Yesterday marked the launch of the new AMD Phenom II X4 965 CPU and I reviewed the CPU and plugged a different video card into my computer at the same time. Today I am minding my own business working on my computer and I get a notice that Windows has been deactivated on my computer.

I have been reviewing CPUs and video cards on Windows for years and this has never happened to me before. I have had issues when I had to unexpectedly reformat my computer and had to call Microsoft to get a reactivation.

I have changed CPUs at least three times in the last year and changed video cards at least that many times and have never had Windows deactivate itself on the same computer that has not be reformatted. The real rub is that I can’t simply reactivate; it tells me my key is already in use. Duh! It's on the same computer it was on Wednesday. I can only assume that the issue here is changing the CPU and the video card at the same time, I don’t recall having done that before. I guess I get to spend some time on the phone with India this morning.