registration error?

[Tom LK]

I was trying to help one of my friends as her computer stopped working.
(running windows xp professional english version)
The problem is : when logging in, the computer says windows has to be
registred/reactivated, when logging in, a message apears that says windows
has already been registred and is ok, but the only option is to press the ok
button in the down right corner of the box, when doing that windows logs out
again and so we keep going on... ( no right click options/windows
start/anything at all is active while this is running )
I tried safe mode with network, same result, safe mode without network, same
result, no matter what option from the F8 choices, I get the same message.
Its a laptop computer, and it has had the harddisk replaced a few months ago.
Should I be looking for virus/malware?
Or could it be some sort of windows bug?
She claims to have not done anything (she might have but wont say/dont know).
I have thought of booting a knoppix cd and search for virus from there,
would that be an idea?
Any suggestions would be great.

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

Replacing the hard drive has corrupted the authentication .dat file. You
should try a repair setup.
315341 - How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation or Repair) of
Windows XP: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341
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Mark L. Ferguson MS-MVP
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[Ken Blake]

I was trying to help one of my friends as her computer stopped working.
(running windows xp professional english version)
The problem is : when logging in, the computer says windows has to be
registred/reactivated,

Let me make that much clearer: do not look for a way to get it registered.
Registration is used by Microsoft for marketing purposes only, and it
entirely unnnecessry. It is completely optional. What is required is
activation.

 

[Tom LK]

Ok, thanks, Ill try and see if she has the original cd's somewhere, but I
doubt it. It is an oem version that came bundled with the laptop.
If she do not have them, I will be installing linux instead for her. That
way she will at least be able to use the computer legally since I sincerly
doubt it will be able to run vista without major upgrades, and xp is sort of
not sold anymore.

 

[Tom LK]

Yes, and how do you suggest i do that? is there a secret "hold down these 16
buttons at the same time and windows runs perfect again trick"? ;-) because
it sort of says that it is okay already, and then logs out, in a never ending
loop, as I wrote, further down in my original message, a bit below where you
wrote your comment.
Kind regards