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Julie Moriarty
06-22-2015, 4:51 PM
I'm having a problem with an old XP computer that I have been using as a CAD machine and am hoping someone can help.

I had to repair XP on the machine. Shortly after I did it was asking for the verification code. I couldn't find the code at the time so I figured I'd get back to it before the 30 days had passed. In the interim, we put our house on the market and the realtor had us hide everything. The computer was disconnected and stored in a closet and I forgot about it.

Today I took it back out so I could access AutoCAD. After hooking everything up, I booted the computer and it was again asking for the code. I had it in ready and when I clicked to verify the code, the screen went to the desktop but there was nothing on it. No icons, no Start bar, nothing. The mouse arrow was there and I was able to control it but I could do nothing else. Not even Control_Alt_Delete worked. I've got a lot of my CAD files on there that I don't want to lose.

Maybe since Microsoft is no longer supporting XP I'm SOL. Can anyone provide any help or insight?

Thanks,
Julie

Phil Thien
06-22-2015, 4:53 PM
Any chance there are two monitor ports on this machine, and connecting to the other one would display the primary desktop?

Tom Stenzel
06-22-2015, 5:16 PM
More questions:

Does the hard drive have a recovery partition you can boot to? What about the XP recovery disks? Long gone?

When the family XP 'puter would sputter and die (twice in 10 years) I booted it with a Knoppix CD, one of those Linux things. With that I was able to access the hard drive and copy everything I wanted to USB drives or the floppy drive. Yes it had one of those too. I was always able to get everything off the hard drive.

-Tom

John Huds0n
06-22-2015, 5:36 PM
see if this helps
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Bypass-Windows-30-day-Activation-Product-/

Rick Gibson
06-22-2015, 6:01 PM
I would just pull the hard drive and put it in a second machine as a second drive. All your files will still be there and readable from either another xp machine or windows 7 machine. You can also get one of these. http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3276554&CatId=3770 Lets you connect your old hard drive to another machine without opening up the second machine. I've used one for a few years now and have a few older hard drives I use for external storage.

paul cottingham
06-22-2015, 6:03 PM
It could be any number of issues. Honestly, you are better off taking it to a reputable place, as they should be able to fix it. At least get them to take the data off it.
honestly, what you describe is probably too complex to fix via remote on a message board. But I'll bet it can be fixed.

George Bokros
06-22-2015, 6:07 PM
Can you boot in Safe Mode? Maybe in Safe Mode you can get the files off.

Julie Moriarty
06-22-2015, 7:23 PM
Any chance there are two monitor ports on this machine, and connecting to the other one would display the primary desktop?
I get the background image so it's not a monitor problem.


More questions:

Does the hard drive have a recovery partition you can boot to? What about the XP recovery disks? Long gone?

When the family XP 'puter would sputter and die (twice in 10 years) I booted it with a Knoppix CD, one of those Linux things. With that I was able to access the hard drive and copy everything I wanted to USB drives or the floppy drive. Yes it had one of those too. I was always able to get everything off the hard drive.

-Tom
The hard drive is probably okay. The problem comes up when I click the button to enter the code. It opens Windows and looks like it's about to load in the shortcut icons and the start bar but then the loading stops and all I see are the background image and the mouse arrow. I have a feeling the problem is the program is looking to connect to Microsoft but since they no longer support XP, there's nothing to connect to.

I'll see what I can do about finding the recovery disk.


Can you boot in Safe Mode? Maybe in Safe Mode you can get the files off.
I press F8 and it loads the standard mode. I can't seem to get it into Safe Mode.

Weird thing is after a while I went back to the computer and saw Norton had automatically opened a window. It wanted to check for updates but couldn't because I'm not getting network connection. When I clicked on Help, Internet Explorer opened but it too couldn't connect to the Internet.

Raymond Fries
06-22-2015, 8:30 PM
I have a CD here that I could give you a copy of that I used to use in my IT job. It is a boot CD with Ghost and other utilities. I used it to make images of computers. It has a browser on it so you could boot to it and copy your files to an external hard drive or flash drive. PM me if this would help you. Good Luck with it.

Maybe you could use google to find a verificiation code. Just a thought.

Phil Thien
06-22-2015, 8:47 PM
Ohhhh!!!! I get it. This is a known problem. After a repair install of Windows XP, you have to get IE upgraded before you can activate. I think I've typically done this by booting to command-prompt only mode (actually the directions below say safe mode so do that) and running the IE8 installer from a flash drive. After that, you can reboot normally and activate.

Here, read this:
http://aaron-kelley.net/blog/2010/03/cant-activate-windows-xp-after-a-repair-install-or-in-place-upgrade/

Julie Moriarty
06-23-2015, 9:04 AM
Phil, I checked out the link you provided and it described the problem I'm having perfectly. The solution is booting up in Safe Mode but I can't. I hit F8 and it immediately boots in regular mode and I'm back where I started.

