Windows XP Home Activation window fail to appear after running a repair!

Anonymous
2009-10-26T18:23:12+00:00

Somthing caused the system to have a stop 7b error, one of the solutions on the knowledge base was to do a repair on XP Home.  The repair went well but after I click on the user name, windows tells me I MUST ACTAVATE NOW.  Fine go ahead and activate, I wait and wait but now activation window appears so I can activate.  Any clues as to how I might finish rescueing this system?

Thanks  GPCCNH

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Install and upgrade

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Anonymous
2009-11-04T02:51:16+00:00

HI GPCCNH,

Thanks for posting. Can you log into your system at all? If you cannot log in boot into safemode and try the steps below. If you can log in please try the steps below.

Warning

The following instructions involve editing your system registry. Using the Windows Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that require the reinstallation of your operating system and possible loss of data. TechRepublic does not support problems that arise from editing your registry. Use the Registry Editor and the following directions at your own risk.

Editing the registryBegin by opening the Registry Editor and navigating to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Current Version\WPAEvents

In the right pane, right-click the ODBETimer binary value and select Modify. Change at least one character of this value to either a number from 0 to 9 or to a letter from A to F, then click OK and close the Registry Editor. This renders the current product key invalid and deactivates Windows.

Now, it’s time to reactivate Windows using your new product key. Click Start | Run and enter the command:

%systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe /a

where %systemroot% is your Windows directory. In many cases, this command will look like:

C:\windows\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a

At this point, Windows will launch the Product Activation Wizard.

Follow the activation wizard and select phone activation.

Hope this helps!

Shawn - Support Engineer - MCP, MCDST

Microsoft Answers Support Engineer

Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think

You know, this would help alot if activation worked in safe mode. I appreciate the help, but activation will not work in safe mode, and it does not start in regular mode, I have seen this problem so many times, after a cleanup of spyware, some spyware programs can jack up the registry causing a bluescreen or there is a rootkit with a driver removed causes a bluescreen. so then a repair install is attempted. 8 times out of 10, the repair install does not work, it may or may not complete, sometimes claiming files are missing during the repair install. other times it goes through flawlessly, then when windows starts it says Windows must be activated. Here the user accepts the activation, yet it never comes up, all you see is a desktop background. ctrl+alt+del, alt-f4, etc do not work. because the system is locked out of those options until windows is activated. Usually the first sign of this outcome is the last part of the windows install where it says please wait, and the hard drive loops activity at a steady rate, yet nothing ever happens. You can alt-f4 this part, then you only have an arrow. the only way to get around this is rebooting. then you are left were we left off, windows needs activation yet activation will not start. again, you can access the system in non-networking safe mode. but nothing else. The last time this has happened to me the spyware was brought on a clients computer in the form of something called "Wind Optimizer" among other things like a rogue "safety center" disguised like a Microsoft program. it looks really close to microsoft security center.

anything else we can try? I have heard of moving a file from an activated copy on the same machine with the same key.

I would rather find the root of the problem which I believe has to do with the out of box experience software that never starts after a repair install "oobe"

After some searching, I found what I was looking for, in safe mode try this:

In this example: Your activation period has expired, (past 30 days) and you need to get to Normal mode again.

  1. Turn On your PC
  2. Press F8 repeatedly and go to Safe Mode
  3. Logon as per normal

(note: Administrator password is usually blank, but hopefully you know your password)

  1. Allow the Desktop to fully load (answering "Yes" to continue into Safe Mode)

(note: This is just a long way of saying go to Safe Mode)

  1. Click on Start - Run
  2. Type in exactly: rundll32.exe syssetup,SetupOobeBnk (and click OK)

(note: one space, after "rundll32.exe " also the Oo are two letter o's in "oobe"; capitals and comma are important)

  1. Wait a couple of seconds (although you will Not see any change)
  2. Restart your PC normally (Start - Shutdown - Restart - Ok)
  3. You are now able to go to Normal Mode again (For another 30 days !!!)
  4. Install IE8, do not pass go do not install ie7, install ie8. that should solve not being able to browse and not being able to activate somehow it's tied to the broken ie. Let me know if this works. Now do whatever you like, you're back to Normal.

This fixed it for me but took me a long time to find this and get it going, hopefully it works for you to.

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-07-28T01:06:49+00:00

    Hargak, you are a GOD! I'm going to have a tattoo of your name on one arm and

    rundll32.exe syssetup,SetupOobeBnk on the other.

