# Reinstall vista from emachines operating systems disc



## 2slow (Sep 3, 2008)

The mobo went bad and I swapped it I have the operating system disc, is it possible to reinstall vista?  I tried to boot to the CD and it tells me the media isn't bootable.
thanks
//chris


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## gerrynicol (Sep 3, 2008)

So you have the proper Vista disc yeah?

Is your bios set to boot off of the cd/ dvd drive first??

Watch the boot screen as it asks you if you want to boot from the cd(just press any key)


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## kenkickr (Sep 3, 2008)

Most Emachines use motherboards that have a modded bios.  In the bios there is a code the disc will read and if it's not available then No Boot.  You should have the Vista key on the right bottom side or back.  All you need to do is get an OEM Vista disk(non Emachine, Gateway, etc) and use the key, WITH THE RIGHT VERSION OF VISTA, and you should be all set!


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## Guru Janitor (Sep 3, 2008)

I have used Dell disks before on multiple computers.  The first time I tried on one Mobo, it wouldnt let me (I was using the same HDD)  About a week later, with the same setup it did let me.  I think its hit or miss, you could try again, but if you get your hands on an OEM disk like already mentioned, you just need the key you have already, and Microsoft will reactivate it for you.


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## 2slow (Sep 4, 2008)

kenkickr said:


> Most Emachines use motherboards that have a modded bios.  In the bios there is a code the disc will read and if it's not available then No Boot.  You should have the Vista key on the right bottom side or back.  All you need to do is get an OEM Vista disk(non Emachine, Gateway, etc) and use the key, WITH THE RIGHT VERSION OF VISTA, and you should be all set!



Its a pre-service pack 1 version.  How can I get am OEM copy of vista?
I have the origional mobo still any chance of modding the new bios to fool the disk?


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## kenkickr (Sep 4, 2008)

Did the board come from Emachine/Gateway or did you just go out and get the same Skt/LGA board and swap it out?  If it came from Emachine/Gateway then you shouldn't be having this problem.  Sometimes Emachine will use a good motherboard like back when the skt 754's were out they had a MSI board in them that all you had to do was grab the MSI flash utility and no more Emachine but hello MSI options.


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## 2slow (Sep 4, 2008)

kenkickr said:


> Did the board come from Emachine/Gateway or did you just go out and get the same Skt/LGA board and swap it out?  If it came from Emachine/Gateway then you shouldn't be having this problem.  Sometimes Emachine will use a good motherboard like back when the skt 754's were out they had a MSI board in them that all you had to do was grab the MSI flash utility and no more Emachine but hello MSI options.



I went out and got a different mobo, with a different chipset etc....   just the same socket.


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## 2slow (Sep 5, 2008)

Any suggestions on how to get an oem disk copy of vista?


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## Wile E (Sep 5, 2008)

2slow said:


> Any suggestions on how to get an oem disk copy of vista?



It doesn't have to be an OEM disk. It can be a retail disk as well. Borrow one from anyone you know that bought Vista or has an untouched copy.

I used the Vista Home Premium key from my dead laptop, and installed it onto the machine in my specs with my dad's retail disk. Activated just fine.


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## Fastmix (Sep 5, 2008)

torr*nt...


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