All-
This is probably the most confusing Activation problem I’ve had yet. My PC is 10 month’s old with an OEM version of XP Pro Sp1.
The key is on a decal on the case. Something happened, possibly a virus and I was asked to “Activate My Product.”
Because I could not get pass this window I couldn’t access my DSL modem and for some reason the Dial-Up wouldn’t work. Maybe the drivers didn’t load before this message window.
So the last option was by telephone. When I chose that option, it showed my license with 9 sets of 6 digits.
I called and the machine said it would prompt for each set. It prompted for all 9 sets and then told me I had an invalid key.
Tech support said I had to do a clean re-install because their products do not need activation. But, I was prompted to activate when I took it out of the box and after this re-install I was prompted again.
But, the reminder key is not in the systray. To make matters worse, I ran RockXP and it showed a different key than the one on the decal.
I begged the Tech Spport to open wpa.chm (Windows Product Activation help) and to read me the command prompt that let’s you do it manually.
He said there was no such command (FYI run oobe/msoobe/ a ) and didn’t bother.
he told me if I wanted to save data I should buy a second HD and install that and XP to that. Not realizing my system would then be configured different.
Finally, I ran NTFS DOS Pro and File Maven from Hiren’s Rescue CD. I deleted everything except the one directory with 30 GB of Mp3s and DVDs that were waiting to be burned.
I re-installed XP fine, except it did ask for the key, but let me proceed and there is no “Key” icon in the systray.
What is with the 9 sets of 6 digits key (no SP2 installed) and could this happen again after I re-install all my software?
I am losing a fortune in downtime. This is on my old 98SE system.
Thanks in advance – This is related to my message “Active Desktop – reboot and alert”
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