Solved: Activate Windows not responding.

[camcorder]

Lately I accidentally disabled all my services on my computer, and it said since major hardware changes happened I needed to activate windows.
Whenever I click yes it goes to a white window, and it's not responding.

Is there any way around this or another way to activate windows?

Also if I want to activate windows, do I need my XP set up disk?
I'm hoping the answer is no, because I don't have it.


I appreciate all those helping. I love this website.
-Cam. :3

 

[TheOutcaste]

Did you disable all Services, or all Hardware? Not sure how you would manage either, but disabling services shouldn't prompt a re-activation.

Whatever got disabled is probably causing the blank screen, the services needed to display the wizard aren't running.

Can you boot to Safe Mode with Command Prompt? You may be able to run a system restore to before the problem occurred:
How to start the System Restore tool at a command prompt in Windows XP
I'm assuming it's a dual boot with WinME; is Xp on a fat32 partition, i.e., Can you access the WinXP partition from ME? If so, best to back up any data you don't want to lose before trying anything. And you may be able to recover the XP system even if you can't boot to Safe Mode by manually restoring the registry from a Restore Point.

A live CD can also be used to backup data:
Live CDs
Ultimate Boot CD for Windows
Knoppix
Ubuntu

HTH

Jerry

 

[camcorder]

I ran MSconfig, and then hit services, and then clicked disable all.
That's all I did, and when I restarted it said major hardware change, need to activate windows, and it gave me three days to do so.

I can access everything on my computer, it's just that it's going really slow.

The way the computer looks is how ME looks, so I'm assuming that XP is not on my computer, or is disabled?

I have all my icons, task bar, and even internet service. But everything is just going horribly slow.

With this information, do you still want me to proceed in the steps you told me?

I'm pretty sure I can get into safemode.

Thank you for help so far. O:

 

[camcorder]

Oh, and I disabled system restore earlier in the year because of a virus.

 

[TheOutcaste]

If you have a dual boot system, you would be asked which Operating System to boot to every time the system boots.

You can check which OS you are booting to by right clicking My Computer and click Properties.

Have you tried running msconfig and re-enabling those services? I just disabled all services, rebooted, got the pop up telling me I was in selective startup, but didn't get anything about having to re-activate. Not sure why yours would do that if you didn't change any hardware, disabling services shouldn't be seen as a hardware change.

I was able to just run msconfig and select Normal Startup and after rebooting everything was restarted.

If you disabled System Restore and did not re-enable it, then there are no restore points to go back to, though if you can't get msconfig to run in normal mode you can try it from safemode.

HTH

Jerry

 

[camcorder]

Oh like when booting to safemode I only have the option of windows XP home addition to boot?

I did the same thing you did, and got all my services on services enabled again, but still asks me to reactivate windows.

Everytime I click yes to activate (Because I found my Windows XP home disk yesterday) It freezes up, and has an error about the script.

So I really can't do what it wants me too.

Everything works on my computer except for how slow it's going, and the bottom task bar is silver like on ME/2000 and when I open appearance window to change it to XP blue task bar it doesn't give me the option, yet in add and remove programs in safemode, I still have windows XP service pack 3 on the list.

I know this might be silly, but I just want you to know what my computer is like so you might get a better feel for giving me an answer on what to do.

I'm still appreciating the help.

I think microsoft wants to make sure I still have the XP disk or whatever.
Is there an online link or something I can show them the product key, and everything?

 

[camcorder]

Alright so I fixed it. I booted from the cd, and installed windows xp home edition again. Service pack one, and when I went to activate windows it didn't freeze. Infact it worked right away, and I was able to activate xp by phone. So I'm not having the problem anymore except for XP being out of date, but that's easy stuff.

I appreciate the help, Jerry.
:]