Activating XP has given me so many headaches in the past. Most notably today when I was trying to help a friend. Her laptop was booting to Windows but when she logged in she kept getting blue screens about a virus.
I attempted to boot from "The Ultimate Boot CD" (
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/) and scan/clean the viruses with Mcafee and about four other anti-virus products. Unfortunately, none of the anti-virus software would load properly!
At this point, I decided to just do a repair install of Windows. She said she had data she didn't want to lose so I decided against formatting the drive and installing Windows XP clean.
Windows setup took about an hour to complete. The big problem came when
I attempted to log into Windows after the install. It said I needed to activate Windows before I could even log in once! I thought normally you had like 14 or 30 days??? In the past I could login and activate later.
I then attempted to activate over the Internet. No dice. The laptop was connected via ethernet (and connectivity was verified via another laptop). WTF I am left wondering. Now I'm left with activating over the phone. I called the number and spoke to a rep. He told me to change the cd key and use the cd key on the bottom of the laptop. Guess what? Windows tells me it is invalid or mistyped. I verified it 3 times! He tells me I need to contact Microsoft tech support and gives me the number.
At this point, it's nearly midnight and I save it for tomorrow because I'm tired. I am really at a loss because I have never seen this before. It has been an excruciatingly painful process. I guess I'll call tech support tom. and hope for the best.
