Update says key is invalid, I KNOW it's not!

I did a complete wipe/fresh install of Win2K Pro, hardened it per
instructions here:

http://www.claymania.com/windows2000-hardening.html

and got sp4, the security rollup for sp4, and ie 6. I then had to search
and separately get the Winhttp 5.something, BITS 2.0, and installer 3.1,
because the automatic update thing kept failing the installs of them. Now,
however, when searching for further updates, after being told that update
had to validate this version of windows, I keep getting an invalid product
key error. I thought maybe this was due to steps in the hardening, so I
undid all of them, and it still says I have an invalid product key.

Now, this key is valid, man, I have the retail disk and sticker right here,
and checked that it was entered right.

I realize I can get the fixes by using Automatic Update instead of doing it
manually, but this invalid key thing really disturbs me. I bought this in
2001, paying full price, so I don't see why this is happening.

Has this happened to anyone else? Installing on Dell Dimension (also
purchased in 2001, but w/ Windows98. Again, I did FULL wipe and install,
not upgrade, deleted partition and everything.

Any tips, advice, fixes, would be appreciated.


.

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