makmillion

This copy of XP OEM was pre-installed on my computer when purchased new a few years back.. I've re-installed it a few times now, and this last time (about 3 weeks ago) it asks me to Activate Windows


eMachines is no help, google is no help, Microsoft is less help than anybody so far.. I'm lost!

Whenever I turn the computer on, after being completely off or signed out of Windows, the bubble pops up asking me to activate windows, and it says I have so many days left to activate.. if I click the bubble, the window pops up and there's a picture of keys in the background, and the window loads as normal, except theres no buttons or text anywhere! Nowhere to input the product key


Can anyone advise me on what to do here? The last resort is to completely move over to ubuntu, but this is my wife's machine and she's not too computer savvy.. I'd like my XP to work, after all.. I did pay for it back in the day.

[-0MEGA-]

If it asks you to activate, why dont you? Once you click on the bubble you should just have to click next a few times, you dont need to enter a product key.

__________________
Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.83GHz
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
ATI HD 3870 GDDR4 @ (840/2332)
4GB (2x 2GB) DDR2-850
500GB SATAII HD w/16MB
SilverStone 750W +12V@60A
3DMark06: 11593

brian

well he is saying there is no way to activate. the activate butten is not being displayed

__________________
formerly brianmay27
Main laptop: hp dv9005us | turion 64 X2 1.6 ghz | 3 GB ram | Vista ultimate | 240 GB HD
First build: pentium e2160 3.2 GHz | gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L | 2.5 GB ram | 160GB HD
If you can see this, you have WAY TOO much time on your hand. Or you're a mod going through my sig. But if you do, copy and past this in your sig.

makmillion

^Exactly.

Aside from the fact that the Activate Windows portion of XP should be completley disabled in this distro., the window comes up completely blank except for a picture of the Activate Windows Keys as the background image.

I tried calling Microsoft, they say it's OEM and doesn't need to be activated, and that I need to follow the number XP gives me if i'd like to try, but no number comes up.. and emachines says I need a new recovery CD, they say my CD, though completely mint with no scratches at all, might be bad.

MyCattMaxx

By chance did you try reinstalling it since you noticed this? It may just be a glitch during the install.

__________________
Hey Buddy, Can you spare a mouse?

makmillion

Unfortunately, this is the third re-install since I started noticing it.

eMachines says they can send me another recovery disc for $20, they say the disc I have may be bad and that a fresh disc might solve the problem.

The thing is that when I re-install, I'm forced to go through 'the back door' to install XP, I believe this disables the OOBE, which in turn may be what's causing Windows to do this.. but I'm unsure how to get the OOBE onto the PC without going through the standard install, since my computer hangs on the 'name your computer' screen and won't go forward unless I use the 'back door installation'.

makmillion

I got this all solved now!

I got so sick of XP doing this that I stuck a Windows Anytime Upgrade disc in the computer, began to install my 180 day trial of Vista Ultimate (came with my new computer, works with any computer) and it said it needed to download some updates, so it did.. shortly afterwards my 'Windows Update' feature kicked in and started downloading SP2 for me, it installed it and rebooted.. the 'Activate Windows' box came back up but this time had the text and buttons

I went through it, was instructed to do over the phone activation, and now it works.. no more annoying pop ups, and it's activated.

Plus I now realize I can try Vista Ultimate on this machine free for 180 days, and I happen to have 30GB of free space for a new partition