The hard drive on my dell inspiron 530 crashed. Dell sent a new one. Having trouble re-installing works suite 2006 because of lack of product key. There was no key anywhere in the software supplied with the pc. Have spent many hours on the phone with dell & microsoft. MS supplied two replacements key's but neither works. Removed/re-installed works suite a 2nd time & it still won't work with the replacement keys. Well, actually everything works but word. Any suggestions? thanks

So the product key was accepted or you wouldn't have been able to complete the install. Did you install as Admin? Do you mean everything works correctly with the exception of Works Word Processor? What happens when you open the Processor application? Do you have access to the old HDD? "So won’t you give this man his wings What a shame To have to beg you to see We’re not all the same What a shame" - Shinedown

I did not enter a product key during the install. It was not asked for. I do not know if I installed as an admin but don't think I did. I didn't do anything special or different. Just popped in the cd's and went from there. The processor included in Works Suite 2006 is MS Word (2002 I think). All of the other programs included in Works 2006 (streetmaps, money, etc.,) work correctly. However, when I click on Word it asks for a product key. That's as far as I can get in Word. On your last question, I'll expose my ignorance. By the "old hdd," do you mean the old hard drive? If so then yes, I still have it, but will have to return it to dell soon. Gave it to a tech at my job who tried to recover data but the drive is very, very dead. Thanks

You said "Having trouble re-installing works suite 2006 because of lack of product key." That makes me believe the installation requires a key to be entered. Apparently not the case since you said you got the software installed. Uninstall the software. Then, login with an account with Admin privileges and reinstall. If that still doesn't work, then your next step should be 1: Contact Dell if Microsoft Works came preinstalled in your computer. 2: Contact Microsoft again until they provide a key that actually works. "So won’t you give this man his wings What a shame To have to beg you to see We’re not all the same What a shame" - Shinedown