Required to activate Win XP but MS refuses.

[William23]

Hi Guys

I used nLite to create my Win XP install CD with new drivers.  Installed correctly, but only for a trial period of 30 days without activation.  MS says Win XP is no longer supported and refuses to activate.

Is there a way to force activation?

Thanks

[jaclaz]

1 hour ago, William23 said:

Hi Guys

I used nLite to create my Win XP install CD with new drivers.  Installed correctly, but only for a trial period of 30 days without activation.  MS says Win XP is no longer supported and refuses to activate.

Is there a way to force activation?

Thanks

How exactly MS expressed this?

I mean, did you phone them and talked with a representative, or e-mailed them, or what?

Latest news I recall were that normally both "online" and (in case that failed) "automated telephone"  worked still just fine, maybe they just changed something recently?

jaclaz

[William23]

Thank you for responding.

The online option no longer exists.

The phone option still does.  The machine accepted the activation numbers and tried to look them up.  It said that it was invalid and I should return the product.

I then got a person and she checked both the activation numbers and the product code.  She said they "expired" and she could/would not give me the activation code.

Bill

[jaclaz]

Hmmm.

Maybe it is a "specific" thing for the "specific" (you choose, it's a mess, version, release, SKU, whatever) "item" you have in your hands, but I still don't think that they (again, product code, activation number, whatever) can actually "expire", while it is possible that (again for whatever reasons) the thing was somehow "blacklisted".

I mean, if the activation wasn't working in an absolute way (i.e. it was intentionally "retired" by MS) the telephone method wouldn't have even looked up for the number.

I suspect that for one reason or the other you are in a situation similar to this reported one (circa 2008):

https://askleo.com/why_cant_i_activate_windows_xp/

maybe triggered by some "aggressive" use of nlite.

If you google a bit around you will find a number of ways to "force" activation, but if not directly  to the "dark side", they belong to a "gray area", so, sorry but I can't provide you with a direct link to these resources

jaclaz

 

[Tripredacus]

The only (Activation) Product Keys I know that can "expire" are Volume License. Either because the Partner let their account lapse or the keys were blacklisted because they were leaked online and new keys were issued to the original party.

If you can still boot into the OS proper, run MGADiag and post the results into here. Perhaps there is another reason why the OS won't activate.

[William23]

I can still get into Win XP.  I forgot to check for how long.

Tried to run mgadiag.  No such program.  Used search to look for any file with mgadiag.  No such file.

I think the tech was telling me MS no longer supports Win XP so stop bothering them.  She had a thick accent so I could be wrong.

[jaclaz]

4 hours ago, William23 said:

I can still get into Win XP.  I forgot to check for how long.

Tried to run mgadiag.  No such program.  Used search to look for any file with mgadiag.  No such file.

I think the tech was telling me MS no longer supports Win XP so stop bothering them.  She had a thick accent so I could be wrong.

Maybe she was one of the common  (usually outsorced)  "first level responder" which often, not always but often enough, are clueless.

The MGADIAG tool is something you need to download from MS, here:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=52012

And here you can find some basic usage instructions:

https://www.raymond.cc/blog/checking-genuine-windows-and-making-it-genuine/

jaclaz

[William23]

I ran Magdiag and got the attached results.  Windows would not resolve.  I have 13 days left before I will have to reinstall Win XP.  The original computer that ran Win XP no longer exists.

Bill

mgadiag.rtf

[alacran]

AFAIK MS is not activating XP installs (on line or by phone) anymore.  I just read about this a few days ago but can't find that link.

Anyway googling I found this other link for you, more info on it, source: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/video-capture/7879-windows-xp-longer.html

Quote

Microsoft has taken down their activation servers for WinXP. This is bad news, because without activating, an XP install becomes unusable after 30 days. I hear a lot of people rely on this OS for making reliable analog capture machines (this includes my new build, which is how I just discovered this is a problem). What this would mean is we could only use an install for 30 days, and then get locked out and be forced to create a total reinstall.

alacran

Edited June 17, 2018 by alacran

[jaclaz]

It is entirely possible that they took the servers down recently, tough I doubt they did that in march 2017 (as in the given link).

The OP managed to connect with the automated phone activation servers just fine (so they still exist) the issue here is that - for some reason - the procedure didn't work.

