dodgy notebook

[Juwanna_Man]

Hi all, I've found myself a bit concerned with a birthday present I received recently. My grandfather, knows that: I like computers, I recently started school, and swapmeets are the place to find the cheapest crap. So when my grandfather saw an unopened notebook for sale (600 US) at a swap meet, he couldn't resist and bought it for me.
I looked up the computer and it retails for, nearest i can tell, $1100. My guess is it's stolen. I was wondering, are the feds on my trail as we speak? To be honest, I don't know where my grandfather got it. For all I know, he may have paid $1500 but doesn't want me to flip out on him for spending so much on me. I'm confused and don't want to lose the notebook, it had the security seal on it and everything I think if anything, it "fell of a truck".
It told me to activate windows, so I entered in the product key and activated it online, from a neighbors wireless connection. If i were to connect it to my network, am I going to have the fuzz banging down my door? Are they going to find this laptop through constant use? etc...

 

[penguinrusty]

I don't think so. I accidentally used the same XP product key on 2 computers and nothing happened...

 

[flame1117]

i thihnk it lets you do it on 2, it always lets me, but then it wont after the 2ed time.

 

[DCIScouts]

It's kinda a sticky situation... Most likely like you said, this notebook probably was stolen from somewhere, more than likely by an employee hence the security seal... To be safe, I would return it, but unless the computer was worth a ton, the corporation that lost it might not even investigate the theft... Some retail chains require the item to be of a certain value before they will track it down. So, probably you won't have the police coming after you, but that doesn't mean that's 100% for sure...

 

[Juwanna_Man]

thanks for the quick replies, esp. to dciscouts. So being that ACER just pays to put microsoft to put XP on their machines, it's unlikely that the two are going to work in cahoots to retrieve one laptop, regardless of how often i use the thing?

 

[DCIScouts]

Well, it's more likely that the corporation that was going to sell the laptop (e.g. Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.) would be coming after you. Most of the time these type of things are their emplyees stealing, and not Acer's. Plus, Acer and Microsoft doesn't care, they already got their money from Best Buy or Circuit City...)

 

[ripken2004]

i doubt that they will even want to start looking for u

and u can install xp home on 2 comps, i have
im guessing b/c since most homes now have 2 comps and u dont wna have to buy 2 licenses