Activating an already activated XP loop

[RC]

I have a pc with windows XP SP1 that I have been using for over a year. The
os is oem and it was already activated when I got it. SP2 is not installed.
Recently, I started getting a message that it needed to be activated. When I
agreed to activate it, I got a message saying it was already activated.
Yesteday I had 2 or 3 weeks left of the countdown to activation. Today it
decided that the countdown was up and wants to be activated again. When I
say yes to activate, it tells me it is already activated and then it reboots
and starts the process all over again.
I can get into safe mode as administrator but I am at a loss as to what to
do next. I will rebuild it and I backed up everything I cared about when I
started to get the message but I would like to get in one more time to get
some settings information that would make my life easier after a rebuild.
How can I activate this machine or stop the loop madness?

 

[big j]

I have a pc with windows XP SP1 that I have been using for over a year. The
os is oem and it was already activated when I got it. SP2 is not installed.
Recently, I started getting a message that it needed to be activated. When I
agreed to activate it, I got a message saying it was already activated.
Yesteday I had 2 or 3 weeks left of the countdown to activation. Today it
decided that the countdown was up and wants to be activated again. When I
say yes to activate, it tells me it is already activated and then it reboots
and starts the process all over again.
I can get into safe mode as administrator but I am at a loss as to what to
do next. I will rebuild it and I backed up everything I cared about when I
started to get the message but I would like to get in one more time to get
some settings information that would make my life easier after a rebuild.
How can I activate this machine or stop the loop madness?

That sounds similar to a problem that I have. I created an image
containing an activiated copy of windows xp pro, and deployed it to
about 100 machines that we have. (We do own licenses for each pc; it
technically came pre-installed.) A couple of days agon, we had about
20 machines that randomly started wanting to be re-activated. At this
point, I am just re-imaging the machines, but we suspect a virus.

 

[Alex Nichol]

That sounds similar to a problem that I have. I created an image
containing an activiated copy of windows xp pro, and deployed it to
about 100 machines that we have. (We do own licenses for each pc; it
technically came pre-installed.) A couple of days agon, we had about
20 machines that randomly started wanting to be re-activated. At this
point, I am just re-imaging the machines, but we suspect a virus.

It may be. Check that the Path does go %Systemroot%\System32 as the
first item; if it does not, correct it, look for a winlogon.exe in
Windows and rename it.

And it may result from some bright spark running a hack to evade
activation. SP2 will kill such machines. Replace with unactivated,
legitimate, copies and then activate them properly. (you really ought
to be using a proper Volume license version of the system)

 

[RC]

"RC" <none> wrote in message

That sounds similar to a problem that I have. I created an image
containing an activiated copy of windows xp pro, and deployed it to
about 100 machines that we have. (We do own licenses for each pc; it
technically came pre-installed.) A couple of days agon, we had about
20 machines that randomly started wanting to be re-activated. At this
point, I am just re-imaging the machines, but we suspect a virus.

I did a repair install and everything is working fine now. It would be fun
to know exactly why it happened though.

 

[techguru100 \(A+\)]

Go into safe mode again, then open Explorer, go to %windir%\System32, then
delete (make sure you back up first!) the WPA.DBL and WPA.BAK files, reboot,
then try activating again