Windows XP Pro Activation loop question (grrrrr)

[Guest]

Having discovered an illegitimate key at a new clients' site, I used the MS
provided key changer to change the key to a legitimate OEM copy that
originally came with the machine. That went fine. On reboot however, XP says
it needs to activate itself and has an "ok" button only (no option for
telephone activation etcetera - just "ok"). When you click on "ok" a new
screen pops up that says "this copy is activated already" and also has - only
- a single "ok" button. When you click that, the system logs you off.
Lather-rinse-repeat.

Safe mode won't run without activation so that's out.
Repair install doesn't fix the problem so that's out.

Any suggestions or anybody else run into the same thing? Is there an MS back
door to FORCE activation to occur even if the system *thinks* it's activated
already?

Thanks for any help or abusive mockery offered.

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Having discovered an illegitimate key at a new clients' site, I used the MS
provided key changer to change the key to a legitimate OEM copy that
originally came with the machine. That went fine. On reboot however, XP says
it needs to activate itself and has an "ok" button only (no option for
telephone activation etcetera - just "ok"). When you click on "ok" a new
screen pops up that says "this copy is activated already" and also has - only
- a single "ok" button. When you click that, the system logs you off.
Lather-rinse-repeat.

Safe mode won't run without activation so that's out.
Repair install doesn't fix the problem so that's out.

Any suggestions or anybody else run into the same thing? Is there an MS back
door to FORCE activation to occur even if the system *thinks* it's activated
already?

Thanks for any help or abusive mockery offered.

Try this solution, posted by Carey Frisch, MS-MVP:


Boot into "Safe Mode" by pressing (F8) during a reboot.

Go to Start > Run and type: regsvr32 regwizc.dll , and hit enter. Then
go again to Start > Run and type: regsvr32 licdll.dll , and hit enter
again.


--

Bruce Chambers

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[Guest]

Thanks Bruce - but Safe Mode (and thus the reg fix) is unavailable... it
indicates that I have to be activated before I can run safe mode :-(

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Thanks Bruce - but Safe Mode (and thus the reg fix) is unavailable... it
indicates that I have to be activated before I can run safe mode :-(

I've been in that exact spot.

There does seem to be a deadlock condition, triggered by a key change, where
you can't get to safe mode, can't get the phone number prompt for
activation, and the system won't recognise connected ethernet hardware so it
can't activate itself. And it won't proceed without activating, which it
won't allow.

Your only options seem to be to watch the machine insist on rebooting, or
turn the power off.

Unfortunately, the only way I could find out of it was to start over from
formatted with the correct key.

That means, of course, that the installed apps will need to be re-installed.
My preferred approach to that is to use a new drive, leaving the old one for
reference and as the backup source for copying the data files into place.
I think this is the fastest and safest way to work around the problem.
New drives are not expensive, I see 80 gig drives for around CDN$50.
Otherwise, you have to back up the old drive first, and the client watches
you bill for the time the backup runs.

On the other hand, there may be something you can do from the recovery
console, using the kind of thing you'd do when registry components go bad.
You might try this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

Hope this works out for you.
-pk