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How do I reintall XP Home on a Dell and get it to activate?


ZenCoder

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I mostly just build new PC's and I don't have much experience doing clean installes on OEM machines.

Someone brought me a Dell XPS 2400 with seriously messed up partitions and infected with viruses and spyware. The system was purchased in 2003 and by now any Recovery CDs are long gone, if Dell even provided them in the first place.

I pressed F12 and tried to enter Dell's Utility Partition - no joy, it just attempted to boot to Windows XP Home then bluescreened complaining of an umountable volume. Partition magic showed only one large NFTS partition, so I am guessing if there was a Utility partition it isn't there now. The partition had errors which PM was unable to correct.

I managed to use the recovery console chckdsk /p & fixboot to and boot into safe mode. The system was barely functional I was unable to install antivirus software, but I was able to use a utility to recover the CD-Key and WPA.DBL file. The CD Key is not the same as the one the COA sticker, which I understand is normal for OEM PC's.

So I create an unattended install file with said CD-KEY, pop in an XP Home OEM SP2 CD and reinstall windows.

Everthing works fine until I try to activate. It tells me the CD-Key is invalid. So I reboot in safe mode and copy over the WPA.DBL file - no luck. Then I try the CD-KEY printed on the sticker - no luck

So now I am stuck.

I can't activate by copying over the WPA.DBL file.

The CD-KEY Dell used won't activate.

The COA Key won't activate.

And I am not going to resort to some activation hack, as the PC has a legitamate COA sticker.

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Why won't this system validate, and what can I do to fix it.

I am currently downloading something claiming to be a Dell XP Home OEM CD, I am thinking maybe the CD-Key used by Dell or the one on the COA sticker might only work with Dell specific version of Windows XP HOME CD?

Edited by ZenCoder
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Dell will ship me free replacement XP Home SP1 CD once, but the need the service tag, original owners name and original registration phone number. I got all but the owners phone number at the time of purchase. The owner should get back to me with the phone number.

I make my own Dell XP Home SP2 CD by added the OEMBIOS files to a standard XP Home SP2 OEM CD, but it wouldn't preactivate.

The CD-KEY is the problem, someone previously reinstalled XP Home with an invalid CD-KEY then used an activation hack.

I managed to download some Dell OEM CDs off the internet, and they work install, preactivate and validate just fine. Unfortunately the versions are Dell XP Pro SP2 and Dell Home Edition SP2 Japanse version.

I am still trying to find a copy of Dell XP Home SP2 English. I was hoping to have this box 100% working and 100% legal and out of my house by Friday. :(

BTW both Pro and Home Japanes install, preactivate and validate just fine.

I hate when its you have to jump through a bunch of hoops to not cheat microsoft. :(

They need to fix it so that no matter what is always harder to pirate software than it is for honest people to activate.

Edited by ZenCoder
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I already have working OEMBIOS files, I think I can convert any nearly any OEM CD to a Dell CD.

The problem is I don't have the Dells preactivated factory key for XP Home.

Someone else previously "fixed" the PC using a pirated CD-Key and activation hack, so I the CD-Key I recovered is worthless.

I got a XP Home SP2 CD with Dell OEMBIOS ready and waiting, all I need is Dells Volume Home CD-Key, which will be in the winnt.sif file on the XP Home SP1 Dell will send me.

I am trying to download a Dell XP Home CD before then or find the CD-Key somewhere else, so I don't have to wait several days for the CD to arrive.

--

At least know exactly what hoops I need to jump through to do a clean install of a Royalty OEM PC.

Factory CD-Key for that OS version + compatible OEMBIOS files + standard install CD = Working Branded Install CD

I even got batch files to extract the CD-Key and OEMBIOS files.

Edited by ZenCoder
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I already have working OEMBIOS files, I think I can convert any nearly any OEM CD to a Dell CD.

The problem is I don't have the Dells preactivated factory key for XP Home.

Someone else previously "fixed" the PC using a pirated CD-Key and activation hack, so I the CD-Key I recovered is worthless.

I got a XP Home SP2 CD with Dell OEMBIOS ready and waiting, all I need is Dells Volume Home CD-Key, which will be in the winnt.sif file on the XP Home SP1 Dell will send me.

I am trying to download a Dell XP Home CD before then or find the CD-Key somewhere else, so I don't have to wait several days for the CD to arrive.

--

At least know exactly what hoops I need to jump through to do a clean install of a Royalty OEM PC.

Factory CD-Key for that OS version + compatible OEMBIOS files + standard install CD = Working Branded Install CD

I even got batch files to extract the CD-Key and OEMBIOS files.

The CD-Key is not Dell specific, you can use any Home SLP Key.

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Good to know, however I never owned a PC I didn't build myself, and I build the PCs of all my friends so it still might take me awhile to track down a valid SLP CD-Key for XP Home.

Do any of the OEMs happend publish a list of their slp keys?

