Cannot Re-activate after repair of windows

[Guest]

After repairing a windows xp home oem installation (due to a bsod error) it
expectedly asks me to activate on my first reboot, however when i press yes
to reactivate it I get logged out (just as if i have pressed no).

I think the oobe timer needs to be deleted but i am not sure and I can't
remember how i did it last time this happend.....

Any advice please would be very helpful

 

[Guest]

328874 - How to change the Volume Licensing product key on a Windows XP
SP1-based computer: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=328874

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the reply, but looking at the answer there is a big warning

'Warning The steps in the article are effective only on Volume License
media. If you try these steps on OEM media or on retail media, you will not
change the product key'

I do not need to change the product key, I just want to re-activate. So in
that respect I am a bit dubious about how successfull this fix would be.

As stated the version of windows is windows xp home oem and not the leaked
VLC corp version

 

[Guest]

Sorry, also I am unable to log into the computer to enter any information so
the link is definatly not viable in my case.

If i remember correctly, last time i had to do this i went in via the
recovery console

 

[Guest]

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Current Version\WPAEvents ,
OOBETimer,(Change one digit)

start/run : "%systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a" Click Yes, I want to
telephone a customer service representative, Next. Click Change Product key.
Type same old key, click Update. click Remind me later, restart, and activate.

 

[Guest]

Again thank you for the reply, but how can I do what you ask when I cannot
log into windows (even in safe mode)

 

[Guest]

You should be able to enter Safe Mode in spite of not being activated.
Something else is wrong with the repair.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

You should be able to enter Safe Mode in spite of not being activated.

Unfortunately that sometimes is not correct. If the activation has lapsed
you cannot log in in any mode. Attempts to log into a de-activated system
in Safe Mode are met with a screen requiring activation.

You *should* get an activation wizard that eventually presents you with the
option to phone, but sometimes that doesn't happen either.

Instead, in some cases, you're told that you can't log in because the
system is de-activated, you click yes to attempt to activate; this fails,
and you're told that you can't log in because the system is de-activated.
This game runs as long as you want to play.

At no point are you given any way to break out of the loop other than by
powering down and walking away.

Something else is wrong with the repair.

That's a bit of an understatement.

I believe the technical term for this circumstance is "screwed".

The only reasonable thing I found to do was to image the drive, then wipe it
and do a clean install. Activation occurred properly and all was well.
Then I restored data files from the image and used the image structure as a
guide for installing other apps.

HTH
-pk

 

[Guest]

Thanks for all your help, in the end i just plugged the hard drive into a 2nd
PC to strip out the files & settings then clean installed it again fine.

However i have had to fix this issue before quite a while ago by deleting
some files via the repair console (my memory isn't as good as it used to be),
there really should be a better answer for this...any one?