I can access DOS mode but I don't know the command to boot into Safe Mode, if there is one. I'll keep trying F8 and see if one takes...

Phil Thien
06-23-2015, 9:08 AM
Phil, I checked out the link you provided and it described the problem I'm having perfectly. The solution is booting up in Safe Mode but I can't. I hit F8 and it immediately boots in regular mode and I'm back where I started.

I can access DOS mode but I don't know the command to boot into Safe Mode, if there is one. I'll keep trying F8 and see if one takes...

As soon as the machine pretty far into the POST (Power-On-Self-Test), start tapping F8. Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap. Maybe a second between them. Eventually you should get a menu where you can select "Safe mode."

Often is the previous boot is unsuccessful, you will be prompted with the same menu. So you can also wait for the boot to just start and then Ctrl-Alt-Delete to reboot. Hopefully you get the menu on the next go-around.

Curt Harms
06-23-2015, 9:25 AM
More questions:

Does the hard drive have a recovery partition you can boot to? What about the XP recovery disks? Long gone?

When the family XP 'puter would sputter and die (twice in 10 years) I booted it with a Knoppix CD, one of those Linux things. With that I was able to access the hard drive and copy everything I wanted to USB drives or the floppy drive. Yes it had one of those too. I was always able to get everything off the hard drive.

-Tom

That's what I'd recommend too. Any of the popular linux distros will mount XP or other Windows partitions and you can use the build-in file browser to find and download in desired files or folders to portable storage. Then try to fix the problem. The trick here is you'd need a working PC to burn a DVD or USB. DVD is slower but less likely to have boot issues than USB. Here's a popular choice: http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php. I'd recommend the Cinnamon version, it looks and works a lot like 'classic' Windows. The documentation link tells how to create the DVD. It's useful to have a DVD like this around for just such occasions. It's hard to believe you can have a functioning computer with internet access (wifi can be a challenge) running off only a DVD or small USB but it's true.

Robert Engel
06-23-2015, 9:29 AM
If its important enough to you, save yourself the aggravation and take it to a computer shop.
If they have an XP license I'll bet they can fix it for not much money.

Phil Thien
06-23-2015, 10:19 AM
If its important enough to you, save yourself the aggravation and take it to a computer shop.
If they have an XP license I'll bet they can fix it for not much money.

I'd just do exactly what I'm telling her to do. She is so close, she just needs to get that boot menu.

When she is done she can even do the POSReady patch (which turns XP updates back on until 2019) and she can even get Microsoft Security Essentials working w/o the "unsupported" carping, if she finds the 4.4.304 installer.

XP is actually a decent O/S. Most installs are 32-bit and limited in that regard, but other than that...

Julie Moriarty
06-23-2015, 10:57 AM
Repeated F8 finally got me into Safe Mode. :D It took me through a few screens before I finally had the chance to select Safe Mode. Now that I'm there, I can't find any way to activate Windows. I clicked Start>Programs and looked for the activate option. Nothing there. I've checked other methods but can't find anything. I went online but every tutorial directed you to the activate option, but I can't find it where they say it is.

Julie Moriarty
06-23-2015, 11:19 AM
I found something that is supposed to reset the 30 day timer to 0. I ran that but before I reboot, I'm downloading the CAD files to a remote drive. Once the download is complete, I'll reboot and see how it goes. I was surprised to find so many links showing how to activate XP without the key.

This whole thing got me to thinking, since we're moving, we should probably back up all our files on a remote drive. Just in case.

Phil Thien
06-23-2015, 11:39 AM
Repeated F8 finally got me into Safe Mode. :D It took me through a few screens before I finally had the chance to select Safe Mode. Now that I'm there, I can't find any way to activate Windows. I clicked Start>Programs and looked for the activate option. Nothing there. I've checked other methods but can't find anything. I went online but every tutorial directed you to the activate option, but I can't find it where they say it is.

Once you're in safe mode, you have to install IE8. You would need a different computer to download the IE8 installer and copy it to a flash drive. Once IE8 (Internet Explorer 8) is installed, you can reboot, and the activation will work.

Unfortunately, Windows XP won't allow updates w/o activation. Otherwise you could just reset the timer, update, and then activate. Windows versions beyond XP support doing this.

Julie Moriarty
06-23-2015, 12:28 PM
I found the activate option. But it doesn't work in Safe Mode. I'll try the IE8 option. If that doesn't work, I'll finish backing up the files and format the HD.

Jerome Stanek
06-23-2015, 1:08 PM
have you tried booting into normal windows now after you got in safe mode?

