Re: False 'Activation' message in XP Home

Replacing the motherboard changes enough hardware to almost guarrantee
triggering re-activation.

Further, replacing the motherboard almost always requires a "repair"
installation of XP, **before** booting into XP, to get the right hardware
drivers installed. It is almost amazing that XP functions at all, unless
the old and new motherboards were the same model.

If the PC came with XP pre-installed from a major PC vendor (e.g., Dell,
Gateway), then the copy of XP was probably BIOS-locked. If you change the
motherboard, the BIOS software changes, and thus the activation fails. The
only ways to replace a motherboard on such a PC, without buying a new
verison of XP, is to let the original PC maker do it.

If the PC was home-built, with a full-retail (or retail upgrade) version of
XP, then you can re-activate as many times as you want. So, just
re-activate. See below, if you are in an activation loop.

If the PC was home-built using an OEM version of XP (cheaper than retail by
about $100), then that verison is locked to the original hardware. There is
no provision in the license to replace the motherboard, even if it dies.
However, I have heard that if you call the 800 number that should appear on
the activation screen, then sometimes you can talk the Microsoft
representative into giving you the code to re-activate.

In your case, the activation software apears to be somewhat confused, since
it permits safe mode. If this is a retail version of XP, you could try a
"repair" installation, which should refresh the XP system files, hopefully
including the activation software. If it is OEM version of XP, a repair is
generall not possible, but check with the PC merndor to be sure. If OEM and
no repair, then there should ber some way to restore the PC to day-one, at
the cost of losing all your personal data. But, if you can get into safe
mode, then you can copy that off of the PC, before the restore.

If what you call safe mode can not copy files, then that is really not the
normal safe mode. Other options to rescue files include "live" LINUX CDs,
such as KNOPPIX. These can boot a PC, without writing to the hard drive,
and copy files out to USB drives. KNOPPIX supports the NTFS file system
often used by XP, as well as FAT32. It does not care about XP file
permissions, but I do not believe that it can handle XP-encrypted files, if
you happended to use that feature.

One other idea: Try searching these newgroups, and others, for topics like
"false activation", "reactivation loop XP", etc. Somewhere I recall reading
something that sounded a bit like your problem, in which part of XP said to
activate, but another said that you were already activated. I found this
at: http://www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk/ProductActivation.htm

The Product Activation data is kept in the wpa.dbl file in the
C:\Windows\System32 folder. If you have access to a master image or backup
copy of that file that was created when the PC was working properly, you can
boot into Safe Mode, open Windows Explorer, and copy the wpa.dbl file into
the C:\Windows\System32 folder. Reboot and you should be back in business.
If that doesn't work, boot into Safe Mode again and delete the wpa.dbl and
wpa.bak files, and reboot. With those files no longer there, Windows XP will
have to reactivate, because it reads them when it checks to see if it is
activated.


"Philip Andrews" <philipfaeunst@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23qB7KFwuHHA.1168@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi,

I get a message on an old installation of XP Home that 'Windows needs
to
be activated'. This follows a major crash, where the power-supply and
motherboard bundle had to be replaced because the machine wouldn't boot at
all. When I click 'OK', the machine things for a few seconds and then
tells
me that Windows is already activated ... pressing 'OK' takes me back to
the
log-in screen. I can get into Windows OK through Safe Mode, where the
message doesn't appear - but not through Nomal Mode. Any help or advice
would be appreciated - the installation is about 4 years old, and appears
to
have run perfectly up until this disaster occurred.

Any help or suggestions would be most welcome.

Cheers,

Philip





.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: XPs Recovery Console Wont Work Because of Invisible Administrator
    ... I recently got a new Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe motherboard with an AMD 4000+ ... Normally, and assuming a retail license (many factory-installed OEM installations are BIOS-locked to a specific chipset and therefore are *not* transferable to a new motherboard - check yours before starting), unless the new motherboard is virtually identical to the one on which the WinXP installation was originally performed, you'll need to perform a repair installation, at the very least: ... a repair on my computer via my Windows Installation disk. ... entering the password to access the repair console, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Seeking upgrade advise for motherboard change with oem windows
    ... to have is that i dont have a disc to "repair" xp. ... internet for my aging pc i wanted to upgrade my current motherboard to allow ... motherboard became faulty 2/3 yrs ago and was replaced under warrantly by the ... you'll need to have a full installation CD ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Boot problems
    ... you need to do a repair ... likely not install and activate on the new motherboard. ... installation with a retail disk should resolve this. ... Insert the Windows XP CD into your computer's CD-ROM drive or DVD-ROM ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Retail version of XP-Pro with new computer
    ... On installation it "tailors" itself to the specific ... transferable to a new motherboard), ... "Jim Carlock" wrote in message ... > the moment is the literal sense of the word repair. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: .startup problems
    ... I've tried partition magic in hopes of creating a small partition and putting a parallel installation on it so I could get to the data I want to save. ... I've tried the repair mode with the installation disk. ... During boot, once it gets past the Windows Logo screen, the screen turns black and stays that way with only the cursor showing. ... The only way I could get a response to get it into safe mode is to remove the battery while in the suspended state described above. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
Loading