activation problems

[immortalpain]

i have recently done a repair on an xp pro operating system, when it comes time to activate windows i am unable to do it over the internet so i resort to phone activation. My problem is, the computer refuses to generate the string of numbers required by the M$ rep to activate the copy. All i see is a series of six dashes and no numeric characters.

does anyone have any ideas?

[Takeshi]

The OS repair has messed something up or not fixed whatever was wrong.

Do a format and clean install, assuming there's no hardware problem.