Help a maiden in distress!

Hi,

I have a computer with Windows XP. I started it a few days ago to be
greeted with the message:
'Windows Product Activation. Your Windows product must be activated.
Do you want to activate Windows now?'

I clicked OK and after a moment it comes back and says 'Windows is
already activated. Click OK to exit.'

You can see the screen messages here....
http://www.users.waitrose.com/~zeonozo/1c.jpg

Can anyone tell me what to do here please?
I mean will it just continue like this for ever, asking for activation
and then saying it's OK, because I can cope with that. Or will it just
refuse to cooperate on Wednesday morning? How do I resolve this, it is
like it is in a loop.

I think it is related to SP3 because I installed that on 14 September.
I notice that on Add/Remove programs, SP3 is listed, do you think if I
uninstall it it might sort the problem?

I have already found a link that seems to diagnose the problem, on the
Microsoft site....
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312295/en-us
So I have downloaded an exe thingy called Guided Help, it sounds like
it is going to fix the problem, but I haven't run it yet because it is
a bit vague about exactly what the procedure entails; I mean if I run
this Guided Help thingy, is it going to demand the original Windows
disk at the end? Because, if it does, I have a serious problem. You
see when I moved house I chucked away all the disks, manuals etc., I
didn't realise that they might ever be useful in the future.

Please help me! Someone must know the answer to this, I can't be the
only one!

Thanks,
Julie

How to activate Windows XP by phone
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307890

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience

---------------------------------------------------------------------

<> wrote in message news:c831cdef-fd81-4125-a15b-...
Hi,

I have a computer with Windows XP. I started it a few days ago to be
greeted with the message:
'Windows Product Activation. Your Windows product must be activated.
Do you want to activate Windows now?'

I clicked OK and after a moment it comes back and says 'Windows is
already activated. Click OK to exit.'

You can see the screen messages here....
http://www.users.waitrose.com/~zeonozo/1c.jpg

Can anyone tell me what to do here please?
I mean will it just continue like this for ever, asking for activation
and then saying it's OK, because I can cope with that. Or will it just
refuse to cooperate on Wednesday morning? How do I resolve this, it is
like it is in a loop.

I think it is related to SP3 because I installed that on 14 September.
I notice that on Add/Remove programs, SP3 is listed, do you think if I
uninstall it it might sort the problem?

I have already found a link that seems to diagnose the problem, on the
Microsoft site....
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312295/en-us
So I have downloaded an exe thingy called Guided Help, it sounds like
it is going to fix the problem, but I haven't run it yet because it is
a bit vague about exactly what the procedure entails; I mean if I run
this Guided Help thingy, is it going to demand the original Windows
disk at the end? Because, if it does, I have a serious problem. You
see when I moved house I chucked away all the disks, manuals etc., I
didn't realise that they might ever be useful in the future.

Please help me! Someone must know the answer to this, I can't be the
only one!

Thanks,
Julie

On 13 Oct, 16:04, "Carey Frisch [MVP]" <cnfri...@nospamgmail.com>
wrote:
> How to activate Windows XP by phonehttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/307890
>
> --
> Carey Frisch
> Microsoft MVP
> Windows Desktop Experience
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> <jhles...@googlemail.com> wrote in messagenews:c831cdef-fd81-4125-a15b-...
>
> Hi,
>
> I have a computer with Windows XP. I started it a few days ago to be
> greeted with the message:
> 'Windows Product Activation. Your Windows product must be activated.
> Do you want to activate Windows now?'
>
> I clicked OK and after a moment it comes back and says 'Windows is
> already activated. Click OK to exit.'
>
> You can see the screen messages here....http://www.users.waitrose.com/~zeonozo/1c.jpg
>
> Can anyone tell me what to do here please?
> I mean will it just continue like this for ever, asking for activation
> and then saying it's OK, because I can cope with that. Or will it just
> refuse to cooperate on Wednesday morning? How do I resolve this, it is
> like it is in a loop.
>
> I think it is related to SP3 because I installed that on 14 September.
> I notice that on Add/Remove programs, SP3 is listed, do you think if I
> uninstall it it might sort the problem?
>
> I have already found a link that seems to diagnose the problem, on the
> Microsoft site....http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312295/en-us
> So I have downloaded an exe thingy called Guided Help, it sounds like
> it is going to fix the problem, but I haven't run it yet because it is
> a bit vague about exactly what the procedure entails; I mean if I run
> this Guided Help thingy, is it going to demand the original Windows
> disk at the end? Because, if it does, I have a serious problem. You
> see when I moved house I chucked away all the disks, manuals etc., I
> didn't realise that they might ever be useful in the future.
>
> Please help me! Someone must know the answer to this, I can't be the
> only one!
>
> Thanks,
> Julie

Hi Carey,
I've done that and and it just says 'Windows is already activated' you
can see the screenshots here......
http://www.users.waitrose.com/~zeonozo/1d.jpg
I am sure I am doing it correctly, and the copy of Windows is
legitimate, you can see that because it is already activated. Can you
suggest anything else?
Thanks in advance,
Julie

Try the following:

1. Reboot your computer into "Safe Mode".
A description of the Safe Mode Boot options in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315222/en-us

2. Go to Start > Run and type: %systemroot%\system32 then press the Enter key.

3. Locate these two files: wpa.dbl and wpa.bak

4. Rename the wpa.dbl file to wpaold.dbl and wpa.bak to wpaold.bak

5. Reboot your computer into Normal Mode. This will force activation on the following boot. Sometimes if those files get corrupted,
they can cause this type of problem.

