Windows XP activation headache

[midwestyankee]

I recently installed Windows XP (Home Edition) on my daughter's computer. Now, when she turns on the computer she gets a message telling her that Win XP must be activated. We did the activation thing already, a few weeks ago.

Now when she clicks on "Yes" to activate it, she's told that Win XP has already been activated and this puts her back where she started.

Does anyone know a way out of this loop? Thanks.

 

[Spenser41]

I recently installed Windows XP (Home Edition) on my daughter's computer. Now, when she turns on the computer she gets a message telling her that Win XP must be activated. We did the activation thing already, a few weeks ago.

Now when she clicks on "Yes" to activate it, she's told that Win XP has already been activated and this puts her back where she started.

Does anyone know a way out of this loop? Thanks.

If XP says it is activated, I would just ignore this. If the computer tells you there is a phone number to call to activiate, call it and tell them what is going on.

 

[ReadyOne]

This is a known bug on some pre-sp1 systems. Take the "activate by telephone" option and call the number, press "0" when you hear the voice, and explain.

Be presistant if they tell you that you've hacked the system.

If that failes, reinstall from the original CD.

From http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341&Product=winxp

To reinstall Windows XP by starting your computer from the Windows XP CD, follow these steps:
Insert the Windows XP CD into your computer's CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, and then restart your computer. When the "Press any key to boot from CD" message appears on the screen, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD.

NOTE: Your computer must be configured to start from the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive. For more information about how to configure your computer to start from the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, see your computer's documentation or contact your computer manufacturer.
You receive the following message on the Welcome to Setup screen that appears: This portion of the Setup program prepares Microsoft
Windows XP to run on your computer:

To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.

To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.

To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

Press ENTER to set up Windows XP.


On the Windows XP Licensing Agreement screen, press F8 to agree to the license agreement.
Make sure that your current installation of Windows XP is selected in the box, and then press R to repair Windows XP.
Follow the instructions on the remaining screens to reinstall Windows XP. After you repair Windows XP, you may be required to reactivate your copy of Windows XP.

 

[midwestyankee]

This is a known bug on some pre-sp1 systems. Take the "activate by telephone" option and call the number, press "0" when you hear the voice, and explain.

Thanks for the answers, ReadyOne and Spenser41. Unfortunately, no telephone number is displayed when this activation request window comes up.

Do I have to go to the Microsoft site and start digging there?

 

[ReadyOne]

Before you do the upgrade in place, try takeing the "repair" path though setup.

Insert the Windows XP CD into your computer's CD-ROM drive or DVD-ROM drive.

Restart your computer. If you have to, change the BIOS settings to start from the CD-ROM drive or DVD-ROM drive, and then restart your computer again.

At the Welcome to Setup page, press ENTER.

Press F8 to accept the Licensing Agreement.

Use the arrow keys to select the installation of Windows XP that you want to repair, and then press R to start the automatic repair process.

When Setup is completed, activate Windows XP.

 

[ReadyOne]

I know the two sets of instructions sound the same. I always get confused, and have to go though the screens a couple of times. Plus, 2K and XP and NT are all different about doing repairs.

If there is an "automatic repair" process, do it first.

Otherwise, install XP on top of itself, into the same folder.

Note that if you got some stuff pre-loaded on the machine, you may have to put it back on (depending on how deeply it hools into the system) and you will have to reapply SP1 and fixes which were not integrated into your CD.

 

[ReadyOne]

Can you get up in safe mode? If so, theres a couple of files you can delete which will force a re-activation from scratch which might get you moving again.

I believe the file to rename is c:\windows\system32\wpa.dbl.

Reboot and go through the reactivation suff.

 

[midwestyankee]

Can you get up in safe mode? If so, theres a couple of files you can delete which will force a re-activation from scratch which might get you moving again.

I believe the file to rename is c:\windows\system32\wpa.dbl.

Reboot and go through the reactivation suff.

Thanks for the help. I'll try these solutions one by one tomorrow when I get the chance.

 

[The_old_man]

If all else fails, send a registered, return receipt letter to Bill Gates, politely asking for instructions.

 

[LLs Man]

Another reason to avoid XP

 

[midwestyankee]

This sucks.

I changed the boot sequence so the computer would boot from the CD-ROM drive and then booted using the WinX CD.

I tried to run the repair console but it insisted on an administrator password that I don't know or don't remember creating.

Since I couldn't repair the existing installation, I tried reinstalling the operating system in the default directories as before. When this was all done I registered the installation and then started the activation process. I got the same damned result, with the activation request returning a message that the copy of windows had already been activated.

I looked into using a safe mode startup so I could try renaming or deleting the file named by ReadyOne the other day to force an activation from scratch, but I can't find out how to start up in safe mode. The instructions I got from the Help file on my other computer running the same version of XP gave instructions that are not at all useful - they call for drop-down menus that don't appear on my system.

Anyone know of a generic way to get win xp to start in safe mode?

 

[midwestyankee]

BUMP....

And a follow-up question. If I boot the system from a floppy, would it be possible to uninstall XP completely and start all over again?