Ran XP prod key update tool - now getting "activation period has

[98Guy]

I'm trying to help someone long-distance who started getting the "your installation of XP is not genuine" message last week.

Today I told them to ignore the message, and download the XP product key update tool from here:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=50346&clcid=0x409

And follow the instructions to install a new product key (brand-new key, never before used).

They did that, and the program did not give any error messages. It asked (or wanted) the system to be rebooted, and it was.

Upon rebooting, I believe the XP product activation service came up, and asked the user if they wanted to register and validate or just validate the system. User chose validate over the internet. This did not work. It resulted in this message:

- 45106

- Activation period has expired

I told the user to go to the telephone registration option and select "change key". User typed in new key (again) and it took it, but later still resulted in same message as above.

Why does this happen?

I've tested the product activation tool on an identical system and it worked (even the product activation step after rebooting). The difference is that the identical system had not triggered or was not in the "your installation of windows may not be genuine" mode.

What steps do I need to talk the user through in order to resolve this?

Is the complete telephonic registration method more reliable and known to work in these situations?

Or do I have to tell them to boot into safe mode and play around with registry keys?

[Tripredacus]

If you call the activation hot line and tell them EXACTLY these things you have posted here, they should activate it for you. I can say no more.