Refurbished PC has two Windows 7 COA stickers

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amodoko

Member
I have a weird question. I just got a refurbished laptop recently from a company. It has two windows 7 pro stickers with keys on them. One is the "windows 7 pro for refurb pcs" sticker and code, and the other is the original windows 7 COA sticker. One is just on the bottom panel of the laptop, and the other one is underneath/behind the battery. I have two questions:

1) Do you know why a refurbished laptop would come with two COAs for Windows 7?
2) Why do companies that refurbish pcs have to purchase another key just for refurbished PCs if the PC already has an original COA?
3) Both of the keys are different. Are they somehow linked to each other?

Thanks, just curious since this is the first time I've had a laptop come with two keys on it for the same OS.
 
postman

postman

Member
A properly licensed refurbished PC will have both the original COA that came affixed to the PC when it was newly purchased AND a specially designed Windows COA for refurbished PCs. A refurbished PC COA has a unique product key or a serial number, the Windows product name, and statement 'For Use on Refurbished PC Only

its all mainly due to any changes that were made to the refurbished machine. changes may relate to the mobo or several items that alter ms licensing. hence the new key, imo.
 
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amodoko

Member
Thanks for the reply! I didn't know that Windows 7 keys were actually linked to the laptop's hardware. I thought one just needed the key itself to activate. I didn't realize that. So that would mean the old/original COA is no longer usable to anyone, correct? That would make sense as to why they left the old one attached too since it now has no use since it can't be used to activate other devices, and thus, the old key no longer has any value.
 
postman

postman

Member
For clarity, an oem license is tied to the hardware and the refurb key will often show oem on the label to activate software thats preinstalled. Its a special license for PCs that have been refurbished. i cannot say of the old coa, as its likely to have been cancelled afaik.

two labels; either the original Certificate of Authenticity (COA) label the PC manufacturer installed or the Genuine Microsoft Label AND a COA from the PC refurbisher. the big microsoft refurbishers always give a coa with the key on it. refurb machines will ask for a code when you first power them on. so, the old key would be redundant, imo.

"To use the software, it must be activated using the product key that is on the COA. DO NOT use the product key from the original COA label"
Click to expand...
the quote from the link below:
thankyou for purchasing a refurb (PDF)
 
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amodoko

Member
Okay, thanks so much for the clarification:) I had never really seen this before and was curious. I appreciate the help!
 
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amodoko

Member
Sorry, I have one more question/concern. I saw that the original COA (not the refurb COA but the original one) on the refurbished laptop had an HP designation on it (since it is an HP laptop). When I installed Windows 7 Pro on it I did not use the original COA, I used the refurbished COA as I was supposed to. Everything works fine on that laptop, and I ended up upgrading it to Windows 10 Pro. I wanted to see what would happen if I used the old key from the unused COA sticker (with the HP designation on it, which I believe means its OEM right?) on an older laptop I had lying around that used to run Vista. Well it activated Windows 7 and said that activation was successful. So does that mean the old product keys are not tied to the hardware then? I'm confused. Thanks in advance for any further help, much appreciated.
 
postman

postman

Member
The refurb key is usually applied to save users from possible disappointment and issues should the old key fail (can and do) because of any hardware changes made during the refurbishment of the machine. such changes cause activation failures. customer service is important to the reputation of any company and therefore better to provide a key of authenticity with an assured activation, imo. but an out of service key used on another machine is forbidden by the rules of MS. but if a person decides to use an out of service key, its a difficult law to enforce and this why certain changes to hardware cause concern for some users as it requires a call to MS.

a painless process but not if your denied with a legit key. as for upgrading to win10 using an activated COA or CD on a system it was not supplied with is in violation of the EULA or Licensing agreement. and as such a Pirate Copy. Ideally, it should pass the Windows Advantage Test, after all its real, just no longer valid as the terms of the License tie it to the system it was first activated on. has it been tested?

If the machine was a homebuilt PC and the builder bought a retail version of the OS from a store, you are within you rights to move that license to another machine. disc and key are used for one machine. as for an upgrade from Vista to win7, its a natural upgrade path and meets the system requirements for Windows 7 and would prompt the win10 upgrade to be downloaded regardless of the key being validated. but many machines eventually show issues due to hardware not originally designed for the leap from vista to win10.

hth
 
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amodoko

Member
Ahhh, thanks! That makes a lot more sense to me. I was wondering what benefit there was for the refurbishing company to purchase a refurb key if the original key still worked. Now that makes sense, since as you mentioned, certain hardware changes can cause the original key to no longer work so it would make sense for a large company to just not deal with the questionable key anymore and just get a new refurb key to avoid any issues. Thanks for that clarification.

Oh, and to answer your question, I am not upgrading the old laptop to Windows 10, the one that I just used to test the spare key. I am not going to even use that laptop since it is a bit too old. I just did that as a test and will wipe the hard drive in the next few days. As for the newer laptop that came to me refurbished, the one I upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10, there won't be any issues with that since it was all done correctly since it came with the original Windows CD and COA.

Once again, thanks so much. I was just really curious as to why the original company that refurbished the laptop had to get a refurb key, and now I know thanks to you. I appreciate it!
 
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