XP Corporate Activation?

[Guest]

All,
I work for a company that has been using XP Corporate across our network
however recently we have had a few machines come back to us.

The users basically are being asked to activate the product which, as I
understand it, shouldnt be required with XP Corporate?

They stated that the system crashed and it was after the reboot that we have
had to activate the product. It is across various sites, the problem isn't
local to just one site and we dont know how to get around the problem outside
of rebuilding the machine.

We dont have recovery disks due to having to store 1000+ CD's or floppies so
we are really at a loss.

XP is running well on most PC's just had a few of these activation problems
appear over the last few days and we, as of yet, cant find a cause!

Regards,
Paul M

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Microsoft never released a version of Windows XP known as "Corporate".
Are you referring to a "Volume License" version, "OEM version" or a
"Retail Version"?

Deploying Windows XP Using Windows Product Activation
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/wpadepl.mspx

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect Your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.aspx

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

:

| All,
| I work for a company that has been using XP Corporate across our network
| however recently we have had a few machines come back to us.
|
| The users basically are being asked to activate the product which, as I
| understand it, shouldnt be required with XP Corporate?
|
| They stated that the system crashed and it was after the reboot that we have
| had to activate the product. It is across various sites, the problem isn't
| local to just one site and we dont know how to get around the problem outside
| of rebuilding the machine.
|
| We dont have recovery disks due to having to store 1000+ CD's or floppies so
| we are really at a loss.
|
| XP is running well on most PC's just had a few of these activation problems
| appear over the last few days and we, as of yet, cant find a cause!
|
| Regards,
| Paul M

 

[Guest]

Sorry Carey!

As far as I am aware it is a Volume License that we have here as the product
doesn't require any sort of activation during an install of the product onto
any number of PC's.

I did find the following from a google group:
Go to start/run, and type regsvr32.exe regwizc.dll OK, then, regsvr32.exe
licdll.dll

This worked on one of the problem PC's and has surpressed the activation
message and the user has been able to log in successfully however I still
have 2 more PC's that have the same problem and wasnt sure if this was a
permanent fix or a temporary fix.

Also there is the problem of why this is happening in the 1st place as we
cant seem to find out much other than the problem seems to appear after the
PC crashes.

Paul

 

[SpongeBob SquarePants]

I've seen this happen on volume license before and the 2 reasons we've seen
the most are:
1) PC Crash and the license info in the registry gets corrupted - i.e. the
fix you've mention corrects that problem.
2) The user takes an XP Pro Retail version (upgrade or full) and does a
repair installation on the volume license installation, thus overwriting the
important licensing files, causing it to require activation. These required
reimaging with for the new employee(s) to get the PC afterwards - i.e. as
the previous user was let go due to violation of company policy concerning
PC use.

--
"SpongeBob SquarePants"
"Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?"

Small Note: If you want to learn how to fix/do something, I'll point you to
it, but if you want me to do your work for you, it will cost you $50 USD per
hour - your choice.

 

[Guest]

From what we can tell the user's arn't actually doing anything to the
machines outside normal work, most are desktops in fact.

We dont have any recovery CD's or Disks for specific machines due to the
logistical nightmare of trying to keep that information up to date.

The only thing that I can think of that causes this is the problem of the
corrupt registry, so Ill just continue to use the fix and hope that we dont
get the activation thing appear again!

Paul

 

[Guest]

I have no idea what causes your problems. Other than what's already been
suggested.

But I do have a question...

What kind of incompetent company doesn't keep a copy of the software they
buy???! Even keeping 1,000 cd's easily fits into a closet. And probably
fewer would be needed because most would be identical.

When you buy a volume license, you don't get a cd for every computer. You
get one cd and a license to use it on "XYZ" number of computers. There are
no "recovery" cd's for the volume license versions.

When you install on multiple machines, you either do it one at a time,
followed by manually installing the required drivers, or you create an
'image' for that particular type of system and you just slap it on, followed
by very little final customization.

Are you seriously telling us that your IT department is so screwed up they
throw everything away?

And that they are so incompetent that they haven't even thought to contact
their Microsoft volume representative to see about getting a replacement cd?

I honest and truely find it very *VERY* had to believe that the IT
department you are working in doesn't keep a copy of critical software.

 

[Guest]

It is most likely that there is a mismatch between product key and the
license file. It could be the result of a crash (however remote it is)...

Can you tell me what sort of error messsge do you see on these machines?

Ning