The label on your case is likely perfectly genuine.
Use the “automated phone system” to activate it.
It’s been that way literally forever. MS makes you go through the indignity of the phone activation, probably so bad guys can’t mass activate old stickers.
The name brand PCs are built and activated at the factory with these special bulk license keys that MS allow them to use so that the machine can leave the factory activated rather than having the customer do it later and all the tech calls that would be related to that nightmare.
The problem is that if you ever reinstall the system from scratch and use the key on the case, it has never been used and frequently these keys require phone activation to work.
It is perfectly normal and has been this way literally forever.
“Type in this number as I read it and do not write it down.”
That makes sense.
I tried to download the install CD from their site 3 times on my wife’s Windows 7 machine and 3 times toward the end of the download it quit.
Finally watched it until the end and got some message that I was not allowed to download that software. (her machine is probably a “genuine Microsoft certified software only” setup.
I downloaded it previously from that site to the hard drive on my Linux box, perfect download. Forgot I only had a CD drive on the Linux box and it required a DVD for the disc. Later when the download to my wife’s Windows machine failed I remembered to use a USB flash drive and from that to my wife’s Windows 7 machine. That PC easily burned the ISO disc. I used that DVD ISO to attempt the recovery again and then finally reinstalled the OS. After that I worked out the bad driver issues by using the Dell Service website. Had no real problems getting that all working.
This is not my first rodeo, have been installing OSs for many years. Am very good at removal of malware too. Very few times I can remember not being able to fix that stuff. But this one was a disaster. It was self induced by the previous (original) owner of the PC, they installed some of the worst fraud based “malware removal” software. The hold hostage crap.
I’m sure that I could get the original install disc form Dell, have family member that works for them. That is probably the cheapest fix, but I am not fond of the bundling that they do either.
Thanks again for your explanation.