roztaylor
join:2000-10-21
Madison, AL
 ·AT&T Yahoo
|  [XP Pro] MS Activation - Suspicion
My PC has been happily humming along for at least 6 months.
No new hardware in the last 6 months, no new software. Yesterday when I did my weekly reboot, XP Pro popped up and said that there was significant hardware changes since it was installed and that I need to go through the activation process, again.
I did. When the wizard tried to send the info via internet it came back with a response that the internet was not available or something like that. I just figured good old SBC had dropped my DSL connection again or that it was actually trying to go out before my firewall software was completely "up". I just selected the remind me later button.
MSN Messenger wouldn't login for me, so I decided to reboot my system thinking that the MS activation wizard might have thoroughly confused the HW/SW combination.
Got that wonderful blue screen with the first line of "unmountable_boot_volume".
Because I do not have an alternate method of connecting to the internet, I had to wait until coming to work today to check this out. I have printed out the instructions for getting to chkdsk.
I still suspect the MS Activation--we had no brownouts, surges, no new equipment, haven't even bumped the box in 3 or 4 months!
If some HW has died, my DH is going "**** little green apples"!
Has anyone had the MS activation wizard cause problems with a legally owned copy of XP Pro?
Thanks!
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Choose to make it a good day... don't wait for something good to happen! |
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SunDog
Premium
join:2003-12-12
3 edits | said by roztaylor  :Has anyone had the MS activation wizard cause problems with a legally owned copy of XP Pro? Thanks! Interesting!
I've got a legal XP PRO OEM version and activation popped up about a month and a half ago for no apparent reason. System had been activated and running with no changes for over 3 months.
Anyways, instead of going through reactivation (which I thought was in error) (but perhaps it is our friend MSFT?  ), I used Drive Image to return to the an image just taken a day before. Haven't had it occur again, so WTF!?
Edit: I must add that I had no problems with hardware to cause this problem that I'm aware of. |
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Cudni
La Merma - Vigilado
Premium,MVM
join:2003-12-20
Someshire
| reply to roztaylor
MS wizards are good but not that good to kill your comp. It is some kind of hardware possibly HD failure
see similar
»[XP Home] Unmountable Boot Volume, can't repair
Cudni
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Some are born to failure, others achieve it, all deserve it Help yourself so God can help you |
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roztaylor
join:2000-10-21
Madison, AL
·AT&T Yahoo
| Thanks for the link! I figured it was just coincidence, but one never knows.
I've got spinrite (v6) running right now. The HDD is a Maxtor SATA 250GB purchased in Jul or Aug 2004. Need to check the warranty on it.
MOBO was new in June 2004. Yup did a major upgrade last June ('04)--MOBO (Gigabyte), CPU, RAM, case, and upgraded to XP Pro. Old HDD died in July 04, so bought the SATA. MOBO has two onboard SATA connectors. DVD drive was about 5/6 years old and died in Aug 05--replaced it with an external MadDog USB DVD/CD reader/writer.
Been really busy at work so my last ASR disk set is from 25 Sep 05. I usually burn one per month. Luckily most data is kept on d-drive, not c-drive, and is backed up separately. So worst case is that I lose 3 months of c-drive info which would be mostly program tweaks as I install most programs to d-drive rather than c-drive.
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Choose to make it a good day... don't wait for something good to happen! |
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Leathal
Premium
join:2002-02-09
Toronto, ON
| Having a Maxtor drive explains a lot. Since Maxtor bought Quantum their product testing has proven to not be working at all.
There was one guy who plugged his Maxtor SATA drives into this computer, upgrading from his previous SATA drives and as soon as he turned the computer POOF the drives literally caught on fire.
You may have to buy another piece of software to get your data off you hard drive, its called R-Studio and costs $80 USD. It works great and I would highly recommend it!
Leathal
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yearight
@comcast.net | And your proof in this "statement" is where? |
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howie
1970's Vintage Audio Addict
Premium,MVM
join:2003-04-08
Little Falls, NJ
| reply to roztaylor
OT: Maxtor
I have 2 80GB Maxtors that are at least 3 years old and have been running issue free for about 3+ years. I had 2 Western Digitals die within days/weeks of installation. Go figure. I've had a great experience with Maxtor and would definitely buy Maxtor again.
