Re-Activation Request for minor hardware change

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Guest

Hi,

Is it common for re-activation requests to pop up for every little change in
hardware?

I have added hard disks, fiddled with Raid setups and IDE setups that
included PCI based controllers, swapped video boards, changed out system
memory, etc. and for nearly every one of those changes, I was required to
re-activate my XP Home software. Is this normal?

I ranted at MS about it the last time it happened. They keep saying I am on
a new computer but the MB and CPU have not changed - they could ID both of
those if they wanted to.

To me this borders on harassment and that is why I ranted to MS about it.

Anyone else run into this? What was your reaction?

Thanks.
 
Leland Sheppard said:
Hi,

Is it common for re-activation requests to pop up for every little change
in
hardware?

I have added hard disks, fiddled with Raid setups and IDE setups that
included PCI based controllers, swapped video boards, changed out system
memory, etc. and for nearly every one of those changes, I was required to
re-activate my XP Home software. Is this normal?

I ranted at MS about it the last time it happened. They keep saying I am
on
a new computer but the MB and CPU have not changed - they could ID both of
those if they wanted to.

To me this borders on harassment and that is why I ranted to MS about it.

Anyone else run into this? What was your reaction?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Do you have a Retail version or an OEM version?

I am always fiddling with several computers here, adding/removing memory,
hard drives, SCSI cards, I have even upgraded a CPU from a standard 2.6 Ghz
P4 to a 2.8Ghz with HyperThreading. I have never been prompted to
re-activate Windows XP Professional. I should say that I work almost
exclusively on the OEM version of the Professional Edition.

I wonder if the Retail version is a little more sensitive?
 
Hi,

That's a very interesting question.

I just went and checked and it is the OEM version of XP Home that I have...

"For distribution only with a new PC" and on the label with the serial
number/product key: "Windows XP Home Edition OEM Product"

I built the PC and bought XP from the same place where I bought the parts.

Could it be the difference between Home and Professional?

Thanks for responding.
 
Hi,

That's a very interesting question.

I just went and checked and it is the OEM version of XP Home that I have...

"For distribution only with a new PC" and on the label with the serial
number/product key: "Windows XP Home Edition OEM Product"

I built the PC and bought XP from the same place where I bought the parts.

Could it be the difference between Home and Professional?

Thanks for responding.
Click to expand...

I've encountered a PA request just buy changing video card drivers. It looks
like MS has a "flaw" in their Product Activation system.

BTW: I located once a utility which allowed me to "view" the Product
Activation "tokens" (info used to generate the machine id for Product
Activation requests.)
 
Have had that wrt the driver inst also. Last time, it insisted that I had
changed the hardware so much I had only 3 days to activate. Was nothing new
on the machine from the day it was 'born'. :-{

Would be curious to see what the PA tokens were, can you give a link?

Thanks,
Joe
 
Leland Sheppard said:
Hi,

That's a very interesting question.

I just went and checked and it is the OEM version of XP Home that I have...

"For distribution only with a new PC" and on the label with the serial
number/product key: "Windows XP Home Edition OEM Product"

I built the PC and bought XP from the same place where I bought the parts.

Could it be the difference between Home and Professional?
Click to expand...


No.

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."
 
Leland Sheppard said:
Hi,

Is it common for re-activation requests to pop up for every little change in
hardware?

I have added hard disks, fiddled with Raid setups and IDE setups that
included PCI based controllers, swapped video boards, changed out system
memory, etc. and for nearly every one of those changes, I was required to
re-activate my XP Home software. Is this normal?

I ranted at MS about it the last time it happened. They keep saying I am on
a new computer but the MB and CPU have not changed - they could ID both of
those if they wanted to.

To me this borders on harassment and that is why I ranted to MS about it.

Anyone else run into this? What was your reaction?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Windows XP monitors hardware changes on a cumulative basis, based on
the hardware that was found the last time Windows was activated. So
if, over a period of time you make a number of hardware changes it is
possible, even likely, that eventually you will make a change that
will require reactivation. That would be normal and expected.

However it is not normal for Windows to require reactivation *every*
time a single hardware component is changed. That is abnormal
behavior and something is amiss somewhere.

When you reactivate Windows the activation control records stored in
your computer should be replaced with new ones based on the hardware
actually found at that time, and that should be the new "zero changes"
base for deciding when and if a future reactivation is needed.

Look at the file WPA.BAK in your \Windows\System32 folder. The create
date for this file should correspond to your most recent Windows
activation.

One this you could try is to repair the registry entries for the .DLL
files used by activation:

Use Start- Run and enter the following text in the dialog box:
regsvr32.exe regwizc.dll

Then do it again with the following text:
regsvr32.exe licdll.dll

Also for information about how activation works (or is supposed to
work when it is functioning correctly) see the article by the late
Alex Nichol MVP at http://aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.htm

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."
 
Hi Ron,

Thanks very much for both of your responses.

Given the way mine behaved (many changes before first re-activation, few
changes since for each one), it sounds like it did NOT get zeroed out after
the first re-activation.

I just checked the date on wpa.bak and it is July 16th, 2005. Sounds like
my griping at MS did some good. I've fiddled with the hardware since then
and have not gotten a new request. Either that, or it got zeroed out then
and I haven't accumulated enough...

I ran regsvr32 against the 2 .dlls and in both cases it said it succeeded.
What did it succeed in doing?

I will check out the article. I also double clicked on the wpa help file I
spotted in system32 and read through that. Had not seen that one before
either.

Thanks very much for your thoughts and suggestions in both reponses.
 
Hi again Ron,

I read the article you mentioned and downloaded XP-Info and installed and
ran it.

It lists 10 items and 9 of them are checked. Does that mean it thinks that
9 of them have changed or just that they are being watched? The only one not
checked was MAC address; I can't remember what that is???

I was thinking NIC but I don't have one on a card and the adapter on the MB
is disabled.

If it thinks those items have all changed since the last activation
(7/16/05) that would be wrong... MB and CPU for sure are the same. VSN for
the boot drive shouldn't have changed since then.

I was swapping hardware regularly for a while because of a crash I was
encountering but MB and CPU remained the same throughout.

Maybe this is the 'not getting zeroed' situation?
 
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