Windows Activation

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Psycho_Soldier

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Jan 6, 2005
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I just did a windows installation repair because some system files were corrupted and now when I log in it wants me to activate windows, so I click ok and it logs me back out without giving me a chance to activate. Any solutions?
 
its odd. but if your trying to reactivate a copy of dells or gateway etc etc . those can no longer be activated over the internet you have to call...but its supposed to give you a phone number

try this
How to activate Windows XP by phone
To contact a Microsoft customer service representative to activate Windows by phone, follow these steps: 1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Activate Windows.

Or, click the Windows Activation icon in the notification area.
2. Click Yes, I want to telephone a customer service representative to active Windows now.
3. Click Read the Windows Product Activation Privacy Statement, click Back, and then click Next.
4. Follow the steps in the Activate Windows by phone dialog box, and then click Next.

Note The number appears now and differs based on the location that you select.
5. When activation is completed and you receive the following message, click OK.
You have successfully activated your copy of Windows.
 
You don't understand. It won't let me get into windows at all. The farthest I can get is into the login screen. When I try to login it shows one window, nothing else. That window says I need to activate windows and then when I click ok, I get logged back out. I don't get to the window that says I need to activate by phone. Explorer doesn't even start so I can't get to the start menu or anything, I can't even get task manager to open with the 3 finger salute.
 
Can you confirm that it is a legal copy of Windows XP? (I hate to ask but I want to try and get past all possibilities). Also can you do this in safe mode maybe? Or maybe try doing it over the phone
 
Call Microsoft.

edit: Consider you have "issues" that weren't corrected by the repair that are preventing activation. You may need to reinstall.
 
Using an OEM copy on a Toshiba Laptop. Yes, it is a legal version of Windows XP Home, it came with the laptop. It just isn't the same CD that came with the laptop since that CD doesn't offer the repair function.

I called Microsoft and the tech support department was closed and the windows activation department didn't know what to do. I guess I'll try again when they are open. I just normally don't like to speak to tech support because 99% of the time I know more than they do.
 
if you are locked out of logging in because of activation there should be an 'active now' option
in this selection you should be given the option to activate online or over the phone
if you have a gateway and have a simple internet connection setup it should be able to do that quickly, if it cant get tot he internet then you get to do it by phone which means reading off a long series of digits and then inputting another ling series.

if there is no activate now option the OEM edition might have some funky settings.

i recently had to reactivate my 2003 server over the phone due to replacing the mobo, the old one caught fire but most of the components survived on the now named server "toasty"
 
Psycho_Soldier said:
Using an OEM copy on a Toshiba Laptop. Yes, it is a legal version of Windows XP Home, it came with the laptop. It just isn't the same CD that came with the laptop since that CD doesn't offer the repair function.

I called Microsoft and the tech support department was closed and the windows activation department didn't know what to do. I guess I'll try again when they are open. I just normally don't like to speak to tech support because 99% of the time I know more than they do.
Click to expand...

The toshiba disc like all discs has the repair option ..its just that they disable it..

to access it you'll need to on a blank floppy .. create a file named winnt.sif while booting the cd when it says setup is detecting your hardware insert the floppy and just follow the rest of the screens!! this can also be done with a usb drive
 
hulksterjoe said:
The toshiba disc like all discs has the repair option ..its just that they disable it..

to access it you'll need to on a blank floppy .. create a file named winnt.sif while booting the cd when it says setup is detecting your hardware insert the floppy and just follow the rest of the screens!! this can also be done with a usb drive
Click to expand...
You can also install the repair console to the HDD, however I don't know if you can do this from the restore CDs.

Link.
 
hulksterjoe said:
The toshiba disc like all discs has the repair option ..its just that they disable it..

to access it you'll need to on a blank floppy .. create a file named winnt.sif while booting the cd when it says setup is detecting your hardware insert the floppy and just follow the rest of the screens!! this can also be done with a usb drive
Click to expand...

winnt.sif is an unnattended answer file and has nothing to do with system restore, do you mean you need to copy the winnt.sif file from the Toshiba install CD to a floppy? because creating a blank winnt.sif file will do nothing.

Also winnt.sif cannot be read from a USB drive, only on a floppy or on the CD itself.


Phoenix86 said:
You can also install the repair console to the HDD, however I don't know if you can do this from the restore CDs.
Click to expand...

This suggestion is useless since Psycho_Soldier can't even log on to windows, and you need to install the recovery console before anything goes wrong.

Microsoft stores the data for XP activation in the Windows Product Activation database files wpa.dbl and Wpa.bak in the folder %systemroot%\system32.

If you have done a repair it is possible these files were overwritten or corrupted, I would suggest you boot from the XP CD and boot to the recovery console, check to see if these files are present, if they are, back them up and delete them, run a chkdsk then run Sfc.exe /scannow just to be sure it isn't something else, if none of these work, reinstall windows and restore your backup of wpa.dbl and wpa.bak.
 
