Cant activate windows after repair install,no activation window, no login,no safemode

I have a Windows XP system that won't login even in safe mode. There's a number of things that have been done up this point, starting with the initial issue...

An Alienware system from somebody I know is brought to me for repair. The motherboard has been damaged (capacitor blown, etc) and needed to be replaced. The system had an on-board RAID chip, which was being used in a RAID 0 configuration. The system is out of warranty, and the board in question can not be found at a reasonable price. A newer, different board is selected.

Of course, being different boards with different on-board components, the RAID array isn't easily movable. Fortunately, despite a dead PCI-e bus, excessive beeping, and other oddities, the system still works enough to perform a disk cloning. The entire RAID array is cloned to a single, larger drive. The cloned installation is tested, and functions as expected.

At that point, the old board+cpu is removed, and the new is installed. Before creating a brand new RAID array with the original hard disks on the new system, I want to ensure the cloned copy is working again. 1st STOP error encountered is due to the change in disk controller. This is resolved. 2nd STOP error is caused by an Intel processor driver. The new system is AMD, so the driver is disabled and now the system can boot.

Then came the activation issue. This is fine, I understand, its Microsoft's wonderful policy to tie a OEM windows license to a specific motherboard, and Alienware probably has the activation code embedded in the old BIOS. Despite being replaced for repair purposes, Microsoft will not activate Windows on the new board. Alienware is even less helpful, refusing to even answer some questions due to an expired warranty period. OK, so the license is fubar with the death of the original motherboard

I prepare to use a new OEM key. I bring Windows back up, and find it stops at the welcome screen without presenting an option to login. Strange that this happened so out of the blue, so I reboot and check the system log for errors. Sadly, I found nothing helpful. I realize that with the new motherboard, there could be further issues with the current installation. After some research, a repair install seems the most reasonable thing to do, to clean up any remaining problems due to the board change. I need to input a new product key anyways, so ahead I go with it.

The repair install completes successfully. I get to the login screen, and upon clicking to login, Windows asks to be activated before it will let me on. Fair enough, I click OK. I am very quickly logged in, see a dark background briefly, and am logged back out. No activation window. I reboot to safe mode, and get the same. I check the registry entry for userinit, and check the userinit.exe file. Registry entry is correct, and the file is not corrupt or infected.

Spyware scans and quite a bit of clean up later, I'm still in the same position. If only I could even get to safe mode, or the activation window, I'd be set... I can't activate Windows from a recovery CD, and I can't get to safe mode either.

Any advice...?

Thank you for your time!

P.S. The problem is not userinit.exe!

 

Re: Cant activate windows after repair install,no activation window, no login,no safe

Hi i also have this same problem after a repair of xp home install that wouldnt load mouse or keyboard on any kind of boot and was aksing to activate windows within 3 days due to hardware changes

problems started after a crash while runing check disk in windows

any help much appreciated

 

Re: Cant activate windows after repair install,no activation window, no login,no safe

Sorry dude you have lost me there......?

Original license wont work? where did the new one come from?

 

Re: Cant activate windows after repair install,no activation window, no login,no safe

I have seen this problem so many times, after a cleanup of spyware, some spyware programs can jack up the registry causing a bluescreen or there is a rootkit with a driver removed causes a bluescreen. so then a repair install is attempted. 8 times out of 10, the repair install does not work, it may or may not complete, sometimes claiming files are missing during the repair install. other times it goes through flawlessly, then when windows starts it says Windows must be activated. Here the user accepts the activation, yet it never comes up, all you see is a desktop background. ctrl+alt+del, alt-f4, etc do not work. because the system is locked out of those options until windows is activated. Usually the first sign of this outcome is the last part of the windows install where it says please wait, and the hard drive loops activity at a steady rate, yet nothing ever happens. You can alt-f4 this part, then you only have an arrow. the only way to get around this is rebooting. then you are left were we left off, windows needs activation yet activation will not start. again, you can access the system in non-networking safe mode. but nothing else. The last time this has happened to me the spyware was brought on a clients computer in the form of something called "Wind Optimizer" among other things like a rogue "safety center" disguised like a Microsoft program. it looks really close to microsoft security center.

anything else we can try? I have heard of moving a file from an activated copy on the same machine with the same key.
I would rather find the root of the problem which I believe has to do with the out of box experience software that never starts after a repair install "oobe"




After some searching, I found what I was looking for, in safe mode try this:

In this example: Your activation period has expired, (past 30 days) and you need to get to Normal mode again.

1. Turn On your PC

2. Press F8 repeatedly and go to Safe Mode

3. Logon as per normal
(note: Administrator password is usually blank, but hopefully you know your password)

4. Allow the Desktop to fully load (answering "Yes" to continue into Safe Mode)
(note: This is just a long way of saying go to Safe Mode)

5. Click on Start - Run

6. Type in exactly: rundll32.exe syssetup,SetupOobeBnk (and click OK)
(note: one space, after "rundll32.exe " also the Oo are two letter o's in "oobe"; capitals and comma are important)

7. Wait a couple of seconds (although you will Not see any change)

8. Restart your PC normally (Start - Shutdown - Restart - Ok)

9. You are now able to go to Normal Mode again (For another 30 days !!!)

10. Install IE8, do not pass go do not install ie7, install ie8. that should solve not being able to run windows update and not being able to activate somehow it's tied to the broken ie. Let me know if this works. Now do whatever you like, you're back to Normal.

This fixed it for me but took me a long time to find this and get it going, hopefully it works for you to.
(if you can simply get into safe mode and you have an installer for ie8 you can omit the activation reset as this will fix oobe)