into BIOS and Win10 activated using OEM volume licensing key)
- You upgraded to Win11 and that worked fine until you upgraded the BIOS using regular BIOS from mainboard manufacturer which nuked the OEM SLIC

Sadly, not much you can do about it other than buy a new license. Let that be a lesson to only ever buy prebuilt PCs from brands that sell those (Lenovo, HP, Dell, etc) if you want to have a proper bundled Windows license with it.
 
My main question is about the bios deactivating windows key and the bios dates not matching if you all dont want to comment in the company issue.
bios update shouldn't have done anything to the key itself. It can't touch the install directly.

it reset tpm settings, that is for sure, but it can't touch windows itself.

Activation for windows generally controlled by Microsoft activation servers and uses either your email address that is linked to Microsoft account on PC, or the details of the hardware itself. I take it you didn't have an account, and now windows servers don't recognize PC.

as for dates, I can guess that 3405 was a beta when you got it and later on Asus changed it to a full version. It was common around December when AMD released the LogoFail fixes.

- They sold you a PC with a Win10 "license" (an OEM SLIC hack flashed into BIOS and Win10 activated using OEM volume licensing key)
- You upgraded to Win11 and that worked fine until you upgraded the BIOS using regular BIOS from mainboard manufacturer which nuked the OEM SLIC
it seems SLIC attacks don't work on 8 or 10/11 as they use something called MSDM table (Microsoft Data Management table) so a different approach would need to be used. It is possible they still did something like this, would explain why it doesn't work now. or they just used a bad licence to begin with that has since been identified and marked as such.