How can just enabling the built-in Ethernet cause WindowsXP to make me reactivate it?

[StormRider]

My home network was messed up so I was trying to set up a spare router that was lying around to see if the problem was with the current router. So, I enabled my ethernet and plugged an ethernet cable between my computer and router. I wanted to set up a new router password and stuff through the computer.

Well, all of sudden I couldn't access my USB keyboard and stuff. I was busy with other stuff so I put this away for awhile. Today, I decided to fix up that messed up computer. I disabled the ethernet but still couldn't use my USB keyboard to log on. So, I grabbed a spare ps2 keyboard and managed to logon.

When I logged on, WinXP told me that there was significant hardware changes and that I needed to reactivate Windows within 3 days! Weird.

 

[JBT]

weird, I have never heard of something like that before.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Makes some sense, there are certain categories of items that XP's activation scheme keys off of. One of them is installed network cards - it uses their MAC addresses as unique IDs.

Have you ever upgraded any other parts of the computer in question? Do you, or have you ever in the past, had a PCI or USB network card installed?

Was the onboard ethernet disabled, when XP was initially installed and activated? (I'm going to guess - "yes".)

I think that the only real solution here, is to either disable it, or re-activate XP with it enabled and the drivers properly installed for it.