Deimos said:
winnt.sif is an unnattended answer file and has nothing to do with system restore, do you mean you need to copy the winnt.sif file from the Toshiba install CD to a floppy? because creating a blank winnt.sif file will do nothing.
Click to expand...

when the windows cd incounters this BLANK file it bypasses the factory settings on the cd to automatically restore without displaying the repair option.

try it you'll like it..
 
Deimos said:
This suggestion is useless since Psycho_Soldier can't even log on to windows, and you need to install the recovery console before anything goes wrong.
Click to expand...

No, it's very usefull, just necessary to do before you have problems, so perhaps he will do it when he's up and running before he has problems again. It's also a recommendation to anyone else viewing the thread. They can see the benefits of having the repair console preinstalled.

My recommendation to solve his issue is to contact MS or perform a full reinstall, as posted above.
 
I got an OEM - System Builders copy of MCE2005 about a month ago with a Deskstar from Newegg and installed it on my then system. 2 weeks later I got my new system together and transferred the HDD over to it. Well, it wouldnt boot as I figured and I had to reinstall XP. Wouldn't let me internet activate it the 2nd time, said I all ready exceeded maximum activation, and th get a new CD key. I immediately called the 'Customer Service Activation' gave them my installation string, and he provided me a new key. Talk about a pain in the ass. It was at 8am so there wasnt any hold time. Still though, I paid $130 for the software and would much rather not call every time I need to reinstall XP. Considering the hordes of people using pirated copies, I'm a little bitter that I - as a paying customer - have to go through this shit. I blame this more on software pirates than MS themselves though.
 
DonMega2k said:
I got an OEM - System Builders copy of MCE2005 about a month ago with a Deskstar from Newegg and installed it on my then system. 2 weeks later I got my new system together and transferred the HDD over to it. Well, it wouldnt boot as I figured and I had to reinstall XP. Wouldn't let me internet activate it the 2nd time, said I all ready exceeded maximum activation, and th get a new CD key. I immediately called the 'Customer Service Activation' gave them my installation string, and he provided me a new key. Talk about a pain in the ass. It was at 8am so there wasnt any hold time. Still though, I paid $130 for the software and would much rather not call every time I need to reinstall XP. Considering the hordes of people using pirated copies, I'm a little bitter that I - as a paying customer - have to go through this shit. I blame this more on software pirates than MS themselves though.
Click to expand...


yea you bought the software and the activation process worked exactly as its supposed to.. It shouldnt have let you activate a 2nd time that quickly . why you may ask.. well its exactly because of things like this.. You bought a copy and loaded it, then moved the hdd to another system which violated the oem EULA....it was married to the original system motherboard... hell you caused your oem problem.
 
hulksterjoe said:
yea you bought the software and the activation process worked exactly as its supposed to.. It shouldnt have let you activate a 2nd time that quickly . why you may ask.. well its exactly because of things like this.. You bought a copy and loaded it, then moved the hdd to another system which violated the oem EULA....it was married to the original system motherboard... hell you caused your oem problem.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the system did EXACTLLY what it was supposed to.

He's lucky he got a re-activation key considering what he was doing, and he still has the gaul to blame MS.

Nice. :rolleyes:
 
hulksterjoe said:
yea you bought the software and the activation process worked exactly as its supposed to.. It shouldnt have let you activate a 2nd time that quickly . why you may ask.. well its exactly because of things like this.. You bought a copy and loaded it, then moved the hdd to another system which violated the oem EULA....it was married to the original system motherboard... hell you caused your oem problem.
Click to expand...

Uh, he didn't cause this problem, microsoft did.

I recently had a hard drive dying in my OpenBSD box and decided to upgrade to a duron 1600 while I was at it. I swapped the NICS & hard drive into a new box and booted, then copied everything else to a spare hard drive.

No activation needed
No reinstall needed

Activation/chipset problems only exist in the Microsoft world.
 
Robstar said:
Uh, he didn't cause this problem, microsoft did.

I recently had a hard drive dying in my OpenBSD box and decided to upgrade to a duron 1600 while I was at it. I swapped the NICS & hard drive into a new box and booted, then copied everything else to a spare hard drive.

No activation needed
No reinstall needed

Activation/chipset problems only exist in the Microsoft world.
Click to expand...

and so does thievery on such a grand scale..no point in stealing what's free
 
hulksterjoe said:
yea you bought the software and the activation process worked exactly as its supposed to.. It shouldnt have let you activate a 2nd time that quickly . why you may ask.. well its exactly because of things like this.. You bought a copy and loaded it, then moved the hdd to another system which violated the oem EULA....it was married to the original system motherboard... hell you caused your oem problem.
Click to expand...

