Windows 8.1 with Bing edition

[Brink]

Has anyone here ran into one of these that has a bad harddisk yet?

I seemingly cannot reinstall a good one that will activate. No matter what I try, it refuses to use the key that's in the EUFI BIOS. My customer does not want to buy an OS (and should not have to).

I have tried all combinations of 8 and 8.1, core and pro, retail and OEM, x86 and 64bit.
I have not tried N versions as the machine was sold in the USA and should not be using the euro version.

The "Bing" versions of 64/x86 core and pro are not available to download from MS. The "Bing" version was provided "free" to OEMs from what I understand.

I'm really stumped on this one.

I am familiar with Microsoft's media creation tool for 8/8.1

I've already been to http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... e5a1a7f4f7. Note how bing versions are not supported by the media creation tool.

[Fred]

That's a really weird one, Brink. Don't you have a factory reset disk? Maybe contacting MS is the only way to go...

[steve2189]

Bing is not easy to reload. It is released to OEM manufacturers only.
Here is someone having the same problem.
https://www.technibble.com/forums/threa ... ing.61974/
The solution they found was to sysprep from a working "Windows 8.1 with Bing" machine, create an image, and install the image on the problem machine.

Windows with Bing is usually only installed on the absolute cheapest, lowest quality, $200 computers. The cost to replace the hard disk and reload Windows will probably amount to more than the machine is worth.
Chucking it in the rubbish bin and buying a replacement may be the best option.

[Charger440]

I really don't have any info on that either. I did want to comment on the $200 computer. It amazes me how many people buy these pieces of crap. When I make suggestions to people, I suggest that they NOT buy a laptop with a value of less than $500. Whether it's on sale don't matter as long as the value is $500+.

[wmmiller]

I run into this problem more than not. I started asking people if they are willing to spend between $150 and $200 on their computer. I’m getting sick of hearing people say that they can go to Walmart or wherever and buy a new one for a few more bucks. I’ve looked at many computers just to have wasted my time. In the past I’ve never felt the need to charge a fee just to check out a computer but things are to the point that I think I’m going to have to.

Bill