Cannot activate windows XP Pro, weird problems.

[Devious]

At work weve been having a few problems with one of our CAD machines. Little annoying things like if you share the C drive it unshares itself a few days later. The user randomly having no permissions on files hes been using for weeks and some programs unregistering themselves.

It seemed the registry was causing the problems so while we have been quiet I decided to format it and reinstall windows XP pro.

All seemed well until the installation finished, it asked me to log in as administrator but gave me no option to create a user like it normally would and give you the tour etc. I log in as admin anyway and then windows said windows had to be activated immediately ?
I have never seen this before. Ive only ever seen it give you 30 days before you have to activate it and this would give me time to install mobo/network drivers and activate over the internet.

So, its saying do I want to activate it now, if i say no it it logs off and back to the login prompt with administrator as user. So I say yes and obviously my only option is to activate by phone, which wasnt a problem... I thought.

I rang Microsoft and get through straight away, as I click on activate by phone I just get a white screen and nothing else happends. The Microsoft guy asks me to reboot and then try again, this time it doesnt hang and i get to the activation screen. The microsoft guy asks me for my Installation I.D from my screen. There is none ! Its just blank?? The guy didnt sound to surprised and passed me over to tech support.

I was on the phone for about an hour with no solution, they check out my disk and verified it was legit and my cd key checked out also. Im the end they said it must be a hardware problem, but they could solve it for £46 wtf I didnt know people could now fix hardware over the phone.

Anyway, i tried reinstalling windows again and it was exactly the same result.

I then got the company we use for our I.T on the case. He brought in some kind of master windows disk which didnt need a key to install. All went well and this time and he managed to get to the desktop as administrator, install drivers, create user account etc but when he came to activate over the internet it didnt do anything. He had to do it by phone but this time it gave him an I.D no and microsoft got it going.

So all seemed well, he logged off from admin and tried to log in as the user (non admin) and straight away again it said this windows MUST be activated now And thats all it ever does now on login.
The I.T bod just swapped the PC with another to get the guy working and left, but ive got his old one here at home to try and get working.


Ive googled the problem about having no installation I,D and all i seem to read is that they are illegal copies. This is deffo legit.

There must be something wrong with the hardware but im not sure were to start. I want to try another harddrive but Im currently running memtest.


Sorry about the long winded speel.

Any ideas?

 

[herr_brush]

Ghost in the machine? Sorry couldn't resist

 

[El_Watcher]

I log in as admin anyway and then windows said windows had to be activated immediately ?
I have never seen this before. Ive only ever seen it give you 30 days before you have to activate it and this would give me time to install mobo/network drivers and activate over the internet.

So, its saying do I want to activate it now, if i say no it it logs off and back to the login prompt with administrator as user. So I say yes and obviously my only option is to activate by phone, which wasnt a problem... I thought.

I have had this a few times, usually because the disk is from XP SP2b or earlier, and the licence is for XP SP2c

My suggestion is to run memtest overnight, and then run HDD diagnostic, both the manufacturers, and MHDD. Make sure you test the HDD controller as well.
Try googling "Ultimate Boot CD" which will give you everything you need.

 

[AtreuS]

Bit of an odd one.

If the discs and license codes are ok, like you said, then id put my money on a memory/hdd problem causing the registry to mess up in odd ways.

As the poster above said, run diagnostics tests and see what they come up with. If they check out fine try swapping the ide/sata cables for the HDD as they can be the cause of corruption also.

 

[Devious]

I have had this a few times, usually because the disk is from XP SP2b or earlier, and the licence is for XP SP2c

My suggestion is to run memtest overnight, and then run HDD diagnostic, both the manufacturers, and MHDD. Make sure you test the HDD controller as well.
Try googling "Ultimate Boot CD" which will give you everything you need.

Im certain the disk isnt the one that came with the PC as here at work the discs tend to get all mixed up. The disc doesnt gives any clues as to whether it is SP2b or SP2c but it says 2002 so im thinking an older one. Microsoft checked the part number on the disk though and said it should work with that key.

I ran memtest overtnight and that give me no errors and I am downloading the UBCD, i shall give that a try tonight thanks.

Bit of an odd one.

If the discs and license codes are ok, like you said, then id put my money on a memory/hdd problem causing the registry to mess up in odd ways.

As the poster above said, run diagnostics tests and see what they come up with. If they check out fine try swapping the ide/sata cables for the HDD as they can be the cause of corruption also.

I really doubt the disk is the one that came with the PC (which is about a year old) but both are genuine and microsoft didnt say it should be a problem, though i thought it would be. Ive just looked through the I.T cupboard at wotk and there are at least 10 other XP pro disk but all look exactly the same as the one im using.


I found this link to be pretty much the same story ive just gone through. he points to the network card, I have a PCI network card to try tonight instead of the onbard on the P5K mobo.

 

[cokecan]

I've had this problem before. it turned out to be a dodgy windows install. I was messing about with nLite, creating custom windows disks with a few settings pre-configured i.e. serial number, regional settings, user accounts etc.

In the end I reverted back to one of my first disks that was just XP SP3 (SP3 slipstreamed into a SP1a copy) and the serial number added for a semi-unattended install. I think it was something to do with the fact I'd set up the admin user account with a password in nLite as well as a few other user accounts that was causing it to want me to activate instantly, and giving me no options to add other user accounts

 

[Devious]

Well Ive been playing around with this all night. I have ran the mem tests and hard disk tests off the Ultimate boot CD and all tests pass ok.

Ive tried an installation with a seperate pci network card and still stuck in activation loop.

I installed my retail copy of XP pro on and it seemed fine and I was able to get to desktop but as expected it wouldnt accept its OEM key from the sticker side of the machine.

Ive just thrown in a different hard disk anyway and I am currently installing the OEM XP onto that. *Edit* same activation loop


*cutches on straws*