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Thread: Re-Activate WinXP

  1. #1
    Senior Member michaeln's Avatar
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    Re-Activate WinXP

    Weird one today. I rebooted my PC (WinXp Pro SP3) and was presented with a message that said due to hardware changes I had to re-activate Windows. I re-activated and there were no problems however I hadn't made any changes to the hardware.

    I did a full system scan for any malware and there were no problems.

    I'm curious as to why I had to re-activate.

    Any ideas?


    Michael

  2. #2
    Administrator Steve R Jones's Avatar
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    Did you log in with a different user profile?

  3. #3
    Senior Member michaeln's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve R Jones View Post
    Did you log in with a different user profile?
    Hi Steve,


    No. There is only one profile in use on the PC and it automatically logs in.

  4. #4
    Administrator Steve R Jones's Avatar
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    Did you add a new printer/any type of USB device - reinstall video card drivers etc?

  5. #5
    Senior Member michaeln's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve R Jones View Post
    Did you add a new printer/any type of USB device - reinstall video card drivers etc?
    Hi Steve,


    I did absolutely nothing except re-boot. This PC has had the same architecture for several years. As I said it was no problem to re-activate however I am just interested in why it decided to require a re-activation.

  6. #6
    Ultimate Member Rocketmech's Avatar
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    There is an older app called XPInfo that may shed some light on what XP thinks has changed.

    http://www.licenturion.com/xp/

  7. #7
    Senior Member michaeln's Avatar
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    Ran XPInfo and got this response.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  8. #8
    Ultimate Member Rocketmech's Avatar
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    From the release notes:

    * A check mark indicates that the corresponding hardware component has not been removed, replaced or newly added since product activation.

    * If a hardware component is not present in the current hardware configuration, it will look dimmed, i.e. it will be displayed in a light grey font instead of the usual black font.

    The Processor Serial Number is greyed out. Keep in mind, XPInfo is undocumented.

    AFAIK, unless you change the cpu, you can only turn on/off the ability to view a cpu s/n with software. The whole event is likely a fluke since you need more than the cpu s/n changed to set off WPA. Regardless it would not hurt to investigate a little or at least keep an eye open.

  9. #9
    Senior Member michaeln's Avatar
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    Thanks Rocketmech,

    The PC is working fine and without any problems. Exactly as it did before the re-activation. I am just intrigued by the sudden out of the blue notice to re-activate.

    I doubt I will get any closer to a reason.


    Thanks.


    Michael

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