I loaded it on my new HDD just so I would be one step ahead in the install process when my hardware arrived. Installed the OS and all MS Updates. Did not use it beyond that since the system I used to load it is all ready running a perfectly registered copy of XP Professional. I've done this with other Microsoft OS in the past and have had no issues. This time it wouldnt even boot. I don't pirate software what-so-ever, purchase every single thing I use without question. Screw the EULA, I was using it as intended - it just didn't know that. I'm aware that I caused my paritcular hold up, but I'm not one of the people that caused MS to implement this crap by any means.
 
Phoenix86 said:
Yeah, the system did EXACTLLY what it was supposed to.

He's lucky he got a re-activation key considering what he was doing, and he still has the gaul to blame MS.

Nice. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Lucky I got the reinsallation key my arse. Are you eff'in kidding me?! Don't EVEN put me in the leauge of a software pirater. I've been in the IT industry for 9 years and havn't abused any liscense for any software in that time, or previously. In fact, I actually turned in one of my vendors for giving us Pirated NT 4.0 liscenses back in 1998. I was setting up my HDD on a server for use in a new system that I was waiting to arrive. I did not use the f**king OS at all while it was in that server. Gaul to blame MS.. Get a clue. If Microsoft would have denied me a key for pre-installing an OS a week before it was transfered to it's intended system than I'd be livid, and for good reason.
 
DonMega2k said:
I loaded it on my new HDD just so I would be one step ahead in the install process when my hardware arrived. Installed the OS and all MS Updates. Did not use it beyond that since the system I used to load it is all ready running a perfectly registered copy of XP Professional. I've done this with other Microsoft OS in the past and have had no issues. This time it wouldnt even boot. I don't pirate software what-so-ever, purchase every single thing I use without question. Screw the EULA, I was using it as intended - it just didn't know that. I'm aware that I caused my paritcular hold up, but I'm not one of the people that caused MS to implement this crap by any means.
Click to expand...

Why not just create a slipstreamed copy and not have to worry about any of that crap. Thus the perfect load -- the first time
 
I've never slipstreamed an install and honestly don't know much about the process beyond that it combines CD release w/ available updates. Sure I could obtain that process easily enough. But it's a bit easier to be able to install software of purchased at will and not have to do custom installs to speed things up. This is the first time I've opt'ed for an OEM liscense instead of a consumer or business multi-liscense, had no idea what I was in for.

Bottom line: Lessoned learned with MS OEM Liscenses. Not worth the $50 saved for this headache.
 
DonMega2k said:
Lucky I got the reinsallation key my arse. Are you eff'in kidding me?! Don't EVEN put me in the leauge of a software pirater.
Click to expand...

Yes, lucky. I'm not saying your intent was to pirate, but what you did is against the EULA. MS could have denied you a new key, and been within their rights. I don't care how livid it would make you.

OEM = married to the mobo it was installed on.

I'm sorry you didn't understand the terms of the OS you bought, this is why I strongly recommend "people like us" who swap components regularly buy retail.

I've been in the IT industry for 9 years and havn't abused any liscense for any software in that time, or previously. In fact, I actually turned in one of my vendors for giving us Pirated NT 4.0 liscenses back in 1998.
Click to expand...

Right, so your infallible???

I was setting up my HDD on a server for use in a new system that I was waiting to arrive. I did not use the f**king OS at all while it was in that server. Gaul to blame MS..
Click to expand...
I don't agree with they way OEM is setup either, but that's not my call. If you really want to know how I feel about the situation click me, and read between the lines.

Get a clue.
Click to expand...
:rolleyes:
 
Phoenix86 said:
Yes, lucky. I'm not saying your intent was to pirate, but what you did is against the EULA. MS could have denied you a new key, and been within their rights. I don't care how livid it would make you.

OEM = married to the mobo it was installed on.

I'm sorry you didn't understand the terms of the OS you bought, this is why I strongly recommend "people like us" who swap components regularly buy retail.
Click to expand...

That's my only beef with the responses I got. I took it as being attack like I was trying to cheat Microsoft or something. This will be my last OEM liscense.


Right, so your infallible???
Click to expand...

Not saying that by any means. I was simply acting as a character witness for myself by pointing out that I have / had no intentions of using the software improperly.


I don't agree with they way OEM is setup either, but that's not my call. If you really want to know how I feel about the situation click me, and read between the lines.
Click to expand...

Fair enough. I scanned your write-up, looks useful for future 'issues' I'll review it in more detail when I get home tonight.


:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

:cool:
 
Absolutely, I'm man enough to admit when I'm wrong about something. Just needed to clarify to what extent I was wrong in this case. As I even said in my original post, I wasn't really blaming Microsoft as they're just looking out for their best interests.
Besides, we all know that arguing on the internet is like the Special Olympics. Even if you win, your still a retard :D
 
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