Julie Moriarty
06-23-2015, 4:55 PM
Yes. And now I can't even get into Safe Mode. It says I need to activate Windows and I have to boot up in Normal Mode. Of course, when I do that, I can't do anything but move the mouse around. Gee, I wonder why people get so upset with Microsoft. :rolleyes:

Phil Thien
06-23-2015, 5:53 PM
Try this:

Boot into Safe Mode no networking (as local Admin) and then from a command Prompt:

rundll32.exe syssetup,SetupOobeBnk (hit Enter)
(note: one space, after "rundll32.exe " also the Oo are two letter o's in "oobe"; capitals and comma are important)
- Delete LegitCheckControl.dll under C:\Windows\System32.
- Reboot

Now try activating.

Jerome Stanek
06-23-2015, 6:46 PM
can you remember when you loaded windows you may be able to go into the computer bios and roll the date back to a day after you installed it

Julie Moriarty
06-24-2015, 7:35 AM
Try this:

Boot into Safe Mode no networking (as local Admin) and then from a command Prompt:

rundll32.exe syssetup,SetupOobeBnk (hit Enter)
(note: one space, after "rundll32.exe " also the Oo are two letter o's in "oobe"; capitals and comma are important)
- Delete LegitCheckControl.dll under C:\Windows\System32.
- Reboot

Now try activating.
Earlier yesterday, I typed in the "rundll32" command and then rebooted. Nothing changed. But I didn't run the other commands because the information I found didn't mention it. Later I ran System Restore and now I can't even get into Safe Mode.

I think I can still get into DOS and maybe use the BACKUP command to make sure I've got all the document files. Then run FORMAT.


can you remember when you loaded windows you may be able to go into the computer bios and roll the date back to a day after you installed it

I ran System Restore and now I'm locked out of everything. It says I have to activate Windows before I can access the drive but it gives me no ability to do so.

Phil Thien
06-24-2015, 9:18 AM
I ran System Restore and now I'm locked out of everything. It says I have to activate Windows before I can access the drive but it gives me no ability to do so.

You can't boot into safe-mode command prompt?

If you can still boot into safe-mode command prompt, and you still want help, you can PM me and I'll give you my phone # and I'll walk you through this. All you will need is a flash drive and another computer with which to copy a file.

Julie Moriarty
06-24-2015, 1:43 PM
Nope! When it loads Safe Mode, it Windows needs the activation code before accessing Safe Mode and the only way to do that is through the standard boot. So no Safe Mode now. Gotta love Microsoft!

Phil Thien
06-24-2015, 1:45 PM
Nope! When it loads Safe Mode, it Windows needs the activation code before accessing Safe Mode and the only way to do that is through the standard boot. So no Safe Mode now. Gotta love Microsoft!

And you have tried the Safe-Mode COMMAND-PROMPT, right? Safe-mode COMMAND-PROMPT is a different option on the menu, a line or two down from the one that says just "Safe Mode."

Julie Moriarty
06-24-2015, 2:52 PM
I ran some commands in DOS and was able to get into Safe Mode again. Once in Safe Mode I went into REGEDIT and did what you suggested earlier:

rundll32.exe syssetup,SetupOobeBnk (hit Enter)
(note: one space, after "rundll32.exe " also the Oo are two letter o's in "oobe"; capitals and comma are important)
- Delete LegitCheckControl.dll under C:\Windows\System32.
- Reboot

That reset the 30 day activation. Hooray!!!!! :D

Once in normal mode, I clicked on "Activate Windows" and nothing happened.

I right-clicked on the warning saying Windows needs to be activated and picked the option to purchase a license (hoping it would open the window for me to type in the activation code).

Bupkis. Nothing happened.

I ran %systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a and nothing. When I ran this in Safe Mode a warning popped up saying I needed to be in normal mode. Now that I am in normal mode, nothing happens. I seriously believe Microsoft has disabled everything with XP and there is no way to activate XP anymore.

Anyway, I'm going to go out and pick up a portable hard drive and backup all the files on that computer. I'm also going to see what needs to be upgraded so I can run Win7 on it. Then I'll just make that my CAD machine

Phil Thien
06-24-2015, 3:04 PM
I ran some commands in DOS and was able to get into Safe Mode again. Once in Safe Mode I went into REGEDIT and did what you suggested earlier:

rundll32.exe syssetup,SetupOobeBnk (hit Enter)
(note: one space, after "rundll32.exe " also the Oo are two letter o's in "oobe"; capitals and comma are important)
- Delete LegitCheckControl.dll under C:\Windows\System32.
- Reboot

That reset the 30 day activation. Hooray!!!!! :D

Once in normal mode, I clicked on "Activate Windows" and nothing happened.

I right-clicked on the warning saying Windows needs to be activated and picked the option to purchase a license (hoping it would open the window for me to type in the activation code).

