OEM Windows XP occasionally requests activation

[Julian]

I have an AcerPower F1 C2.6 256MB system which is 6 months old. The
system has not been changed but it has been fully updated to XP SP2 and
another 256MB RAM was added at the end of November. It sits behind an
SMC firewall and is regularly swept for viruses and spyware.

A couple of weeks ago, when starting up, instead of logging in to XP, I
received a message that "This copy of Windows must be activated with
Microsoft before you can log on. Do you want to activate Windows now?"
Although I understand that this is an OEM version of Windows and should
not require activation, I did so and it responded with a message that
the product key was invalid.

I decided that some corruption may have occurred so I did a System
restore back to a week earlier. However, the problem intermittently
recurs. Perhaps once every 4 or 5 times I log on, and not only at
start-up, I receive this request for activation. Now, I click "No" to
the message, and the system appears to go through the log-off procedure,
but then it logs on normally without me doing anything.

Therefore so far, I am not prevented from using the PC, this message is
just an irritation, but I am concerned because this should not be
happening and I don't know whether one day I may be locked out entirely.

Under what circumstances (if any) should an OEM version of Windows
request activation? Has anyone else come across this behavior before,
and know how to stop it?

 

[Yves Leclerc]

OEM versions require activations Volume Licensing version may/may not
require it.

 

[kurttrail]

I have an AcerPower F1 C2.6 256MB system which is 6 months old. The
system has not been changed but it has been fully updated to XP SP2
and another 256MB RAM was added at the end of November. It sits
behind an SMC firewall and is regularly swept for viruses and spyware.

A couple of weeks ago, when starting up, instead of logging in to XP,
I received a message that "This copy of Windows must be activated with
Microsoft before you can log on. Do you want to activate Windows now?"
Although I understand that this is an OEM version of Windows and
should not require activation, I did so and it responded with a
message that the product key was invalid.

I decided that some corruption may have occurred so I did a System
restore back to a week earlier. However, the problem intermittently
recurs. Perhaps once every 4 or 5 times I log on, and not only at
start-up, I receive this request for activation. Now, I click "No" to
the message, and the system appears to go through the log-off
procedure, but then it logs on normally without me doing anything.

Therefore so far, I am not prevented from using the PC, this message
is just an irritation, but I am concerned because this should not be
happening and I don't know whether one day I may be locked out
entirely.
Under what circumstances (if any) should an OEM version of Windows
request activation? Has anyone else come across this behavior before,
and know how to stop it?

If it is BIOS-Locked by the OEM, activation should only kick in, if the
BIOS is changed to a BIOS that has not been provided by you OEM.

You should contact Acer, and see what they think is going on.

--
Peace!
Kurt
Self-anointed Moderator
microscum.pubic.windowsexp.gonorrhea
http://microscum.com
"Trustworthy Computing" is only another example of an Oxymoron!
"Produkt-Aktivierung macht frei"

 

[1411]

I have an AcerPower F1 C2.6 256MB system which is 6 months old.
The system has not been changed but it has been fully updated to
XP SP2 and another 256MB RAM was added at the end of November. It
sits behind an SMC firewall and is regularly swept for viruses and
spyware.

A couple of weeks ago, when starting up, instead of logging in to
XP, I received a message that "This copy of Windows must be
activated with Microsoft before you can log on. Do you want to
activate Windows now?" Although I understand that this is an OEM
version of Windows and should not require activation, I did so
and it responded with a message that the product key was invalid.

I decided that some corruption may have occurred so I did a
System restore back to a week earlier. However, the problem
intermittently recurs. Perhaps once every 4 or 5 times I log on,
and not only at start-up, I receive this request for activation.
Now, I click "No" to the message, and the system appears to go
through the log-off procedure, but then it logs on normally
without me doing anything.

Therefore so far, I am not prevented from using the PC, this
message is just an irritation, but I am concerned because this
should not be happening and I don't know whether one day I may be
locked out entirely.

Under what circumstances (if any) should an OEM version of
Windows request activation? Has anyone else come across this
behavior before, and know how to stop it?

The guy who works for his money, buys a legal copy of software, is
so inconvenienced by copy protection that don't work. Get a cracked
copy and you will have no problems.