Sudden Activation demand

The scenario: We have about 300 Dells. The all come as usual XP pre installed, I activate as I get them and put them in the field. So, here is a Dell GX 270. It's sitting in the same spot since March of 2004, no upgrades, no repairs, no changes. Suddenly yesterday it locked up and the user turned it off. When it came back up it stopped at the screen saying Windows needed to be acvtivated and it shows the code on the window. When I clicked the button it says the code is no good, odd since it WAS good. Upon inspection I see that the code in the boxes on the window is not the same code that is on the sticker on top of the case. So I proceed to replace the code with the one on the ofiicial sticker at which it balks and says that this too is a bad, BAD number! "Vee hawe vays off makink you phone us!" I phone and talk like a moron to the machine all to be told a third time that I am a thief, pirate and a horrible, horrible person and I should repent and purchase a real copy of Windows and wait for the CSR. Later in the day the CSR picks up and I read the numbers again and am asked with a hint of suspicion if I am positive that this is the only machine this number is used on. To which I shockingly reply, "No, I do not know that for a fact." I explain that as far as *I* know ihas not and should not have been used anywhere and it is on the official tag that came with the machine. He activates it and all is well.

The question(s): What would cause a machine to suddenly out of the blue demand a new activation? This is the third one that has done this, always after a crash. Why would the number that is currently in the XP registration be different than that on the MS sticker? I @$$ume that Dell provides the sticker as proof of a paid copy, but uses a volume registration # to clone their hard drives? Could this particular volume Reg # have been "disqualified" by MS due to use in pirating and now suddenly I have to pay by reactivating any machine with that number??

 

That is strange, Dells do come installed with a corperate license, no activation required. The key will be different than what is on the machine. Have any of these machines had the OS reinstalled?

 

Nothing had been done to any of the machines that did this. One of them was my own machine, so it does see a lot more range of use and trying weird stuff off the web and all, but the one that just did it is used mainly for writing reports in Word.