Bupkis. Nothing happened.

I ran %systemroot%\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a and nothing. When I ran this in Safe Mode a warning popped up saying I needed to be in normal mode. Now that I am in normal mode, nothing happens. I seriously believe Microsoft has disabled everything with XP and there is no way to activate XP anymore.

Anyway, I'm going to go out and pick up a portable hard drive and backup all the files on that computer. I'm also going to see what needs to be upgraded so I can run Win7 on it. Then I'll just make that my CAD machine

You really need to install IE8. I've never had a unit that wouldn't activate after installing IE8. I've done this at least 200+ times.

If you need an IE8 installer just PM me and I'll send a link.

Larry Browning
06-24-2015, 3:40 PM
I don't know Julie, if it were me I'd just buy a new computer. That will probably cost less than upgrading the one you have now. AND it will get you newer and more powerful hardware. AND it would be a whole lot less time and hassle. If you are wanting to stay away from Windows 8.1, there are plenty of sources for Windows 7 machines.
OTOH, if this thing has gotten your curiosity up to the point of it being a challenge, then go for it, we will all root you on and celebrate when you win. (I know you will win!) But, at the end of the day, you will still have old equipment running an unsupported OS.

Julie Moriarty
06-24-2015, 3:44 PM
Phil, I forgot about IE8. I'll do that. Thanks for keeping with me on this. :)

Larry, that might be where I go. I was looking at bare bones Win7 Pro machines today...

Jerome Stanek
06-24-2015, 5:50 PM
Phil, I forgot about IE8. I'll do that. Thanks for keeping with me on this. :)

Larry, that might be where I go. I was looking at bare bones Win7 Pro machines today...

I like to get my refurbished computers from Microcenter. You could pick one up for what a case for the hard drive would cost and slave your hard drive in it. Being XP and they no longer support it they may not allow you to activate it any more

Julie Moriarty
06-24-2015, 8:31 PM
Being XP and they no longer support it they may not allow you to activate it any more
That's what I'm thinking.

Phil Thien
06-24-2015, 8:44 PM
That's what I'm thinking.

That isn't it, they still absolutely allow XP activations.

You guys have to keep in mind that there are still new XP machines being deployed today. They're used extensively for embedded applications like ATM's.

The problem you're experiencing has been around a long time.

Julie Moriarty
06-25-2015, 9:28 AM
The problem you're experiencing has been around a long time.

But I can't find a work-around. The computer does not respond to any attempts to activate Windows. The options are there, but when I click or run code, nothing happens. I could just reset the timer every 4 weeks but that computer is soooooo slow anyway, getting a new one would probably be the better option. I found one that should run AutoCAD pretty well for $399 and it has Win7 Pro.

Phil Thien
06-25-2015, 10:29 AM
But I can't find a work-around. The computer does not respond to any attempts to activate Windows. The options are there, but when I click or run code, nothing happens. I could just reset the timer every 4 weeks but that computer is soooooo slow anyway, getting a new one would probably be the better option. I found one that should run AutoCAD pretty well for $399 and it has Win7 Pro.

I'm not trying to talk you out of the $399 Win7 Pro machine, by all means...

But for those of us that have to continue to support WinXP, the problem you're experiencing is routine and easily fixed. The IE8 is the fix almost every single time, it is the equivalent of resetting a circuit breaker.

Client to electrician: "The circuit you wired isn't working."

Electrician: "Have you checked the breaker, it may have tripped?"

A day later, client to electrician: "I've unplugged everything from the circuit except this lamp, it still doesn't work."

Electrician: "Have you checked the breaker, it may have tripped?"

A day later, client to electrician: "All the wires look good none of the insulation is discolored, I don't think anything overheated. I've snugged all the screws."

Electrician: "Have you checked the breaker, it may have tripped?"

A day later, client to electrician: "I'm thinking about getting a different lamp, and getting a completely different circuit wired."

Electrician: "That would certainly fix things, but you can still probably just reset the existing breaker."

A day later, client to electrician: "I looked at the circuit breaker, it is an older style I'm not sure if they still make/use them."

Electrician: "Did you try resetting it?"

In this instance, installing IE8 is the equiv. of resetting the breaker.

And BTW, sometimes you can't get IE8 to install. There have been instances where the damage that required the repair install was significant enough that IE8 won't go on. But just like checking a breaker when the lights go out, it is the first place people like me start.

Julie Moriarty
06-26-2015, 6:42 AM
Phil, I forgot to mention, just after post #31, I tried several ways to get IE8 to do its magic but no luck. BTW, that computer was born a Vista machine. It's a bit long in the tooth. I used it for CAD because no one else used it and I could leave the program open, but I had to be careful what I did or the program would crash.