She booted up the machine, bypassed the welcome setup to get to the desktop, and spent five minutes clicking through system settings until she found the holy grail: a string of letters and numbers, fifteen characters long. M7NRKD12XXXXXXXX .

She logged back into her ASUS account. There it was. Her laptop. Her warranty status:

She copied it. She pasted it. She clicked Next .

The form expanded like a living thing, hungry for data. Purchase Date . Retailer . Invoice Number. She dug the receipt out of her wallet, typing with one hand while holding the crumpled paper with the other.

She had bought it from an authorized retailer, yes. But she had also made the mistake of clicking Express Registration through a pop-up during the initial Windows setup. She had already registered it. An hour ago. In her sleep-deprived excitement, she had completely forgotten.

Upload Proof of Purchase.

She scanned the receipt with her phone, emailed it to herself, downloaded it, and attached it. She clicked Submit .

She tried again. Same error. Her heart sank. Had she bought a stolen laptop? A returned unit? She was about to call ASUS support—a circle of hell she had no desire to enter—when she noticed a tiny, forgotten detail.