I guess I’ve been lucky, as all Windows 10 upgrades I’ve done, have been uneventful.

But today was my unlucky day.

I upgraded a Windows 7 PC to windows 10, made sure it was fully activated, then proceeded to do some tweaks & some tuning (ie ccleaner, mydefrag, etc).

At some point, I decided I should do a BIOS update, as sometimes, PCs seem to have hardware errors, but the problems disappear after a BIOS upgrade.

I didn’t notice any problems at first, but after a while, task manager refused to show me all the details I expected to see…

Then running speedfan didn’t automatically pop up a UAC prompt… I had to right-click & run as administrator… weird.

In trying to resolve that issue, I then found I couldn’t run an elevated Administrator CMD prompt, even though I was administrator.

WTF is going on?

I find I still use Control Panel instead of the new Settings app… there just isn’t enough technical power in the Settings app… it needs some serious work before it can replace Control Panel.

Anyway, while looking through Control Panel, I notice Windows is no longer activated, & the displayed product key ends in 8HVX7.

The error code I see is: 0xC004C003

So I figure: I’ll just ring Microsoft & get them to re-activate it… after all, thats what would happen with windows 7 & 8.

Since it was an upgrade from Windows 7, I decide its probably easier to talk to a real human… BIG mistake.

After explaining the situation to the “Microsoft Employee”, I’m told “Our activation servers are very busy, and it can take a few days for windows 10 to activate”

Huh?

So I explain again: 10 was activated & then got de-activated… could it have been due to the BIOS upgrade?

And I’m told “No, nothing to do with a BIOS upgrade, trust us, it will be fine in a few days time”

Well, the last time Microsoft asked us to trust them… they released Windows 8.

So no, I’m not going to trust them, & I don’t believe a word this guy is saying… So I just say OK, then hang up.

I toy with the idea of calling again… maybe I’ll get someone competent this time? What are the chances of that? 😉

So a quick search online shows others with similar stories (who are fed similar BS from Microsoft).

So, the solution?

I don’t like it, but I re-installed windows 7, & then did the whole upgrade process again (making sure Windows 7 was fully updated before doing the Windows 10 upgrade).

Luckily, I have downloaded a windows 10 install ISO & made a Windows 10 boot USB, so I don’t have to wait for a 4GB download over my slow internet connection… no thanks to our pathetic Prime Minister: Tony Abbott…

After the Windows 10 update, it activated immediately, and stayed that way.

So my advice is: If you think you might need to update your BIOS, do it before updating to windows 10.