I've been bashing my head against the wall trying to figure this out, so I'm hoping someone here has encountered this situation.
I have a customer's laptop and it's running XP Home. It had a ton of spyware on it, which I successfully removed.
Next, I installed Service Pack 2(which some of you may say was my first mistake ).
After installing SP2 and rebooting, I am now being asked to register Windows. This message never occurred while I was removing the spyware.
So I get to the part where I am to enter the product key, and it's already telling me the one in use is not authorized, before I have put anything in. I put in the key that is on the COA on the bottom of the laptop and I am told it is also invalid. I run a product key viewer, and it tells me a key different than the one on the COA! I try this key out and it also not authorized.
Finally, I look at the Belarc profile I ran before doing any work. It shows yet another product key! I put this key in, and instead of being told it is unauthorized, the buttons saying Telephone Activation, Register Later, and Retry are grayed out and it appears to be trying to contact Microsoft. It has been doing this for a few minutes now and the hard drive activity light is on. So at least it's not telling me it is unauthorized.
This is a Vaio laptop, about 1.5 years old. The COA on the bottom is authentic and I have a recovery disc.
Any ideas?
I have a customer's laptop and it's running XP Home. It had a ton of spyware on it, which I successfully removed.
Next, I installed Service Pack 2(which some of you may say was my first mistake ).
After installing SP2 and rebooting, I am now being asked to register Windows. This message never occurred while I was removing the spyware.
So I get to the part where I am to enter the product key, and it's already telling me the one in use is not authorized, before I have put anything in. I put in the key that is on the COA on the bottom of the laptop and I am told it is also invalid. I run a product key viewer, and it tells me a key different than the one on the COA! I try this key out and it also not authorized.
Finally, I look at the Belarc profile I ran before doing any work. It shows yet another product key! I put this key in, and instead of being told it is unauthorized, the buttons saying Telephone Activation, Register Later, and Retry are grayed out and it appears to be trying to contact Microsoft. It has been doing this for a few minutes now and the hard drive activity light is on. So at least it's not telling me it is unauthorized.
This is a Vaio laptop, about 1.5 years old. The COA on the bottom is authentic and I have a recovery disc.
Any ideas?
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