yes that did happen to me! But stranger things have happened, I installed
sp3 pre release to joe public.
Version i got from Majorgeek 24/4/08 everything working fine . All told i
downloaded 3 versions from different
sources ,including MS's, image version file, then made image disk of that
copy, then reloaded over the top of
previous version. A couple days later got message on taskbar 27 days left
for activation. By this time i had
slipstreamed the majorgeek version with my Dell disk so i format and
re-install anew, everything went fine,
no pre-enter product code or activation, so i thought this looks good. I've
done some thinking after, I had
noticed my install return code had changed, so i run Belarc Advisor sure
enough I had a new product code
now more head scratching this was entirely different to the one supplied by
the dealer. Which leads me to
believe the product code is within that original Dell  disk.
deejaydee