    Thank you

    one small point, i've had jobs when after a repair installation of windows xp, windows fails to boot to normal windows (as you described) and also won't allow to enter safe mode, without activating, which you can't do in safe mode. to resolve this situation re boot in to safe mode with command prompt.

    you now can enter "rundll32.exe syssetup,SetupOobeBnk" job done as above, up date ie8, media 11 and SP3

    Activate after installing ie8

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-07-30T19:31:56+00:00

    So close, and yet so far away. I followed hargak's instructions to the letter, and rebooted in anticipation of cleaning up this disaster called Windows once and for all. Alas, the only thing that has changed is the activation dialog box.

    Before, it said something to the effect of "This copy of Windows must be activated before you can log on". Selecting Yes goes to empty desktop purgatory, No kicks you back to the login screen.

    Now it says "A problem has prevented Windows from accurately checking the status of the license for this computer. To proceed your copy of Windows must be activated with Microsoft. Do you want to activate Windows now?"

    So much more eloquent, but the same crappy problem. I have spent over 8 hours fighting with this and scouring the forums for a silver bullet. The copy is legit, as is the key. I upgraded the motherboard and hard drive, and then had to run a Repair so it would recognize all the hardware changes.

    This is a control PC for a piece of industrial equipment at my job, and reformatting and starting a reformat installation is not an option. There is specialized machine control software on the drive that they don't have the original install disks for (machine bought used), and the company that made the machine is out of business.

    So it's off into the woods again in search of another possible answer, I wish Mr. Gates was here to share my pain over what he has wrought....

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-07-30T20:01:03+00:00

    "MikeMcM1956" wrote in message news:27311e01-917e-4cb5-9207-776b2cd4a949...

    So close, and yet so far away. I followed hargak's instructions to the letter, and rebooted in anticipation of cleaning up this disaster called Windows once and for all. Alas, the only thing that has changed is the activation dialog box.

    Before, it said something to the effect of "This copy of Windows must be activated before you can log on". Selecting Yes goes to empty desktop purgatory, No kicks you back to the login screen.

    Now it says "A problem has prevented Windows from accurately checking the status of the license for this computer. To proceed your copy of Windows must be activated with Microsoft. Do you want to activate Windows now?"

    So much more eloquent, but the same crappy problem. I have spent over 8 hours fighting with this and scouring the forums for a silver bullet. The copy is legit, as is the key. I upgraded the motherboard and hard drive, and then had to run a Repair so it would recognize all the hardware changes.

    This is a control PC for a piece of industrial equipment at my job, and reformatting and starting a reformat installation is not an option. There is specialized machine control software on the drive that they don't have the original install disks for (machine bought used), and the company that made the machine is out of business.

    So it's off into the woods again in search of another possible answer, I wish Mr. Gates was here to share my pain over what he has wrought....

    Your problem lies not with the software - but the lack of proper backups.

    That aside - please post an MGADiag report so that we can see what you are talking about.... preferably in your own new thread.

    --

    Noel Paton | Nil Carborundum Illegitemi | CrashFixPC | The Three-toed Sloth

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-08-02T16:22:03+00:00

    Noel,

    If I wanted to be scolded, I'd call my mother. Are all MVPs this helpful? If you had read my post thoroughly you would have seen that it has nothing to do with backups. The equipment controlled by this PC has specialized software running it that is no longer available as the manufacturers are out of business. We bought the machine with the software already installed, and no original copies included.

    I have the original drive fully backed up, and cloned it on a new drive to install with an upgraded motherboard. With a completely new motherboard, the original Windows install won't boot as it is looking for the old hardware/drivers/etc. So I had to do a repair install to get it to re-recognize the new hardware. A new motherboard and drive also exceeds the stupid 'point count' system in the activation scheme, so it wants to be reactivated.

    Which gets me to where I'm at now, this 'undocumented feature' (bug) that tells me I've got to reactivate, but won't let me past a blank desktop to do so. I see multiple threads from other folks throughout the fourms dealing with this same issue, but nothing constructive from MS to fix it. I know they'd just like XP to roll over and die, but that won't happen. Lots of industrial equipment out there running XP, and lots of custom software on those machines that will never be ported to W7. I'm not scrapping a $150K machine because of MS incompetence.

    I'll see if I can run an MGADIAG from Safe Mode and post it up....

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