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Local Area Network in Australia: the LAN down under. |
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Leathal
Premium
join:2002-02-09
Toronto, ON | reply to yearight
Re: [XP Pro] MS Activation - Suspicion
said by yearight :
And your proof in this "statement" is where?
It's funny how unregistered users can't show their true selves. |
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howie
1970's Vintage Audio Addict
Premium,MVM
join:2003-04-08
Little Falls, NJ
1 edit | reply to roztaylor
OT: Going up in Smoke
I heard about those Maxtors catching fire as well but with the many millions of drives out there this ultra-rare occurance can probably happen with any of them, irregardless of brand. The same goes for any electronic device and I have also read about PSU's and motherboards that "went up in smoke". It's no reason to summarily dismiss a particular brand because of one unlucky fellow.
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Local Area Network in Australia: the LAN down under. |
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Leathal
Premium
join:2002-02-09
Toronto, ON
| reply to howie
Re: OT: Maxtor
said by howie :I have 2 80GB Maxtors that are at least 3 years old and have been running issue free for about 3+ years. I had 2 Western Digitals die within days/weeks of installation. Go figure. I've had a great experience with Maxtor and would definitely buy Maxtor again. Did a search on Google.ca for "maxtor high failure"
»stores.tomshardware.com/rating_g···type=M//
Leathal |
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howie
1970's Vintage Audio Addict
Premium,MVM
join:2003-04-08
Little Falls, NJ
1 edit | reply to roztaylor
OT
Post removed as my off-topic posting is not helping the OP in any way, shape or form.:(
Sorry, roztaylor ! |
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roztaylor
join:2000-10-21
Madison, AL
·AT&T Yahoo
| reply to roztaylor
Re: [XP Pro] MS Activation - Suspicion
Thanks for the various comments--I own spinrite v6. I'm using a neighbor's computer to check. Spinrite has been working on my Maxtor drive since Thursday night. It finished late last night. But it worked--sort of:
System booted into windows with message that some registry entries were corrupt (or something like that) but the bad entries were restored from log.
The "Activate Windows" message pops up when I try to log in and I cannot log in without it. NEW PROBLEM: The activate windows screen pops up, but other than the name in the title bar the "Activate Windows" window is blank.
Of course there is no taskman, no taskbar, nothing...
I haven't searched BBR to see if this has been addressed anywhere. Sigh.
I've been using maxtor IDE drives for many, many years. This is my first maxtor SATA drive. While spinrite was running, it paused because the drive got got. I moved a house fan over near and under my PC and the temps dropped and stayed down. Been meaning to add an HDD cooling fan to my PC--guess I will SOONER rather than later!
Now to see what I can find about a blank "activate windows" window.
Thanks, again!
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Choose to make it a good day... don't wait for something good to happen! |
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roztaylor
join:2000-10-21
Madison, AL
·AT&T Yahoo
| Success!
After spinrite finished, I could start windows--up to the activate windows window. But I couldn't actually get into windows because the wizard was a blank window.
I returned to the earlier device and did the chkdsk /r, then bootcfg /list, then bootcfg /rebuild (answered 'no' to the add installation question--didn't know what that meant), and then ran fixboot.
Booted into windows and eureka! There was color, and letters in my activate windows window! Filled in the boxes, and then my elation died--the wizard could not connect to the internet! Rebooted, tried again (and again after a "hard" off)--still no luck.
So I did the telephone activation--wow, it was automated--I didn't have to talk to a person. Turns out the driver (or something) for my network card was corrupted. (Spinrite did report several blocks that had unrecoverable data.) So I used device manager and uninstalled/reinstalled the network card driver and got my internet connection back!
I'm a little nervous about what else is messed. Guess I will play it by ear...unless someone has a "non-reinstall everything" option/suggestion.
Thanks again, everyone!
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Choose to make it a good day... don't wait for something good to happen! |
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