Gah - my Windows 7 just decided it's not genuine....

Help! My installation of Windows 7 Ultimate (64 bit) has just decided it's not genuine....

Firstly, it is - it's a retail copy, purchased directly from Microsoft - no pirating or dodgy stuff going on here.

No problem, I thought, I'll go to 'Activate Windows' and retype the PiD - except it doesn't give me an option to. Basically it says:
"This copy of Windows is not Genuine"
"The copy of Windows does not pass genuine validation. To get all Windows updates and downloads reserved exclusively for Genuine Windows, you must validate your copy of Windows now." and there's a "Go online and resolve now" button which does a validation check, fails and eventually links to a page that basically tells me I have to buy a copy of Windows and reinstall from scratch....

Why can I not just enter my PiD? Freaking heck... Reinstalling everything is going to blow my entire Saturday and all I wanted to do today was play a little Battlefield 3 because I've been working hard all week.

Oh, and it seems that the thing that triggered this sudden realisation in Windows that it wasn't genuine, was me disconnecting one of my monitors. Unbelievable.

Anyway - enough ranting, time for my question...
Do I really have to do a complete reinstall, or do I have other options (registry keys or whatever) to get Windows to realise that it is indeed a genuine purchased copy?

It gets better - the Windows Genuine Advantage Diagnostic Tool is telling me that Windows is registered and genuine... WTF is going on?

I don't have any spyware or viruses on my system or dodgy software of any description - just basically Windows, Office, Visual Studio, Adobe CS5 and Battlefield....

1 hour ago, OrigamiCar wrote

It gets better - the Windows Genuine Advantage Diagnostic Tool is telling me that Windows is registered and genuine... WTF is going on?

I don't have any spyware or viruses on my system or dodgy software of any description - just basically Windows, Office, Visual Studio, Adobe CS5 and Battlefield....

Sounds like a virus to me. I've replaced hardware, including motherboards, CPUs, monitors, and GPUs several times, and even changed hard drives once, and I've never had validation problems. I would suggest calling Microsoft's technical support and explaining the problem to them. Please see this link for support options.

Reboot your pc and if it's still showing the message then wait it out. Probably some server side fart @ Microsoft.

maybe some sort of odd file corruption?  run sfc /scannow  maybe

Doesn't Battlefield 3 install on the Mac too?

If you have a Macbook or something just install it on there. I don't ever remember having to validate anything on OS X.

@l000000l:

Lol - yes I do actually have a Mac as well - unfortunately, I don't think a Macbook Air will quite handle the game as well as my Core i7 24gb memory, 2 x 2gb Nvidia card monster of a desktop - admittedly with a copy of Windows 7 that can't decide if it's pirated or not....!