Windows XP Activation

xwesleyxwillisx

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.

3000GT

Is the laptop OEM?? as they usually have the serial number on the underside of the laptop. And im asuming you are using your own version of XP and not the one with that came with the PC?? most OEM have there own version of XP or a Recovery boot disk..

But besides that it still shouldnt ask to activate straight away?

/usr

MS tech support is genuinely helpful in resolving XP issues like this, at least from my experience. They will most likely get you to the screen where you read off the 256 digit number to them, and they'll give you another one.

They could probably help you the most. It's worth a shot.

RussS

If you save the wpa.bak you can replace that after an install repair and get on with life ...

Double-click My Computer
Double-click on the "C" drive
Go to the C:\Windows\System32 folder (you may have to click on the link that says "Show The contents of this folder")
Find the files "wpa.dbl" and "wpa.bak" and copy them to a safe location. You can copy them on a floppy drive or burn it onto a CD or DVD.
After you have reinstalled Windows XP on your reformatted hard drive, click "No" when asked if you want to go ahead and go through the activation process
Reboot your computer into SafeMode (you can either press F8 as Windows is booting up to see the Windows Advanced Options menu and select SAFEBOOT_OPTION=Minimal or follow the instructions in Starting Windows XP in SafeMode
Double-click My Computer
Double-click on the "C" drive
Go to the C:\Windows\System32 folder (you may have to click on the link that says "Show The contents of this folder")
Find the file "wpa.dbl" and "wpa.bak" (if it exists) and rename them to "wpadbl.new" and "wpabak.new"
Copy your original "wpa.dbl" and "wpa.bak" files from your floppy disk, CD or DVD into the C:\Windows\System32 folder
Restart your system (if you followed the directions in Starting Windows XP in SafeMode you may need to go back into MSCONFIG to turn off booting into SafeMode)

Can't remember where I copied that from sorry