Logon loop and cant activate after MB swap

[Deslatur]

I have a Windows XP Pro system that I had to replace a motherboard on. I swapped out the board and then did windows xp repair. The system was completely fine through 3 reboots as I installed the new drivers that came with the motherboard. After that was completed I shut it down and then moved it over to another room where I could hook it to internet. It had successfully booted after all installs were completed. Now after it was plugged in to CAT5 the user accounts will all log on and immediately log off. Windows is not yet activated and it prompts me to activate as the user logs in. If I choose activate the system hangs permanently. If I choose not to activate at this time It goes back to the logon screen.

Most of my searching has lead me to various repairs for the replacing the winlogon.exe file or the userinit.exe file or editing the registry entries for these files due to virus complications of these files. I didnt have any of those issues but I did verify registry values are correct and did replace those files from the XP CD. I have also attempted to run the full windows xp repair again and had no change in results. I am really trying to avoid a fresh install if at all possible.

 

[blackmancer]

Can you boot into safe mode? press F8 as the machine is booting up. If you can get there, open up the device manager and delete any network card that shows up. you can also try downloading this file http://www.majorgeeks.com/WinSock_XP_Fix_d4372.html and try running it within safe mode. you may need to burn a CD as you may not have USB support in safe mode.

 

[Deslatur]

Cant boot into safe mode unless windows xp has been activated. Thats a big part of why this is so annoying. Been using PE boot disk to mod the registry and the xp recovery console to make any changes.

 

[Deslatur]

More specifically the loop still happens in safe mode and it warns me that you cant activate from within safe mode.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

One of these two links should fix the problem:
http://www.***/XP-Activation-Loop
http://forums.techguy.org/windows-xp/363300-solved-win-xp-activation-loop.html

One or the other has always worked in my shops.

Edit: Argh! swear filter ate the first link. Replace the *** in the first link with "squid<>oo.com/XP-Activation-Loop" (remove the quotes and <> between 'squid' and 'oo.com')

 

[Deslatur]

Unfortunately those wont solve my problem. I cant log in to be able to type in the key. If I choose yes to activate i see the background but nothing else. Ctrl+alt+del doesnt work and nor does ctrl+shift+esc. I cant even see what is making it hang. I let it sit for 2 hours but it never changes. So its a combo of a logon loop and the fact that i cant activate.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Build a UBCD4Win (Ultimate Boot CD 4 Windows) disc and use it to edit the registry as instructed in the second link I provided. It will fix the loop.

 

[Mousemonkey]

One of these two links should fix the problem:
http://www.***/XP-Activation-Loop
http://forums.techguy.org/windows-xp/363300-solved-win-xp-activation-loop.html

One or the other has always worked in my shops.

Edit: Argh! swear filter ate the first link. Replace the *** in the first link with "squid<>oo.com/XP-Activation-Loop" (remove the quotes and <> between 'squid' and 'oo.com')

Actually it's the spam filter, blame the twats who have spammed this forum with links to that site.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Thanks MM, I'll remember that for the future.



Spammers should be poisoned, shot, castrated, decapitated, then boiled in oil. And then we get violent with them.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Spammers should be poisoned, shot, castrated, decapitated, then boiled in oil. And then we get violent with them.

I like the attitude! :lol:

 

[Deslatur]

KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
(change Activation Required value to zero)

Problem with this part is this registry entry does not exist. How can I fix that part?

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Add it.

 

[Deslatur]

Adding a string value to the winlogon key called ActivationRequired with a value of 0 did not change anything.

 

[Deslatur]

I also just found a suggestion to rename the wpa.dbl and wpa.bak files located within system32 as they may have been corrupted. This also had no change.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Adding a string value to the winlogon key called ActivationRequired with a value of 0 did not change anything.

It's not a string, it's a DWORD. Type and exact capitalization is important in the registry.

 

[Deslatur]

DWORD set at 0 (all zeros) value I have the same results as well. Exact spelling is ActivationRequired. I had assumed a string because it is a single zero switch as opposed to a DWORD having a hex value.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

At this point you may very well be looking at a fresh install. The two solutions I provided have never failed to stop the activation loop in my shops, in many hundreds of uses.

 

[Deslatur]

I have done thousands of repairs myself and I think this may be the first time I actually am defeated and have to do a fresh install. I have 3 more days to get this thing back to the owner. Just hoping for someone to have seen this before and know how to kill it.