'Windows Product Activation' keeps looping

[Guest]

Hi,

Every time I try to logon I get a message 'The copy of Windows must be
activated with Microsoft before you can log on. Do you want to activate
Windows now?'

I then select 'Yes' and get a box saying that Windows has already been
activated and it loops me back to the logon screen where I'm back at square
one. How can I avoid going through this loop and actually logon. Please
advise. Thank you!

Rob D.

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Windows XP Logs You Off When You Try to Activate the Product
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330136/en-us

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| Hi,
|
| Every time I try to logon I get a message 'The copy of Windows must be
| activated with Microsoft before you can log on. Do you want to activate
| Windows now?'
|
| I then select 'Yes' and get a box saying that Windows has already been
| activated and it loops me back to the logon screen where I'm back at square
| one. How can I avoid going through this loop and actually logon. Please
| advise. Thank you!
|
| Rob D.

 

[Ron Martell]

Hi,

Every time I try to logon I get a message 'The copy of Windows must be
activated with Microsoft before you can log on. Do you want to activate
Windows now?'

I then select 'Yes' and get a box saying that Windows has already been
activated and it loops me back to the logon screen where I'm back at square
one. How can I avoid going through this loop and actually logon. Please
advise. Thank you!

Rob D.

Try booting the computer into Safe Mode. To start the computer in
Safe Mode turn it on and start tapping the F8 key when the first
information of any kind shows on the screen. Keep tapping until the
Windows XP Startup Menu appears and choose Safe Mode from the menu.

After it has booted try repairing the registy 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

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."

 

[Guru]

Hi!
I have the same problem and have been struggling to resolve it for 3 days
now. I have talked to Microsoft 3 times and the only thing they will say is
"talk to tech support". When I talked to tech support I was told was that
"there was something wrong with your computer" and offered 3 options:
self-help on support.microsoft.com or paid email and/or phone support. I am
repairing a customer's bespoke PC that had data corruption. I don't know who
the manufacturer is. The XP licence sticker is on the case. The XP install CD
turned out to be damaged so I am using a CD from another system. I have read
of people who create bootable CDs with XP service packs and updates and who
still manage to install XP on systems, so I do not expect the media to be a
source of this problem. Roy Martell's solution has no affect at all. I ended
up using the steps here
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/312295/en-us to deactivate the
XP installation and successfully went through the activation process again,
but with the same result.

Someone, somewhere must know why this happens an how to fix it, but I have
poured through forums to no avail.

Any help will be received very gratefully.

Regards

Guru

 

[kooookeeee]

Hi!
I have the same problem and have been struggling to resolve it for 3 days
now. I have talked to Microsoft 3 times and the only thing they will say is
"talk to tech support". When I talked to tech support I was told was that
"there was something wrong with your computer" and offered 3 options:
self-help on support.microsoft.com or paid email and/or phone support.  I am
repairing a customer's bespoke PC that had data corruption. I don't know who
the manufacturer is. The XP licence sticker is on the case. The XP install CD
turned out to be damaged so I am using a CD from another system. I have read
of people who create bootable CDs with XP service packs and updates and who
still manage to install XP on systems, so I do not expect the media to bea
source of this problem. Roy Martell's solution has no affect at all. I ended
up using the steps herehttp://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/312295/en-usto deactivate the
XP installation and successfully went through the activation process again,
but with the same result.

Someone, somewhere must know why this happens an how to fix it, but I have
poured through forums to no avail.

Any help will be received very gratefully.

Regards

Guru

Hi All,
Re: XP Activation Loop.

Well, it was a challenge when I got someones system to update with a
Windows key.
I used the Windows Product Key Update Tool.
First event happened after install I further had to phone the MS 1-888
number
to validate their windows. Mssg tells you it will take under 6min. So
you continue and
enter your number, they give you an activation number and on finish
you get a screen confirming your
activation of Windows. So you think its done.
But then the endless loop!

Fix that worked - I started in safe mode, did the reg edit posted
above by Ron (ty Ron) installed SP3 which
on completion had the full blue screen to turn on Windows Update. Then
a confirmation screen from the
Windows Product Key Update Tool confirmed activation. Rebooted and all
is well.

SP3 update and Ron's Reg edit above fixed the XP Activation Loop.

Cheers
kookie

 

[Guru]

Hi! Thanks to Kooookeeee for rattling my cage and reminding me to come back
and update this thread. My apologies for not doing this earlier. Having tried
various windows XP installation cds (gold and restore versions)
unsuccessfully, a colleague and I finally used an unactivated CD WITH SP3,
installed XP using the unactivated key, then used the Windows Activation
screen to change the product key to the key on the pc case and then activated
the installation (this allowed us to keep the unactivated licence key!). The
activation went through fine online (no need to phone MS) and the looping
problem disappeared. Although I am not a 100% sure about this, I think it was
the fact that the CD was SP3 that delivered the final activated version,
rather than the fact that we used an unactivated CD for the installation. I
had been planning on slipstreaming SP3 into an install CD but then got access
to an original with SP3 already on it.
Regards,
Guru

 

[Putermaker]

Just an FYI... I fixed my identical error the same way kookie did...
re-registered the files and installed SP3 in Safe Mode from a thumb drive.
After the install/restart all seems to be working normally. Thanks for the
information!!

Putermaker