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I'm repairing an Acer Aspire V5 571p laptop for my roommates. They bought it off some dude on Kijiji. To make a long and not very interesting story short, I could not access the BIOS, so about an hour ago as of posting this I removed the CMOS battery in order to reset the BIOS.

Then I remembered that Windows 8 product keys are encrypted in the BIOS. Yet I also remember reading that OEM product keys are now tied to the motherboard.

So, when I finally go to reinstall Windows 8, will I be able to retrieve the OEM product key?

TheTechInYourCloset
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1 Answers1

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The OA 3.0 product key is now embedded in the MSDM table in the UEFI and won't be wiped with a simple CMOS reset. Use NirSoft's ProduKey or FirmwareTablesView to view and retrieve it.

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Windows 8.x should automatically detect the key and activate. Just in case it doesn't, phone-based activation should sort any issues out quickly.

Karan
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