xp pro activation

[MRN]

had to re-intall xp pro, when i get to the last start up it tells me i must
activate before going on. i went in safe mode installed all drivers then
restarted and told it to activate. it went through the motions and it said it
activated. when i restarted the same thing all over. what might cause this?

thx

 

[Mark Adams]

had to re-intall xp pro, when i get to the last start up it tells me i must
activate before going on. i went in safe mode installed all drivers then
restarted and told it to activate. it went through the motions and it said it
activated. when i restarted the same thing all over. what might cause this?

thx

What caused it is a screw up of the activation process. You've got a
legitimate license, call Microsoft and have them straighten it out.

 

[JS]

Did you change/set the clock somewhere in this process.

 

[MRN]

no clock has not been changed. i have re-installed twice with the same
problem. one other anomally is, when it first comes up if i activate over
phone the is no installation id.?

 

[MRN]

another twist i just tried to get into windows again and it said it has to
activate i say yes and it tells me it is already activated, but won't get by
the have to activate message.?

 

[Big_Al]

MRN said this on 4/29/2009 9:25 PM:

had to re-intall xp pro, when i get to the last start up it tells me i must
activate before going on. i went in safe mode installed all drivers then
restarted and told it to activate. it went through the motions and it said it
activated. when i restarted the same thing all over. what might cause this?

thx

I'm guessing that your PC needs drivers to make the nic card work? You
don't say, but if that's the case then try slipstreaming them into the
CD so the install brings up a working PC from the get go and the initial
activation works there.

 

[JS]

Try the Activate By Phone option.
You will see a long string of numbers that
the Tech. on the other end of the phone will
ask you to read. It sometimes happens that
the string of numbers is invalid and Microsoft
will ask you to make a second attempt, the second
time around usually works.

 

[Jose]

another twist i just tried to get into windows again and it said it has to
activate i say yes and it tells me it is already activated, but won't getby
the have to activate message.?

Does the message really say "...must activate before going on" or
something else?

If you do a Google search for: must activate windows

There are links to what sounds like a similar problem inflicted by
some malware. These people have the issue on every rebott - like
you. Several methods of resolving the problem are listed. Sounds
like some malware is creating the condition every time you reboot. It
is discussed quite thoroughly and eventually resolved.

Not every anti program will detect everything so even if you have
already done a scan and have products installed and think you are
golden, these results seem to talk about your exact problem and it is
caused by malware.

I would run download Malwarebytes, update it and do a full scan, but
if you look at the Google results involving Spybot, it tells you some
specific things to look for (that you may not be able to fix without
their instructions). Spybot has lost its luster with me, but they do
discuss it in some detail which is educational.

Try MBAM and Spybot.

 

[VanguardLH]

had to re-intall xp pro, when i get to the last start up it tells me i must
activate before going on. i went in safe mode installed all drivers then
restarted and told it to activate. it went through the motions and it said it
activated. when i restarted the same thing all over. what might cause this?

For a fresh install, you must activate before the 30-day trial period
expires. You have that long to get your Internet connection working.
You never mentioned if you can connect to web sites.

 

[Jose]

another twist i just tried to get into windows again and it said it has to
activate i say yes and it tells me it is already activated, but won't getby
the have to activate message.?

You can certainly try to install again, but what you describe is
already been dealt with as a classic malware infection. Every time
the system is rebooted (or restarted), the malware will delete or
create whatever it needs to in order to cause Windows to think it has
not been activated when it already has - if you activate again, you
will see this message every time the system is restarted.

I guess it depends on how much time you have. You said you already
reinstalled once. Plus, if you reinstall and whatever happened to
break it before happens again (maybe a WWW site visit) or it still
doesn't work, you will be stuck again with the same problem. Maybe
reinstalling is the only option to fix it, but I would at least give
the others a shot.

I don't know all the details, but activation is required (registration
is optional) and is based on your product ID and a snapshot of your
hardware, so if the same product ID is used on another computer with
different enough hardware than what Microsoft thinks you have (from a
previous activation) you will have to talk to them and explain things
to get a good code. Maybe you replaced all your hardware or the
motherboard or something along with your install. This inhibits
installing the same product ID on completely different hardware (aka
piracy).

Yes - you need to at least get on the Internet to troubleshoot and try
the less painful options.