XP Activation process looping

[imported_Kiwi]

On the PC system in question, XP is a secondary OS to W2K, used occasionally to play some games on. A month ago, maybe, I booted to WinXP (only has SP2, it's got an AMD cpu in it), and heeded Microsoft's entreaty to consider some updates. I would never allow Auto Updates and I don't like Express Updates. I picked and chose from the ones that were supposed to be serious security risk fixes, and ended up with an inoperable WinXP install.

One of the updates screwed the OS over. I wasted a lot of time immediately after it happened, without effecting a cure, got busy doing other things, and yesterday had a dead afternoon to run a Repair Reinstall to fix it. It didn't work properly. Halfway through, it was complaining about SHLWAPI.dll not having entry points, so I copied a newer version from a different PC here. The reinstall seemed to go along normally in all but one regard.

I don't think that I am supposed to need to re-enter my CoA number in this sort of a setup, but it asked for one (the tech person in MS's call center -- in India -- says that it was supposed to do that), and I couldn't have named the right one out of five copies without booting up and running the Jellybean on three or four others, so I just read off the newest one I had nearby (I always copy the CD to a hard drive folder to make it run faster, and to eliminate later needs to put the CD into an optical drive for routine changes).

The looping starts from Log-On (which I'd previously had set up to skip past, and formerly to automatically log me on). As soon as I click on my Log-on name, I get the message that this copy of XP must be activated before anyone can Log On, and do I want to activate it now? When I choose the YES button, I may see a few seconds of my desktop background image with an hourglass on it, or not, but it will soon abort, and I'm rapidly sent back past the Log-on into a logged off screen, waiting on my selection of Shut Down. I tried to Log On as Administrator and that didn't work.

Is this a fairly common XP problem? (I'm sort of a reactionary, and prefer Win2K most of the time, so never ran into this before).

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

It should offer the option of authenticating over the internet or by phone. If the internet option keeps looping, use the phone method.

I went through this the other day putting a new motherboard in my dad's system after it got fried by lightning. I had to authenticate by phone because the stupid authentication process won't permit you to set a fixed IP address and enable the network adapter so you've got connectivity. In fact, after I authenticated once, more devices were installed and it asked my to authenticate again. Bit of a pita, but it's finally up and running again.

 

[imported_Kiwi]

It's aborting the process in either a few seconds, or sometimes, instantly. I never get to see whatever next screen there should be after I click the "YES" button to "authenticate now".

 

[Smilin]

Call MS, Ask for the "Setup" team. Explain you have a Windows Activation issue that the activation folks can't fix. It will be a free case.

 

[imported_Kiwi]

The first try didn't work. She wasn't listening, and transferred me to the normal automated phone activation number, which requires that the activation window actually be open, which it doesn't now. A second call has gone almost as awkwardly ("Level 1" is awfully simple minded, it seems). No matter that I explain never reaching the desktop, she wanted a product ID that simply isn't available.

I ended up offering Win2K's ID number on the same PC, and that may have satisfied the requirement. I'm on hold again now . . we'll see if I reach a "Level Two" person who can listen to what I'm saying.

(Later. I'm back on hold, but Level Two did make noises as if there was a brain functioning in his head, unlike the first two. Still. it's don no good at all to name "Setup Team" so far. However, I've been assigned a case number in case the connection fails.)

(Second edit. I was able to get it to the desktop in Safe Mode somehow -- why this time, I'm unsure, and we applied the fix described in KB312295, but unsuccessfully. The call center for tech support was in India, and no one ever did take me seriously about any "Setup Team". The ending non-resolution was a suggestion to erase the Windows folder's contents on that partition, and start over from prior to the point of adding XP, whenever that was {between eight and ten months ago on this one, I think}).

Incidentally, I ran across a conflict of sorts while researching this at Microsoft's web site. I've always needed to show all XP-Home installs an OS other than W2K, such as W98, to proceed with any Upgrade CD version (other than XP Pro). On Microsoft's web site, when reading a description of the Repair Reinstall (in case I'd learn anything new), the required prior Windows versions named included all but 3.11 and/or prior to 3.11, as if W2K was an allowed prerequisite at the very end of XP.

 

[bruceb]

Give this a shot:

What you need to do is restart your install, and let it load, it will say setup needs to restart to continue, press any key to reboot or wait 15 seconds ect ect, GET THE CD OUT NOW!!!!!

it will then restart, ask you to reinsert the windows xp-pro disk in drive blah blah blah,put it back in,hit ok, finish install.

it's just a common problem with newer computers set in bios who's cd or dvd drives are set to MASTER, and to boot from cdrom before the hd, even if the cd drive is on the secondary IDE channel, not really a windows issue.

You need not be concerned if you only have an upgrade disk and not a full version because win xp-pro will simply delete whats inside the system files in the windows folder and recreate the files so you will have a fresh install.

hope this helps you with your problem.

You can also try this in SAFE MODE:

We can try extracting new copies of some of the activation files from the XP
CD in Safe mode. Start/run msconfig, click on "expand file" (general tab)

File to expand: wpa.dbl
From: X:\I386
To: C:\Windows\system32

Where X is whatever letter is assigned your CD drive (you need your WinXP CD
for this), change it accordingly. This assumes a default installation to
C:\Windows. If your installation is in a different folder, such as C:\Winnt,
change the "To" path accordingly.

Repeat this for wpa.bak, then reboot when finished.

 

[imported_Kiwi]

Bruce: I have three XP-Home Upgrade CDs, and somewhere here, another "something". For XP-Pro, I have one (also an Upgrade version) that I can actually lay my hands on. I kinda THINK what I have that's staying hidden is a "full" version of XP-Home, not of Pro. The youngster from India, following his various handbook scripts (sounds like what he does), said that part of my problem, he was told by someone the next level higher, was that the actual Install I'd used before was a different one, and changing to the newest I had probably contributed to whatever corrupted file it was that broke the activation down.

I don't think his assessment was accurate. Anyway, the install was basically finished. The only things it hadn't done were the simpler stuff. If I do restart a repair reinstall, isn't the one with SP2 on it going to be the one that ought to have worked best out of the ones I have? The other two XP-Home versions I found were both just to the SP1 level.

 

[bruceb]

Yes, you will need an XP SP2 CD of the same type (home or pro .. retail or oem, full or upgrade)
But try deleting the 2 files WPA.BAK & WPA.DLL in C:\Windows\System32
and replacing them with new copies extracted from a windows XP cd of the correct type.
That should get you to activate it properly.

 

[imported_Kiwi]

Early this morning (VERY EARLY), I got up with the chickens and re-ran the over the top Repair, and it worked as it should've done on Thursday afternoon. Thanks to all here who responded. The only difference this time is that I didn't run from the copy of the CD on the Hard Drive. I ran the regular way, from the CD's own bootup.