The MGADIAG however says:

Quote

Windows License Type: OEM SLP

... and ...

OEM Activation 1.0 Data-->

BIOS string matches: no

Marker string from BIOS: N/A

Marker string from OEMBIOS.DAT: Dell System,Dell Computer,Dell System,Dell System

so, if I recall correctly, SLP cannot (and never could) be activated online, they are intended as self-activating IF they find the same hardware they were released for,

But not really my (narrow) field of competence.

So, if OP is using the same hardware, then the nlite *somehow* made the install not valid (changed/removed OEMBIOS and related files?), while if the hardware changed then technically the license is not valid.

jaclaz

[Tripredacus]

There are two problems.

1. This is a Dell OS and it is not on an appropriate Dell motherboard.
2. There is something removed by nLite that has resulted in incomplete information in the MGADiag report. I would surmise that even if this OS was installed on the correct Dell board, it may still not work.

[William23]

Thanks for all of your responses.  They help frame the question.  nLite by design assumes that you are installing Win XP on a foreign computer, otherwise you would not need special drivers to install it.

However, if you cannot activate it because it is now running on foreign equipment, why use nLite?

I thought buying an OS means you can run it on any computer, albeit only one at a time.  But it seems MS tries to tie it to only one computer for life.

Bill

[jaclaz]

4 hours ago, William23 said:

Thanks for all of your responses.  They help frame the question.  nLite by design assumes that you are installing Win XP on a foreign computer, otherwise you would not need special drivers to install it.

However, if you cannot activate it because it is now running on foreign equipment, why use nLite?

I thought buying an OS means you can run it on any computer, albeit only one at a time.  But it seems MS tries to tie it to only one computer for life.

Bill

The good MS guys made a mess.

There is (was) three main types of product (both CD and License) that could end up in the hands of a "final" user:

1) FULL <- you can install it on *any* hardware (and change hardware any time you want, as long as you don't run concurrently more PC's than licenses)
2) OEM <- you can install it on *any* hardware (and then changing the hardware is not allowed - though technically possible - and usually MS would re-validate it on new hardware, provided that some reason is given, like replaced motherboard and similar)
3) Large OEM <- you can install it only on the hardware for which it is licensed (and then changing the hardware is not allowed - though technically possible, and usually having MS re-validate it was difficult or impossible)

The last one later evolved in OEM SLP (used by very large OEM's like, say DELL, HP, Toshiba, etc.), where activation is not needed at all, as it is automated through a code embedded in the BIOS of the machine it is sold with.

nlite is only a tool, to give you an example of a possible use (on a "same" computer) you may have bought a PC with a SATA controller but you would be forced to install XP in "IDE compatibility mode" (slightly slower than "pure" SATA) because the SATA driver is not included (slipstreamed) in the install CD and - for whatever reasons - you cannot go throught the "traditional" F6 floppy routine to install it. 

jaclaz
 

[TrevMUN]

On 6/15/2018 at 1:00 PM, William23 said:

Thank you for responding.

The online option no longer exists.

The phone option still does.  The machine accepted the activation numbers and tried to look them up.  It said that it was invalid and I should return the product.

I then got a person and she checked both the activation numbers and the product code.  She said they "expired" and she could/would not give me the activation code.

Bill

This is strange. Last month due to some loose RAM chips potentially corrupting my hard drive's file system (and in the interest of preserving the data on those drives until I have a chance to inspect them thoroughly) I wound up having to reinstall my copy of XP64 on a new WD BLUE 1 TB drive.

I had feared Microsoft would have disabled the ability to activate Windows XP to further force people to abandon the OS, but the activation went without a hitch. It took only five minutes. In my case, they don't use the old automated phone service anymore; they have a smartphone-friendly system now, and it accepted my key no problem.

Maybe XP64 isn't affected by this (yet)? I'm not keen on finding out the hard way; my laptop uses XP32.

[dencorso]

It's FUD! MS continues to activate by phone and online. They don't use the old automated phone service anymore; they have a smartphone-friendly system now, just as you said. Online activation still works for never-used-before valid FPP keys 1st activation (and maybe the next 2 activations, as of old, but I'm not sure about that). OEM SLP cannot be activated because they already are activated, provided the machine has the right string in the right place in the BIOS. Simple as that.