People "share" the pro versions because they let someone illegally upgrade a Royalty OEM PC from Home to Pro and still validate.

People are less interested in distributing the Home CD's.

Fastest method still might be waiting for owner to cough up detailed registration information and waiting for Dell to ship me a free CD. :(

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Microsoft publishes a list of generic CD Keys, I just had to search for generic rather than SLP!

Nevermind those are test keys for people to use to do test installations of Windows XP.

Edited by ZenCoder
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I'm reminded of a verse from an old song......"And the beat goes on".

The scenerio of this thread is repeated hundreds of times a day in homes and shops accross this world.

If ONLY people would wake up and do the one word thing repeated in every forum on the internet, hundreds of times a week.

BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP!!!!

Gads I'm feeling musical.....another song verse, "when will they ever learn.....when will they eeeeeever learn?"

When I do an install of a new PC, or when I used to build a PC for someone, I'd get everything installed and set up and Tweaked just the way I wanted it and then I'd burn a GHOST Image CD or DVD of the hard drive.

I'd then put the CD in my own file so the user couldn't loose it. They will, you know?

Then if they ever had a serious problem that demanded a reinstall of windows, I'd just restore the Image file and be done with it. Then post the latest updates to the OS and AV and AS programs and the job is done.

There are other very simple ways of restoring Windows XP to a computer, but forum rules prohibit me from going there. Sorry.

Cheers!

Andromeda43 B)

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I prefer True Image 9 to Ghost 9 or 10. Ghost 2003 is nice for older systems with low memory.

Dantz Retrospect 7.5 for my personal files.

Scheduled backups stored on 400 GB Raid 1 array, and moved to DVD+RW every once and awhile.

I usually attempt to teach people how to use backup software after I rebuild their software from scratch. A few actually learn and I don't see them again unless they have bad hardware or need tutoring.

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SUCCESS

I downloaded a English DELL XP Home CD got the SLP CD-KEY from the Winnt.sif file and installed with using the CD I created earlier using the OEMBIOS I downloaded from the link provided to me by Bezalel.

It worked perfectly XP Home installed, didn't need activated and valided, so the system is 100% legit and 100% working. I will have the rest of the software in before Friday. :)

With the OEMBIOS site and SLP keys for XP Home and XP Pro I should be able to create Royalty OEM CDs that install, preactivate and validate for any Royalty OEM CD.

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Edited by ZenCoder
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  • 1 year later...

Could someone fix the second link in the third reply (Bezalel's), please? Or am I correct in finding the page no longer exists? Where could it have gone? What is the correct link? Or is it irrelevant now? Questions, questions, questions... :rolleyes:

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The system was purchased in 2003 and by now any Recovery CDs are long gone, if Dell even provided them in the first place.
So I create an unattended install file with said CD-KEY, pop in an XP Home OEM SP2 CD and reinstall windows

Sorry about chopping up your post, but these are the two "key" points. MS has had to burn tons of Product Keys (and/or PIDs) due to piracy. These "changes" are reflected on the service packs included with OEM install disks. So if the machine was made in 2003, any OEM SP2 CD (even the "right" one) will either refuse the key on the COA sticker, or fail activation.

But, if you use an OEM SP1 or RTM CD (from any manufacture) it will install and activate just fine with the COA key.

My XP Home OEM "kit" contains only 3 CDs, 1 HP OEM/RTM, 1 Dell SP1, 1 Dell, SP2. I grab whichever disk has the SP level that matches the COA sticker, and I've never had an issue with activation failures on OEM machines. I've done reloads on HP, Dell, Compaq, Gateway, Toshiba and a few others I don't recall at the moment...and all activated just fine. Once or twice I had to call MS for a phone based activation, but that only takes a minute or two... ;)

I've also a simular CD set for XP pro OEM installs that has the same success rate.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi,

I have a batch of 20 identical Dell's. I made an image of the Dell Reinstallation CD that came with them and altered the WINNT.SIF to perform an unattended install (or as unattended as possible), for adding some drivers, disabling some components,...

I want an image that I can use to (re)install all those Dell's. Right now my image works on one pc, but it still contains those OEMBIOS files. I think those files are tied to a specific individual Dell pc? Or are they tied to a type of Dell and so are they equal when I have 20 identical Dell's? So I'm wondering...will I be able to use this CD with the OEMBIOS files from 1 of those Dell's to install another (identical) Dell? Removing those OEMBIOS files renders my CD unbootable.

It's OK for the Windows Setup to come and ask for the product key...I put a key like "XXXXX-XXXXX-..." in the WINNT.SIF.

I read through several posts related to unattended installs, but it's not yet completely clear.

Thanks for your support!

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I checked those OEMBIOS files from two different CD's and apparently they are the same. So I think I can safely use those files to install my 20 Dell pc's, and then activate them with their own key on the sticker on the side of each Dell...

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