Computer Problem - Reactivation

[whirlcool]

A few days ago my computer died. I was running a virus scan overnight and in the morning the computer was off and wouldn't restart. Nope, not the power supply. When you turn it on you get two of these siren type sounds and then the computer turns off.

Anyway I just took out the hard disk and put it in another computer I had around here. I updated the motherboard chipset drivers and video drivers and then rebooted. It's running Windows XP. Everything looked fine. Today I get this message that Windows has determined that the hardware has changed significantly and I will need to reactivate Windows. I clicked on that option and it tells me that Windows has a connectivity issue and can not connect to the Windows activation server. I can connect to the Internet just fine. I found an article about this problem from Microsoft and they state to make sure the date & time are correct on the computer in Windows and the BIOS and then try again. Did that, still getting the activation message.

Anyone else see this problem? Maybe the XP activation server has been disabled on Microsofts end? I plan on building a new computer later this year and just need this computer for a few more months. Any ideas how to fix this?

 

[danemodsandy]

XP Support....

....Is not supposed to be ended by Microsoft until April 8th of this year. That's the official word from the Microsoft Website.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/enterprise/endofsupport.aspx

 

[washer111]

1 Suggestion

Try the phone activation option instead.

 

If you have a dial-up modem handy, try that too!

 

[whirlcool]

I don't have a home phone line to make a modem call. And to call and get an agent I need a phone number which is does not provide. Anyone know what it is? You would think that it would tell you what number to call. I do still have my orginal disk with key code.

 

[kb0nes]

This should cover the details

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307890

From what I remember of doing phone (voice) activations when you run the activation routine on the OS it gives you the Microsoft phone number to dial.

Be sure to do it soon, I wonder what will happen after April 8th... Perhaps the unactivated OS's will just stop nagging. I have one old XP laptop I keep meaning to take to recycling that isn't activated, I should plug it in next month and see what happens. Time will tell!

 

[alr2903]

Whirlcool, I gave up last week and bought a Asus. Would this link to  MS "Legacy" software help out until you are ready?  alr

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Fundamentals_for_Legacy_PCs

 

[washer111]

You have to select "Activate by phone" to get a number, after entering your country...

Unless you already did that, in which case, I guess you'll just have to try and retry. Check "Internet Options" (Control panel) under network and see if any dial up or silly LAN settings are set.

 

[DADoES]

 
I don't think MS dropping support for XP necessarily means that activation/reactivation won't be available ... it just means that they won't issue further updates/bugfixes for it.

Per a tech e-mail I receive, XP support supposedly will still be available for a while via a paid-subscription program, although generally only to corporate/business level customers (assuming I didn't misunderstand the story).

The potential problem I have with successive Win versions is that I still use several MS-DOS programs (including Solomon III accounting, yes it's Y2K-compliant) that could be a problem to run on the latest-and-greatest OS.  I have confirmed that SIII (seemingly) will run on Win7, but not the 64-bit platform.

 

[whirlcool]

You are right, when I clicked on the Call Microsoft to activate, the program gave me a phone number. It was a recording and there was no waiting on hold. It took all of three minutes to do. So now I am activated and can wait until fall for my new computer. Thanks guys!

BTW, I read in one of the links supplied that even though Windows XP will no longer be supported after April, 2014 you will still be able to activate it in the future.