Xp Activation closed loop

[Than2069]

Hi, this is my first post here so hope I get the posting rules correct.

I have been playing with this crap since the C-64 era and am a small Microsoft oem system builder etc with 16yrs experience building pc's with their stuff etc... Dos 2.0 era and beyond. blah blah blah.

I am having a real time of it with a image deployment due to an xp activation issue. Some backstory.

I taken an a hard disk image of that same disk I am trying to redeploy onto a new pc. The goal is to create an identical backup pc as a "failover" The original pc has proprietary crap on it and would take a long time to hand replicate but is healthy. Both boxes have valid new xp-h sp2 or higher. Ghost 03 was used to make the image on "box 1" (which works fine). After spawning second machine(which is VERY similar in terms of hardware) the Xp activation point system is upset and requires activation.

So, activate and it says its healthy.... then reboot etc.... not healthy. Needs to activate. Behavior is consistent with that described in KB312295.

Try the steps in KB312295. No luck.

Try using sysprep on box one prior to reimage of hard disk. Same deal.

Every time the image is spawned the pc DOES get to the desktop then something is causing the loop. Nothing with Reset*.* or Srvan*.* is on a partition so can't find anything that would be running a script etc....


Basically out of ideas. Anything anyone who has swam in the "deep" end before can recommend? At this point I'm open to anything.

Thanks

 

[carnageX]

From what I'm understanding...you've cloned a computer you use onto another HDD, and then put that HDD into another computer, correct? And now the cloned one continually asks you to activate it, correct? Having 1 OEM serial on more than 1 PC is technically against Microsoft's EULA.

If this is the case, and its an OEM copy of XP, then it's going to do that. You've already used up your 1 use for the previous OEM key on the original box, and now are trying to use it again, but its not letting you. You'd need to buy a new serial key and either: reinstall with the new key, or get a keychanger (Winkeyfinder I believe can do this for you).

 

[KSoD]

The problem is you are using a XP OEM copy to try and image. OEM's have a very limited life cycle. The OEM serial is embedded and it can only be used to activate by the internet on 3 machines.

But only 1 machine can be active at any time. Basically you have viloated the EULA and TOS of Windows with your method. Cause you used a single serials for activation on several machines.

You would need a VLK or MAK to accomplish your task without any hitches. A Volume License Key or a Multiple Activation Key would be better for you cause the same serial can be used it just has a activation limit which is much higher than a OEM copy.

For example i have a Server 2008 MAK serial which has 1500 activations on its life cycle before it will stop activating by the internet and i have to call.

Your best bet is to use a XP Retail copy. Install it get all the OEM stuff on there but do not enter the serial or activation information. From there you have the option to change this and use the correct info.

The major issue is that OEM's are basically branded to a specific type of PC. They can work on other PC's but they work best only on the machines that they come with.

 

[Than2069]

Sorry if I was unclear guys. I appreciate your posts. Here is some more background....

The two machines have unique valid coa's. That have not been used elsewhere. Each one has its own unique #. Reinstalling anything is kind of NOT the point as the goal is to clone the total environment.
The large OEM's DO have corporate vlk's etc with embedded keys ala Dell etc... we do not. We regularly can use a variety of methods including things like a keychanger or sysprep. Sysprep is what we usually use since that is what Microsoft prefers. We are NOT moving an oem key from one box to another etc... The "new" box is a brand new machine (built by us) with a brand new valid license etc.... We have used sysprep and the "enter different key" method on various attempts.
In all cases the first boot DOES work and you get to the desktop but later after the minor driver changes induced by minor hardware differences (modem chipset etc...) WPA gets triggered etc...and says its successful. But then it says it must activate etc... Just like the behavior outlined in the KB312295 article. Unfortunately, the "fix" in that KB (reg edits in tandem with the wpa file expand's) fail to make a difference.

It's pretty common for small oem's and corporate it folks to use a combination of things like ghost/acronis/p.i.n.g in tandem with things like sysprep/keychangers etc... to encapsulate the total environment in a single image file in one step vs. using a server with unattended setup and answer files etc... Microsoft DOES do a much better job than they used to in terms of providing tools on their site and via the OPK. A good example is sysprep.exe which negates the need for a key changer without TOS violation etc... "Reseal" "usually" "works"

However, they are by no means unaware that either of these practices are more appropriate than their own for many situations. I have spoken with people at Microsoft directly about there appropriateness and lack of completeness of viable system prep tools in the past and they are very aware that there many ways to skin a cat.

 

[veedubfreak]

Quick question, but when you ran sysprep did you tell it to regenerate SIDs? What it sounds like its doing is using the old system id and when you try to use the new key they are conflicting. Run sysprep again, click use mini-setup, but nothing else, then reseal.

 

[Than2069]

Thanks Veedub, I tried it with and without new sid's already but I can't remember if I ticked the boxes in that exact config. Giving that a try just in case I missed that method. What you are saying in terms of the id's DOES sound close to what I'm seeing in terms of the behavior of it first deciding that its "happy" (activated) and then only after something retriggers the check like
windows update or "more" driver hashes are processed does it get "ornery" and go into the moebius loop. Sometimes wpa and calling India every day make me yearn for the days of W2KSP4 even if you had to slap your own msconfig into the bugger

 

[veedubfreak]

Ya i'm dealing with something similar on these hp laptops. They came with a vista key so i had to completely wipe them to go back to xp then image them. But we had issues with the new activation crap on our first batch of machines that switched to the new oem cd's.

 

[Than2069]

Yeah, personally I don't care whether people want Xp or Vista. Either way is fine but since Vista has had such bad press and such poor corporate adoption rates (deserved or not), the bulk of the people I deal with don't even want to discuss it. Hence, the xp downgrade jamboree ensues and its getting tougher and tougher to do it "right" without a lot more hassle than there should be. Gone are the simple days. (still waiting for the partition to spawn....many many files there are. yes. yes.)

 

[Than2069]

Yeah, mini setup was a no-go. Spawned got to desktop, ran sysprep with just mini-setup. Resealed. All ok so far. Boot back up & setup accepted the new key during setup. Got to desktop. Manually activated. Success. Ran activation 2nd time. "already activated" Rebooted and "you must activate before you can logon" Try to activate and the "1st key" appears on the screen. Type the 2nd key over the top and hit activate, can't activate via web. So pick telephone and put in the numbers for the 2nd key's ID appears to activate and back into the moebius loop we go.

1. you must activate.
2. put in activation info
3. pc appears to logon and almost makes it to desktop
4. says saving settings and returns to step 1 logon screen.