I got a brand-new HP laptop in February of 2010 with everything already installed on it. I used Office on a daily basis, as I am a college student and have taken several online classes, using Word, Excel, and Powerpoint a lot. Suddenly, it is now saying that my "Product Activation Failed." I do not understand why my product has been working perfectly for 11 months, and suddenly it says the activation has failed. 

Hi,

Is sounds like you might have a trial version of Office on your machine. Is it Office 2010? Did you buy the laptop from a retailer or a private party? You'll need to get either a valid product key and/or a full retail copy of Office 2010. If it is a full retail copy and you have an install disk, I suggest you first try uninstalling and then reinstalling Office. If you have trouble uninstalling Office from the Control Panel, try using the Fixit tool in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301.  

Hope this helps,

Darryl

• Marked as answer by Jennifer Zhan Thursday, January 20, 2011 7:20 AM

You probably have Automatic Updates turned on.

This happened to some of our machines in the office over 2 years ago.

None of the other machines that I turned off Windows Updates have had their licensed MS Office editions suddenly de-activate for 2 years now.

This is why I don't recommend auto updates enabled. 

Of course MS response is to repurchase something you had already owned.