Vista login blocked by Genuine validation

[Hugh Bussell]

I can't login to my Vista machine. I can see all the users on the welcome
screen, but when I try to login, an error message dialog box comes up saying
that there was an unathorized change to windows, and it offers me a link to
online help. The link opens IE to www.microsoft.com/genuine. When I try to go
through the authorization process, downloading and running the code it asks
me to, it tells me my install isn't genuine.

I bought the computer from dell almost a year ago, and it's worked fine
since then. I did notice some drive errors, so I think there must be some
kind of file corruption.

I would normally just give up and reinstall, but I can still access the
shared folders from the machine, and have copied them over. There are still a
few things I wanted from the machine, but I can't login.

I've tried booting from the Windows DVD and using the repair computer tools.
I used the restore wizard to roll back to a restore point, and I used the
command line to run chkdsk /r to fix file system errors, but still I get the
"genuine" problem.

Is there some list of executables that I can copy over to the ailing machine
that might fix the problem? I have an almost identical PC running Vista also,
so I could grab files from there and load by hand (after booting from the
DVD and using the shell). I have all the product keys from the DVD and the
sticker on the PC.

 

[Hugh Bussell]

Brink,

Thanks for the tip. I guess I should have known the trick of entering C: in
the browser address bar to access the file system. You've gotten me a lot
closer to solving this, but I'm still running into obstacles.

I got to the command prompt and tried entering the command from your
suggestion: slmgr -rearm, but I got an error message in a popup window for
"VBScript permission denied". I was logging in with the administrator
account, so I'm confused about the error. I also tried to run the command
suggested by the "Genuine" web page, "net start slsvc" but got the error on
the command line "System error 5 has occured. Access is denied".

I'll try to educate myself on the "net user" command and see if I can adjust
my permission level and try to run the command again.

Thanks,
Hugh

Hugh Bussell;557696 Wrote:

[snip included text from my original message]

 

[Hugh Bussell]

Oops! Just to follow up my own post, when I launched the cmd window, I
neglected to right-click on it and select run as administrator. This
eliminates the "system error 5" for the net start slsvc command, but I now
get another error. Here's the output:

C:\Windows\System32>net start slsvc
The Software Licensing service is starting.
The Software Licensing service could not be started.

A system error has occurred.

System error 54273 has occurred.

The system cannot find message text for message number 0xd401in the message
file for BASE.

In googleing (googling?) the error message, I found a Vista Validation
issues forum at forums.microsoft.com/Genuine, so I'll look around in there
for ideas.

Thanks again,

Hugh

Brink,

Thanks for the tip. I guess I should have known the trick of entering C: in
the browser address bar to access the file system. You've gotten me a lot
closer to solving this, but I'm still running into obstacles.

I got to the command prompt and tried entering the command from your
suggestion: slmgr -rearm, but I got an error message in a popup window for
"VBScript permission denied". I was logging in with the administrator
account, so I'm confused about the error. I also tried to run the command
suggested by the "Genuine" web page, "net start slsvc" but got the error on
the command line "System error 5 has occured. Access is denied".

I'll try to educate myself on the "net user" command and see if I can adjust
my permission level and try to run the command again.

Thanks,
Hugh

Hugh Bussell;557696 Wrote:

[snip included text from my original message]

Hi Hugh,

You may be in "Reduced Functionality Mode". If you are, then you will
need to activate Vista again. You will most likely need to do a phone
activation. These links will show you how to get out of this and how to
activate Vista.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66990-activation.html

and

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/84488-activate-vista-phone.html

Hope it helps you,
Shawn


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brink

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