Windows Activation errors

Question：hi, have a vista home premium 64bit PC. ive had it for over a year and have had a few hardware changes but never had any problems with activating. i format my hard drive regulary and install vista fresh and again since ive had PC ive had no problems. i reloaded my PC the other day because my onboard network card wasnt working properly in that i was connected to my internet modem but it wasnt registering.

 but once reloaded it still had problems, so i put in a network card into an empty pci slot which solved that problem, but for some reason windows media player wouldnt play my avi files claiming a problem with my sound card driver. so i formatted hard drive and installed vista again.

This time however when activating i was told my product Key was already in use. how does this happen and how can i get my Key to work.

ive read vista activation locks itself to the PC hardware and allows so many changes. ive made change to the motherboard and a memory stick because they were faulty which would makes 2 changes.
would installing the network card count as change?

if so does this mean i have to buy a new key in order to keep using vista?

Answer 1：

You can reactivate your Windows Vista installation by performing the following:

1. Click on the Start button and in the Start Search box type in:  slui.exe 4

2. Press the Enter key on your keyboard.

3. Select your Country.

4. Follow the instructions for phone activation (no charge).

NOTE: When you call that number, you will first hear an Automated Voice. If the Automated Voice gives you an option to talk to a
Live Activation Rep, select that option. If not, do not enter any numbers. This should force the Automated Voice to transfer you to
a Live Activation Rep. Trying to activate thru the Automated Voice will not work, in your case, only thru the Live Activation Rep
will your activation be successful.

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Carey Frisch

Answer 2：hi, thanks for the reply. i was scouting around for answers and tryin the phone activate was all i found so i tried it. and the phone activation worked and all i did was type in the numbers i had into the phone then get the numbers they tell me and the activation worked.

if my key was void because of hardware changes then should the activation had failed?

im confused.