Hello, Since I've 7, I install every new driver that is released for my hardware. I installed Catalyst 9.5, then upgraded to 9.6 without issue. Same with the sound card, the first driver I had was 2.21. Then updated to 2.24, 2.25 and 2.26 without issues again. However today I installed latest Realtek HD sound driver 2.27 and when I restarted, Windows told me that it was not original. It gave me two options: Activate now or later. Of course I choose to activate now and all back to the normality. Why Windows got unactivated? It was activated since the first boot. I think that it can deactivate if Windows found major hardware changes, but a sound card driver upgrade?-Windows 7 x64 RC -MSI K9A2 Platinum BIOS V1.8 -AMD Phenom X4 9950 @2.7 -MSI HD 4850 -4 GB DDR2 Kingston @667 -Seagate 160 GB SATAII -Cooler Master Real Power Pro 550W

jadraker, It sounds as though there was an error in the driver, or at least a substantial enough change in how the hardware identified itself in order to make Windows 7 think that the "major hardware changes" you speculated on actually occurred. This error should not happen again on your system, but please keep us informed.-Alex

jadraker, It sounds as though there was an error in the driver, or at least a substantial enough change in how the hardware identified itself in order to make Windows 7 think that the "major hardware changes" you speculated on actually occurred. This error should not happen again on your system, but please keep us informed. -Alex axfelix, I noted in the changelog of the driver version 2.27 something related with Windows 7 and a bug fixed for that OS. 2. Fix GUI issue which can't launch Windows MediaPlayer under Win7 OS. Anyway I don't think it's related with the issue. Maybe someone with a Realtek on board sound card can try to reproduce the problem. Realtek sound cards are quite common in many mobos. -Windows 7 x64 RC -MSI K9A2 Platinum BIOS V1.8 -AMD Phenom X4 9950 @2.7 -MSI HD 4850 -4 GB DDR2 Kingston @667 -Seagate 160 GB SATAII -Cooler Master Real Power Pro 550W