XP Activation problems

anbo369

anbo369

Member
hey everyone,

my sisters boyfriend has an old compaq evo N610v laptop (running windows xp, not sure what service pack) that he bought second hand some time back.
It has been running fine up until today.
When you go to log in, you get a notification saying windows needs to be activated, and we click yes to "activate now", but when the activation screen appears it tells us that "Windows has already been activated, press close to exit" and when we do as we are told, it decides to log out instantly. It's just a never ending cycle.

I have no idea what is causing the problem or how to solve it, but it had been running fine for about 3-4 months (when he started using it again)

thanks for reading!
hopefully you'll be able to lend us hand! thanks!

P.S
Forgot to mention that you don't even get taken to the desktop so the only thing i can do when it says the windows has already been activated is click on the exit button, which just automaticly logs us out.
 
Last edited:
Could be an infection, have you tried booting to safe mode to see if you can get to the desktop screen?
 
no i haven't tried that yet, thanks!
will give it a shot and let you know how it goes!

always appreciate other ideas if you feel like throwing them out there!

cheers
 
Try booting into safe mode and try thr following
(that's the F8 key) and open regedit.exe
Locate this following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\
change the "RegDone" key value fron 1 to 0

Then find this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\WinLogon\
change "Activation Required" key value from 0 to 1

reboot and see if you are prompted for registration.
other than that you might have a bent copy of xp installed which has now been disabled
 
Deviousmind said:
Try booting into safe mode and try thr following
(that's the F8 key) and open regedit.exe
Locate this following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\
change the "RegDone" key value fron 1 to 0

Then find this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\WinLogon\
change "Activation Required" key value from 0 to 1

reboot and see if you are prompted for registration.
other than that you might have a bent copy of xp installed which has now been disabled
Click to expand...

Careful when messing around in the registry, if you're not very familiar with what you're doing, it can cause some irreversible damage to the computer. I would suggest doing this as a last resort, and again only if you are very familiar with what you are doing.
 
thanks guys! i haven't been able to get into safe mode (didn't know how until now, and just never got round to asking haha) so thanks for all of your help!
i'll have to give it a shot and let you know how it goes!

cheers
 
Deviousmind said:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\
change the "RegDone" key value fron 1 to 0

Then find this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\WinLogon\
change "Activation Required" key value from 0 to 1

reboot and see if you are prompted for registration.
other than that you might have a bent copy of xp installed which has now been disabled
Click to expand...
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\
change the "RegDone key value fron 1 to 0"
those values are already set to 0. unless i am doing something wrong, i right click "RegDone" and then there are a bunch of 0's maybe about 6 or 8 i think.


and the other i can't even find! :( i've followed your instructions perfectly several times, however there doesn't appear to be an "Activation Required" thing :(

thanks for the advice though! atleast i can boot into safe mode :) meaning i can move files if needed :)

again thank you!
 
Please follow this procedure so we can see if its malware related or not.

Please download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware from here or here and save it to your desktop.
  • Double-click mbam-setup.exe and follow the prompts to install the program.
  • At the end, be sure a checkmark is placed next to
    • Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
    • and Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware
  • then click Finish.
  • If an update is found, it will download and install the latest version. Please keep updating until it says you have the latest version.
  • Once the program has loaded, select Perform quick scan, then click Scan.
  • When the scan is complete, click OK, then Show Results to view the results.
  • Be sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected.
  • A log will be saved automatically which you can access by clicking on the Logs tab within Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware

If you continue to experience problems after doing this, please post a HijackThis log by doing the following:

Download the HijackThis installer from here.
Run the installer and choose Install, indicating that you accept the licence agreement. The installer will place a shortcut on your desktop and launch HijackThis.

Click Do a system scan and save a logfile

Most of what HijackThis lists will be harmless or even essential, don't fix anything yet.

Post the logfile that HijackThis produces along with the Malwarebytes Anti-Malware log
 
Hi,
Call Microsoft and activate over the phone. It should give the number on the notice that is popping up.

Thanks
 
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