XP Activation after SP2 upgrade

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Author Message   woodstock Citizen Username: Woodstock Post Number: 823 Registered: 9-2002 Posted on Thursday, November 18, 2004 - 2:42 pm:        I've got a weird problem that I can't seem to resolve. I upgraded from Win98 and activated WinXP a long time ago. Now, after upgrading to SP2, Windows has asked me to again activate my install. No problem, I thought. Went through the internet activation, and was told my key was invalid. I pulled out my CD Key, dutifully typed it in again, same thing. WTF? Tried to go through phone activation. No dice. Other than spending $35 to call MS, does anyone have a suggestion for getting XP activated? Or should I just install a second HD, install XP on that, and copy over my data? Please no Mac comments. I use both, but need Windows on this machine...   monster Citizen Username: Monster Post Number: 387 Registered: 7-2002 Posted on Friday, November 19, 2004 - 8:59 am:        It's possible that the Product Key used is one of those that was compromised and used extensively with pirated copies of XP. If this is the case, then MS has flagged it as being pirated and even though you are the legitimate user of that key, you won't be able to use it anymore. You might have to call MS and talk to someonw there. You could try a fresh install of the OS on another HD, or just copy everything you need to backup and then reformat the original drive and reinstall XP, I would also choose not to perform a quick format if given the option.   woodstock Citizen Username: Woodstock Post Number: 825 Registered: 9-2002 Posted on Monday, November 22, 2004 - 3:55 pm:        Well, I couldn't get anything else to work, so I stuck an old HD in and installed XP on it. I'm in the process of rebuilding my PC. Good thing I had all my data on a separate drive already. Now I just have to find all those app disks and downloads. Oddly, I was able to use the product key with no problem this time. Part of me is curious why it wouldn't let me update the product key on the previous install. But the pragmatic side of me couldn't care less.   Brett Citizen Username: Bmalibashksa Post Number: 1367 Registered: 7-2003 Posted on Monday, November 22, 2004 - 8:57 pm:        22 machines at my office got SP2, 3 needed reactivation, 1 was rejected. But we just called and gave them the Product ID and they gave us new key. They explained it as a "parody bit" issue. If you care, the system will count out the number of 1 and 0 in a particular part of the download and match it to a known good piece of code. Very antiquated way to check a download, and most likely a lie by the tech. I think it’s just a common everyday bug.