XP home activation code error

[John]

Hi, i have just upgraded to xp home from win me. All went
well until i think xp tried installing another version of
msn messenger, i wasn't able to display task manager to
close down the other msn messenger icon that was still in
the sys tray. On reboot i got this error... "Title:
Windows Product Activation. Text: Some system files are
missing or damaged. You cannot log on at this time. Please
use your installation CD to reinstall or repair Windows.
Error Code:0x80040507." It takes several minutes to
display this when my profile opion should be appearing.
It will then go back to login screen, giving me the option
to login to my profile, but will crash again.

I set the install option to activate the product as soon
as it was booted up. i was on for several hours in which
time we upgraded another pc on the network with the same
key. I found a regedit on the net the sets the activation
key to null but thought doing a repair would not hurt
anything.

I began the repair option from the installtion cd, it
asked for the profile name and password, which i think i
gave and incorrect name to, pass was blank, it procceded
to start back up and setup again, then it failed to
complete and i recieved this error on reboot " windows
could not start because the following file is missing or
corrupt : \windows\system32\config\system ". Now it tries
to scan files and setup a profile each time but fails and
pops up quickly with a lsass.exe error and restarts. Same
thing happens in safe mode. I dont want to do a fresh
install yet and im not confident that using the win me cd
to rollback will successfully keep my files intact. It
seems like its just a problem with my profile and the
security feature of product key activation. The repair log
file was blanck, any help is appriacted, sorry for the
long story. thnks.

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

[Courtesy of MS-MVP Michael Stevens]

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

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

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


| Hi, i have just upgraded to xp home from win me. All went
| well until i think xp tried installing another version of
| msn messenger, i wasn't able to display task manager to
| close down the other msn messenger icon that was still in
| the sys tray. On reboot i got this error... "Title:
| Windows Product Activation. Text: Some system files are
| missing or damaged. You cannot log on at this time. Please
| use your installation CD to reinstall or repair Windows.
| Error Code:0x80040507." It takes several minutes to
| display this when my profile opion should be appearing.
| It will then go back to login screen, giving me the option
| to login to my profile, but will crash again.
|
| I set the install option to activate the product as soon
| as it was booted up. i was on for several hours in which
| time we upgraded another pc on the network with the same
| key. I found a regedit on the net the sets the activation
| key to null but thought doing a repair would not hurt
| anything.
|
| I began the repair option from the installtion cd, it
| asked for the profile name and password, which i think i
| gave and incorrect name to, pass was blank, it procceded
| to start back up and setup again, then it failed to
| complete and i recieved this error on reboot " windows
| could not start because the following file is missing or
| corrupt : \windows\system32\config\system ". Now it tries
| to scan files and setup a profile each time but fails and
| pops up quickly with a lsass.exe error and restarts. Same
| thing happens in safe mode. I dont want to do a fresh
| install yet and im not confident that using the win me cd
| to rollback will successfully keep my files intact. It
| seems like its just a problem with my profile and the
| security feature of product key activation. The repair log
| file was blanck, any help is appriacted, sorry for the
| long story. thnks.

 

[Malke]

Hi, i have just upgraded to xp home from win me. All went
well until i think xp tried installing another version of
msn messenger, i wasn't able to display task manager to
close down the other msn messenger icon that was still in
the sys tray. On reboot i got this error... "Title:
Windows Product Activation. Text: Some system files are
missing or damaged. You cannot log on at this time. Please
use your installation CD to reinstall or repair Windows.
Error Code:0x80040507." It takes several minutes to
display this when my profile opion should be appearing.
It will then go back to login screen, giving me the option
to login to my profile, but will crash again.

I set the install option to activate the product as soon
as it was booted up. i was on for several hours in which
time we upgraded another pc on the network with the same
key. I found a regedit on the net the sets the activation
key to null but thought doing a repair would not hurt
anything.

I began the repair option from the installtion cd, it
asked for the profile name and password, which i think i
gave and incorrect name to, pass was blank, it procceded
to start back up and setup again, then it failed to
complete and i recieved this error on reboot " windows
could not start because the following file is missing or
corrupt : \windows\system32\config\system ". Now it tries
to scan files and setup a profile each time but fails and
pops up quickly with a lsass.exe error and restarts. Same
thing happens in safe mode. I dont want to do a fresh
install yet and im not confident that using the win me cd
to rollback will successfully keep my files intact. It
seems like its just a problem with my profile and the
security feature of product key activation. The repair log
file was blanck, any help is appriacted, sorry for the
long story. thnks.

The long story was good, thanks for the details. My personal opinion
based on what you've described is that you should back up your files
and do a clean install. I don't believe the installation "went well". I
understand you don't want to do this, but I think that is the cleanest
solution. You could try going into Safe Mode and creating a different
user profile if you think the problems are just related to your own
user account. I'm a bit confused about the part where you say you were
trying to install a second machine on the network with the same key. Do
you have a volume license? If not, you need separate licenses for each
computer. If you can't get into Windows to back up your data, boot with
something like Knoppix (Linux distro that runs from cd) and burn the
data onto cd-r's. Then clean install.

Malke

 

[john]

Yes u r right in your understanding, some1 else, who i
told not to, installed it on the backup pc, which is used
for providing support for the "main" pc. I think this has
caused the problem as u where indicating by the fact this
is not allowed.

I followed the recovery console procedure as indicated in
the web addr given and it worked to some extent, where now
im back to my orignal problem of the errorcode 0x80040507.
I can get into safemode now so where should i go from
here? System restore has failed. I now have returned
hope now that i might be able to fix this, is it possible
that if the above did cause the problem, that there is a
reg key i can change somewhere. If not, now at least i can
get back my files, thanks for your help.