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Key No Longer Works


gbCambridge

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Hi,

Having fought my way through the problem of adding SATA drivers to a machine with no floppy drive, I was congratulating myself on building an ISO image of Windows XP Professional with the extra drivers from Dell / Intel for SATA and SP3 slipstreamed in..

However, came the install all went well until I was asked for the Key.

The Key that I had from the original XP Professional was typed in exactly and was rejected each time. I tried other keys with the same result.

This is leaving me confused .. is this a problem in what I have done or have I missed a step somehow?

Help please... anyone

Best regards

George

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This is a known issue when slipstreaming service pack 3 into Windows XP under Windows Vista or later operating systems. See Microsoft's KB950722 for more details.

The only remedy is to boot into Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, either on real hardware or using a virtual machine, and slipstream the service pack into your source while using Windows XP/2003.

Edited by 5eraph
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Further to the above, I went back to build a disk with the SATA drivers and using the original XP installation disk, so no SP3 slipstream. I did not reformat the drive and during the install I got the same problem.. the key was not recognised.

I shall reinstall with a format of the drive on the assumption that XP left some strange files around, to do with the key.

Any pointers on this ... am I heading in the right direction?

George

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Reading the notes on my installation CD I see that my copy of Windows XP has an integrated installation of SP1. Although the MS notes refer to problems of SP3, the actual problem does seem to revolve around the use of the /Integrate option. The MS notes seem to be saying that the problem doesn't occur with SP1 and SP2. Well, perhaps it does in the nLite world.

I can see some complicated work happening here.. but I am running out of ideas. Does any one have experience in building an XP Professional with SP1 integrated and including some SATA drivers? That is all that I am trying to achieve, and yet my key doesn't work!

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Does any one have experience in building an XP Professional with SP1 integrated and including some SATA drivers?

There is a forum member with name Fernando1 who has 666 replies (yes I counted them) in a single thread about that, so I'd say he has experience.

But up to now I'm yet to see a post in this forum that comes to an other reason for rejected key than those 3;

-SP3 integrated (with nLite or other) under Vista or Win7 (do not).

-that "working" key was actually never tried with original CD (maybe because original was automated) and poster admits it later.

-key was blacklisted by Service Pack (1, 2 or 3) because it was leaked on the Internet or for other reasons.

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I might add that it is not the first time that I see posts/threads where - in the end - it is a "mismatch", like "retail key" used for OEM disc, or OEM sticker key not valid for supplied media, etc.

The "casual" mentioning of "Dell" may be another good sign of possible issues (for whatever reasons both Dell hardware and Dell originated discs have been a PITA for almost anything that works otherwise everywhere else).

A quick check in PID string may help to understand if the issue is a mismatch:

http://wiki.lunarsoft.net/wiki/Product_IDs

see also the note about reported issues with CD labels. :unsure:

And/or check for the screenshots of different version (when you are asked for the key):

http://www.thetechguide.com/misc/winxp.html

jaclaz

Edited by jaclaz
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Also, AFAIK, the only problem with doing all your work for your new build of XP while on Win7 is if you try to integrate SP3 using the /integrate switch. So two other options you have are either to install XP to a VM on your Win7 system and do the /integrate step while running the XP in the VM, or if you have a friend who has an XP system, do the integrate step on the friend's system. I think the rest of the build using nLite can be done while on Win7. If it doesn't work, you could do the entire build in the VM.

Cheers and Regards

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  • 1 month later...

Hi. I need to refurbish several WinXP-Pro pc's. We use Dell Optiplex and I have a Dell WinXP-Pro SP3 disk. I've used this disk on a couple of pc's and would like to try slipstreaming. Will there be any issues with the pc product key since I will use this Dell re-install disk to create the slipstream?

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If the PCs (still) have an OEM sticker (for XP), you can use the OEM key (which should auto-activate) OR the key on the sticker. But in the CD should enter the key (unattended) unless you change that in the options.

I have a Dell WinXP-Pro SP3 disk. I've used this disk on a couple of pc's and would like to try slipstreaming. Will there be any issues with the pc product key since I will use this Dell re-install disk to create the slipstream?

Have you got issues up to now? Slipstream what to what?

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Having a Dell Reinstall Disk myself (MCE) I would say you -could- get the internal key with a keyfinder and use it instead (preactivation) and slipping post-SP3 updates -shouldn't- be a problem.

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