Actually thats a weird problem. The one thing i like about doing dell reinstalls is that if you use the original disk it always activates without the phone call. Anyway when you went to activate before trying to get the updates it would have given you a phone number to call and they would have activated for you over the phone. you would then be able to get all your windows updates. I would probably reinstall now and do it that way. because they may do something to deactivate your activation hack. then you may have to reinstall again. YMMV
Jake
