XP Home SP1 activation problem

I have an activation problem here.... I looked thru some threads with the same issue, but there were no real fixes. So, when XP loads up, we get the pormpt "This copy of Windows must be activated before you can log on. Do you want to activate now?" and there's a Yes and No button. If you click Yes, it sits for 5 seconds or so, then pops up a Product Activation window that says "Windows is already activated. Click OK to exit". Naturally, there's an OK button in the lower right corner; I click OK and it goes to the login screen where you'd click on your user name. There's one user listed and when clicked on, the whole process starts over with the prompt saying that we must activate before logging in, etc... and it keeps looping like that. At no point am I asked if I want to activate via internet or phone. The strangest part is that this started out of the blue for no apparent reason. I think that something happened to the OOBE entries or the activation timer entries in the registry. How do I fix this?

Thanks, and happy holidays!

 

Problem solved. Since it wouldn't even let us log in in safe mode, I performed a safe repair install with a service pack 2 full version CD. Then activated right away. Does anyone know how the problem in the first post could have happened just out of nowhere on a PC that's been running fine since June? It had already been activated (obviously) and was running perfectly 'til 3 days ago when the activation thing happened. It's not my PC so I don't exactly what occured to start the problem... malware? improper software install or uninstall?

 

This looks like this might have been the problem, just says a script was running and interfered. Someone smarter than me will have to explain

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/312295/en-us

 

Yeah- I found the same info, but not being able to get to the desktop, even in safe mode, kind of put the kibosh (sp?) on the fix....