Installing XP on a brand new hard drive

[Guest]

I am attempting to repair a machine, the original problem being a massive
number of viruses. I formatted the hard-drive, wiped the master boot record
and then reinstalled XP pro, from that point I started windows and was
immediately told that i had to activate windows as the activation period had
expired - not a problem. Chose to activate online, it did it no problem
(seemingly without connecting to the internet) windows logged me off, and
when i tried to log back on again, I was told /again/ i had to activate
windows as the activation period had expired. Try this time and it tells me I
have no working internet connection (not true) so I call the number to do it
by phone, activate it succesfully but the same thing happens when i try to
log on again.

Next step, I bought a new hard drive thinking possibly there is something on
the disk I cant get rid of - new hard drive has the same problem. It is a
legitimate copy of windows with a legitimate serial number.

Please, I'm running out of ideas (and money) to fix this problem! Help,

Many Thanks,

Andy Cole

 

[Jerry]

When XP is initially installed you are given 30-days to activate - so the
fact you are getting a message to immediately activate indicates, to me,
something else is wrong somewhere; especially since you said you formatted
the old drive and then installed a new drive and the same problem continued.

The only other hardware item that would be commen from the 'old' drive to
the 'new' drive is the motherboard itself; so something could have corrupted
the BIOS. Did you try resetting the BIOS/CMOS and/or verifying the latest
BIOS version for your system?

 

[Guest]

Having upgraded the BIOS i'm still having the same problem. Whether trying to
activate over the internet or by phone, the problem doesn't go away. Having
tried different network cards for different MAC addresses etc. nothing seems
to change, I've reinstalled it countless times. I think the machine might go
through the window soon!