Bios update deactivated windows 11? (FYI issue resolved).

[atarione]

Well, that was fun.

Over the weekend I updated the bios of my pc (gigabyte z690 Aorus Elite AX / 12700K / 3070FE etc..) in order to get the updated bios that addresses the LogoFAIL vulnerability...   I have updated many bios/UFEI and never have I seen this happen before, but windows 11 deactivated saying the hardware had changed after the bios update, and wouldn't give any option other than buying a new license.

 

I had used a old Win7 Ultimate key to get windows 8/10 and now 11 long before Microsoft apparently finally decided to close that upgrade path..    but it wouldn't take my key if I tried reentering it.

 

Anyways.. after looking around a bit I found people saying they were still getting win 10 / 11 activated using win 7 keys ... IF you disconnect from the internet while entering the key and then turning the internet back on..  So  I disabled my WiFi and NIC and reentered the key and tried to activate it without internet / getting an error that the servers where unavailable... (as one would expect?).     When I enabled my networking, it still failed to activate but now unlike before the option for having changed hardware recently (which didn't appear previously) at which point I was able to select my computer from my Microsoft account at which point it reactivate.

 

Not entirely sure wth happened with windows deactivating from a bios update, but apparently if you want to activate / reactivate a win 7/8 key on windows 10/11 for the time being turn off you networking enter the key and then after enabling networking it will likely activate ??    Not sure how long this would be the case but it works for now.

[Alex Atkin UK]

1 hour ago, atarione said:

Not entirely sure wth happened with windows deactivating from a bios update

When you update the BIOS the TPM keys are reset, this shouldn't normally deactivate Windows but clearly it got confused.  I wonder if something specific about the LogoFAIL fix triggered it.

 

Either way this is good to know, it should have given you that "recent hardware change" option in the first place.  For the record, I've never had any problems getting Microsoft to fix activation problems, it just can be time consuming so its good you found a better option.