I have two machines in he shop which had to have XP repaired. They both have
XP Home SP3, with legit COA’s. Unfortunately, when I get to the logon screen,
it tells me that this copy of XP must be activated before I can log on – do I
want to activate now?

Well, yes, of course I do. But, when I say Yes, I just get the desktop
wallpaper – no icons, machine stops there, nothing I can do but switch off.

So I tried Safe Mode... “You can’t log on without activating. You can’t
activate in Safe Mode. Please now slit your wrists”.

What can I do please? I have two customers who are getting very impatient.

Thanks a lot

"Hogweed" <(E-Mail Removed)> said this in news item
newsDF45B78-E438-4BD6-836E-(E-Mail Removed)...
> I have two machines in he shop which had to have XP repaired. They both
> have
> XP Home SP3, with legit COA’s. Unfortunately, when I get to the logon
> screen,
> it tells me that this copy of XP must be activated before I can log on –
> do I
> want to activate now?
>
> Well, yes, of course I do. But, when I say Yes, I just get the desktop
> wallpaper – no icons, machine stops there, nothing I can do but switch
> off.
>
> So I tried Safe Mode... “You can’t log on without activating. You can’t
> activate in Safe Mode. Please now slit your wrists”.
>
> What can I do please? I have two customers who are getting very impatient.
>
> Thanks a lot

I would ring the nearest Microsoft office.