If the above procedure does not solve the problem, then try:
Guided Help to remove the script that interferes with Windows activation: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312295/en-us

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience

---------------------------------------------------------------------

<> wrote in message news:517e0b64-5206-4581-b995-...
On 13 Oct, 16:04, "Carey Frisch [MVP]" <cnfri...@nospamgmail.com>
wrote:
> How to activate Windows XP by phonehttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/307890
>
> --
> Carey Frisch
> Microsoft MVP
> Windows Desktop Experience
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> <jhles...@googlemail.com> wrote in messagenews:c831cdef-fd81-4125-a15b-...
>
> Hi,
>
> I have a computer with Windows XP. I started it a few days ago to be
> greeted with the message:
> 'Windows Product Activation. Your Windows product must be activated.
> Do you want to activate Windows now?'
>
> I clicked OK and after a moment it comes back and says 'Windows is
> already activated. Click OK to exit.'
>
> You can see the screen messages here....http://www.users.waitrose.com/~zeonozo/1c.jpg
>
> Can anyone tell me what to do here please?
> I mean will it just continue like this for ever, asking for activation
> and then saying it's OK, because I can cope with that. Or will it just
> refuse to cooperate on Wednesday morning? How do I resolve this, it is
> like it is in a loop.
>
> I think it is related to SP3 because I installed that on 14 September.
> I notice that on Add/Remove programs, SP3 is listed, do you think if I
> uninstall it it might sort the problem?
>
> I have already found a link that seems to diagnose the problem, on the
> Microsoft site....http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312295/en-us
> So I have downloaded an exe thingy called Guided Help, it sounds like
> it is going to fix the problem, but I haven't run it yet because it is
> a bit vague about exactly what the procedure entails; I mean if I run
> this Guided Help thingy, is it going to demand the original Windows
> disk at the end? Because, if it does, I have a serious problem. You
> see when I moved house I chucked away all the disks, manuals etc., I
> didn't realise that they might ever be useful in the future.
>
> Please help me! Someone must know the answer to this, I can't be the
> only one!
>
> Thanks,
> Julie

Hi Carey,
I've done that and and it just says 'Windows is already activated' you
can see the screenshots here......
http://www.users.waitrose.com/~zeonozo/1d.jpg
I am sure I am doing it correctly, and the copy of Windows is
legitimate, you can see that because it is already activated. Can you
suggest anything else?
Thanks in advance,
Julie

On 13 Oct, 17:07, "Carey Frisch [MVP]" <cnfri...@nospamgmail.com>
wrote:
> Try the following:
>
> 1. Reboot your computer into "Safe Mode".
> A description of the Safe Mode Boot options in Windows XPhttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/315222/en-us
>
> 2. Go to Start > Run and type: %systemroot%\system32 *then press the Enter key.
>
> 3. Locate these two files: wpa.dbl and wpa.bak
>
> 4. Rename the wpa.dbl file to wpaold.dbl and wpa.bak to wpaold.bak
>
> 5. Reboot your computer into Normal Mode. This will force activation on the following boot. Sometimes if those files get corrupted,
> they can cause this type of problem.
>
> If the above procedure does not solve the problem, then try:
> Guided Help to remove the script that interferes with Windows activation:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312295/en-us
>
> --
> Carey Frisch
> Microsoft MVP
> Windows Desktop Experience
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> <jhles...@googlemail.com> wrote in messagenews:517e0b64-5206-4581-b995-...
>
> On 13 Oct, 16:04, "Carey Frisch *[MVP]" <cnfri...@nospamgmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>
>
> > How to activate Windows XP by phonehttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/307890
>
> > --
> > Carey Frisch
> > Microsoft MVP
> > Windows Desktop Experience
>
> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> > <jhles...@googlemail.com> wrote in messagenews:c831cdef-fd81-4125-a15b-...
>
> > Hi,
>
> > I have a computer with Windows XP. I started it a few days ago to be
> > greeted with the message:
> > 'Windows Product Activation. Your Windows product must be activated.
> > Do you want to activate Windows now?'
>
> > I clicked OK and after a moment it comes back and says 'Windows is
> > already activated. Click OK to exit.'
>
> > You can see the screen messages here....http://www.users.waitrose.com/~zeonozo/1c.jpg
>
> > Can anyone tell me what to do here please?
> > I mean will it just continue like this for ever, asking for activation
> > and then saying it's OK, because I can cope with that. Or will it just
> > refuse to cooperate on Wednesday morning? How do I resolve this, it is
> > like it is in a loop.
>
> > I think it is related to SP3 because I installed that on 14 September.
> > I notice that on Add/Remove programs, SP3 is listed, do you think if I
> > uninstall it it might sort the problem?
>
> > I have already found a link that seems to diagnose the problem, on the
> > Microsoft site....http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312295/en-us
> > So I have downloaded an exe thingy called Guided Help, it sounds like
> > it is going to fix the problem, but I haven't run it yet because it is
> > a bit vague about exactly what the procedure entails; I mean if I run
> > this Guided Help thingy, is it going to demand the original Windows
> > disk at the end? Because, if it does, I have a serious problem. You
> > see when I moved house I chucked away all the disks, manuals etc., I
> > didn't realise that they might ever be useful in the future.
>
> > Please help me! Someone must know the answer to this, I can't be the
> > only one!
>
> > Thanks,
> > Julie
>
> Hi Carey,
> I've done that and and it just says 'Windows is already activated' you
> can see the screenshots here......http://www.users.waitrose.com/~zeonozo/1d.jpg
> I am sure I am doing it correctly, and the copy of Windows is
> legitimate, you can see that because it is already activated. Can you
> suggest anything else?
> Thanks in advance,
> Julie

Thanks Carey,
I will try that tomorrow ( am in the UK and it is early evening and I
have stuff to do). Just one question though; is it going to ask me for
the disk which I have stupidly thrown away?
Kind regards,
Julie