problems with windows update/authentication

[Guest]

Sometimes, (but not all the time) when I atempt to access windows update it
tells me that windows is not activated, or authenticated, at other times it
lets me on fine. When it is not working if I check, system information it
says Activation Pending (30 days remaining) on a laptop I have had for about
6 months. if I try to run oobe/msoobe /a to activate, since the activate
windows icon is not in system tools, it says windows is already activated.
this is with Windows XP home edition 5.1.2600 sevice pack 2 build 2600, on a
Dell XPS M170. Any help greatly apreciated, also I think I have this in the
right section but if I do not, please let me know and point me in the correct
direction

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Reboot your computer into "Safe Mode".
While in Safe Mode, rename the wpa.dbl and wpa.bak files located in the
\Windows\system32 folder.

This will force activation on the following boot,
but should remove the message that you are already activated message.
Sometimes if these files get corrupted, they can cause this type of problem.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

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:

| Sometimes, (but not all the time) when I atempt to access windows update it
| tells me that windows is not activated, or authenticated, at other times it
| lets me on fine. When it is not working if I check, system information it
| says Activation Pending (30 days remaining) on a laptop I have had for about
| 6 months. if I try to run oobe/msoobe /a to activate, since the activate
| windows icon is not in system tools, it says windows is already activated.
| this is with Windows XP home edition 5.1.2600 sevice pack 2 build 2600, on a
| Dell XPS M170. Any help greatly apreciated, also I think I have this in the
| right section but if I do not, please let me know and point me in the correct
| direction

 

[Guest]

thank you for the quick reply. Unfortunatly, it does not appear to work, I
renamed wpa.dbl to wpaOLD.dbl, but could not find wpa.bak, even with hidden
files turned on, doing a search turned up a wpa.dbl in c:\i386 but still no
wpa.bak I renamed that wpa as well to see if it would work, still no luck. Is
there another folder wpa.bak could be in, I can not find it manually in
normal or in safe mode, nor will search find it even when told to search in
expanded with all files.
Your Help is greatly apreciated

H