UVK forums

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.

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

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.

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+.

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