XP activation window is blank.

[Garry Collins]

Hi,

I have had an XP upgrade running over ME for over a year. Recently I have
changed hardware to fix a few problems. Now XP has given me three days to
re-activate it. Unfortunately when I try and activate it, the pop up
activation window is blank, with two "missing graphics" boxes in each top
corner..

I have tried making Firefox, then IE my default browser, turning off all
firewalls and protection, saying ON to all Active-X settings, all to no avail.

Can I delete an Axtive-X "someting" and force a re-install of the activation
script?

Any other ideas?

Two days to go now ....

Thanks,

Garry.

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

Go to start/run, and type
regsvr32.exe regwizc.dll
OK, then,
regsvr32.exe licdll.dll

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Mark L. Ferguson
..

 

[Garry Collins]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for that.

I tried it and got two "success" messages, but the activate window still
comes up blank. I tried rebooting after doing as you suggested as well, but
with the same results.


Garry.

 

[Mark L. Ferguson]

Some file is corrupt. I would suspect WPA.dat. It records the successful
activation. I would try renaming it to see if that allows you to reactivate.

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[Garry Collins]

Hi Mark,

Many thanks for your reply, unfortunately my time is up, and XP will no
longer boot

If I boot off a CD however, I can't find a file called WPA.dat (On the C:\
drive)

There is a WPA.bak in system32, if I copy that to WPA.dat (just to see what
happens), still no joy.

It seems to me that the process is working as it should, just that the
application or script that is invoked is either corrupt, or calls/relys on
something that is either missing or corrupt.

I tried to "repair" XP from the original XP CD, but, as it is SP1, and the
installation is now SP2, I would probably have to do a full re-install.

Is the activation program built into XP, or is it something that XP
downloads when it needs it. If so, is there anyway I could "kill it" so that
it forces XP to download it again?

Thanks
Garry.

 

[Garry Collins]

Hi Mark,

Just for the fun of it, I renamed the system32/00be directory (where the
activation executable lives) and grabbed a copy off another XP machine. Sadly
it runs (or not) exactly the same, so if there is something missing or
corrupt, it is probably not there. (Unless I have triggered some sort of
"anti tamper"?)

 

[Garry Collins]

Hi Mark,

As I was getting to the point of desperation, I re-installed XP (SP1) over
the top of the SP2 installation.
All went smoothly, and the XP installer found all my applications, network
settings etc. and I ended up with a stable laptop running SP1

As an aside, when the activation window popped up, for roughly half a second
it looked the same, a blank box with two small boxes in the top corners, but
then there was a flurry of disk activity, and hey presto, all the activation
text appeared. I would love to know what was missing

Thanks for your help anyway.

Garry.