Hello,
I recently had an issue where my framework laptop constantly blue screened on windows so i reinstall windows and now it says “Activate Windows” and it says that my hardware changed even though it did not. Any ideas on what to do.
What Gen
Framework 13 AMD Ryzen 7 7940u
What Windows
Windows 11
Is it a prebuild with Win 10 or 11 or a DIY and buy the OS separately.
DIY, but i bought the OS through framework and have the activation code available on my account here, but it has already been used
Did you use a Microsoft account which may be checking on you. If so disconnect internet and install with a local account.
Unsure if I am using a Microsoft account, i may actually be but I’m unsure what you mean by if so disconnect internet and install with local account. I installed windows via a usb and when windows was installed i actually had no internet until i installed the proper updates for the framework laptop
What setup do you have? Are you dual booting?
Yes, I have ubuntu on a 1tb storage card
How did you try, was it on a USB stick.
Windows was installed via a USB stick
Have you changed the Expansion cards, if so try without any.
No expansion cards have been changed.
Ensure battery is charged as just use one Expansion card.
Battery is connected and is charged up
The only difference I suspect, is I don’t remember how i installed windows at first to begin with. I don’t remember if i simply booted up my framework laptop and windows was on the device or if I used a USB. In the scenario it was already on the device, that would be a major difference as I used a USB this time around.
I bought it with the purchase of the framework laptop from the framework website
I just don’t remember how that really worked, i think I just started the computer and didn’t have to use a usb
Well, never mind. Somehow randomly windows is now activated. I did nothing. This case is resolved.
1 Like
Hi @John_marco,
Glad your Windows install reactivated.
Here is the TL:dr on why it asked to “Activate Windows”:
Summary
When you reinstall Windows from bootable media and wipe the entire drive to start clean; a new GUID is generated by Windows. This GUID is a random 128-bit identifier associated to your computer when Windows first installs itself.
It uses that identifier to register your copy of Windows with Microsoft along with some other identifying information: motherboard, MAC, processor make/model, ram, video, etc. Enough to basically outline that the GUID belons to @John_marco 's Windows 11 installation.
When you first got your computer and Windows was installed a GUID was created and linked to your “Activated” version of Windows. When you reinstalled from scratch; the OS created a new GUID and sent that with some other identifying information back to Microsoft and at some point it came back as
“Oh this copy of Window is already registered to |Original GUID|; I am not going to just hand out another activation until I check a few more things (i.e. it waits to see if more requests come in to activate under the same License Key)”
When a bunch of other license requests did not come in it reactivated your fresh copy of Windows with the new GUID and made a note that it was previously registered under your old GUID.
If Microsoft’s license server sees too many requests for “activation” with the same license key it flags it as potential fraud and invalidates the license.
Happy Trails! 
windows Community Support
2 Likes