Windows XP Pro activation woes...

[Cl1mh4224rd]

Sooo...

I had to replace the motherboard and CPU in my brother-in-law's computer. Naturally, Windows XP needed to be reactivated and gave me a 30 day window.

Well, I ignored that window for a bit while I tried to make sure everything was working properly. Then I did nothing with it for a while, with "a while" being at least 30 days, apparently.

Anyway, now it complains that I need to activate Windows before I can log on. No big deal. I click "Yes" to go ahead and activate. Where I would expect to see the "Let's Activate Windows!" screen, I instead see my brother-in-law's desktop wallpaper and nothing else.

After a minute or two of staring at his wallpaper, with the occasional sign of hard drive activity, Windows proceeds to log off the account.

Ohhhh... kaaay...

I click on the account again, and again it tells me I need to activate Windows before I can log on. I click "Yes", but this time the wallpaper is displayed for only a split second before Windows automatically logs off the account.

I can log on in Safe Mode, but Safe Mode with Networking tells me the same thing about needing to activate (and also tells me it can't be done in Safe Mode).

So, what the hell is going on here?

 

[a_unique_person]

That is bad, you can't even type in the "Format c:" command .

I think you will have to reinstall windows.

 

[ElMondoHummus]

Boot off the XP install CD and do a repair install. The XP Activation process must be broken, because it should let you in but allow you to do nothing but stare at the Welcome screen and activate. If it's not even doing that, then there definitely is something wrong.

Was the networking functioning before you got locked out?

 

[Lensman]

I've seen this type of problem lots of times, the only way I've found to activate Windows is to make a phonecall to the MS Activation Service helpdesk.

 

[Gate2501]

A month or so ago when formatting my girlfriends PC, windows needed a call in activation.

After calling it in and activating it, her PC was screwed up so I took it to my own PC and modularly hooked up my components one at a time to check for the problem (it was processor). After changing a few parts out, windows wouldnt start, it needed to be manually activated by phone again because "the hardware on this computer has changed signifigantly since windows was installed".

I went to ISOhunt.com and pirated WinXPsp3 pro and haven't had any problems with it.

Punish the customers. Its like EQ1!

 

[FFed]

You can get a hack available on torrents for activating windows in safe mode.

 

[Cl1mh4224rd]

Boot off the XP install CD and do a repair install. The XP Activation process must be broken, because it should let you in but allow you to do nothing but stare at the Welcome screen and activate. If it's not even doing that, then there definitely is something wrong.

I can get to the Welcome screen. It's when I click on a user account to log in that it complains about needing to activate before allowing me to log in. At this point, as I understand it, clicking "Yes" should bring me to a "Let's Activate Windows!" screen where it would give me the choice of activating over the Internet, by phone, or doing something else. Instead of that screen, I see my brother-in-law's desktop wallpaper and nothing else. A minute or two later, it logs out of the account and I'm back at the Welcome screen.

Was the networking functioning before you got locked out?

It should have been, but I hadn't checked it out as I didn't have a network cable readily available at the time. The first time I went into Safe Mode, though, it detected the NIC as new hardware. I installed the drivers (in Safe Mode), but I still have the same problem.

I've seen this type of problem lots of times, the only way I've found to activate Windows is to make a phonecall to the MS Activation Service helpdesk.

If I had that option, I would have. Unfortunately, even if I did call Microsoft, they'd have to figure how to get me to the point where I could enter in any activation information whatsoever. Frankly, I don't trust their tech support to know their ass from a hole in the ground.

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ETA: If there's any possible way to go about this without nuking the current install, I want to try it first. If it was my own system, I'd reinstall in a heartbeat, but it isn't.

Does anyone know if you can run XP Pro's Backup utility from Safe Mode? If I could do a full system backup first, reinstalling might not be so unappealing.

He also has some security software (Trend Micro Internet Security, for one) that it just occured to me might be causing some problems, so I may try uninstalling those when I get back home.

 

[a_unique_person]

The moral of this story, when family assumes you know anything about computers, just play dumb. I wasted many days on such problems.