Frank Saunders MS-MVP IE said:
It should give you a phone number to use.
I've had that same problem. About that number, part of the problem is that it doesn't say what it is. It says you may call, provides
a link to help find information online. When Vista was first installed, it did show a number. Now it does not. Then, finding the
phone number becomes problematic. When following the link (when this problem occurs), one is unaware of the attack taking place on
the system that is causing the issue. Following the links exposes the system to the attack, more fully (which, I suspect, is why the
help was changed to remove the number). The absence of the number & the particular service failures point to at least one specific
type of externally initiated attack, except in the case of new installation, which has not ever been activated.
When responding to the help links, in a short time, the browser is redirected to other sites than the requested ones (not working
properly because of the apparent failure in genuine software or activation tests probably exacerbates the problem created by the
attack) to what appears to be some crippled or otherwise bogus or spoofed or valid but completely irrelevant Microsoft help site,
which talks about their office hours in the day only, that charges may apply & on & on ad nauseum. That enrages me; I paid a
handsome price for this software in a retail package & installed it on a newly built system with prohibitively expensive parts ---
what do they want, a career-making payment from every customer? Well, that psychological state is one which plays right into the
attack.
Anyway, the genuine activation number, from what I gather, is 24/7 & always free. What if a user considers that the problem is not
Microsoft or the software, but that an attack, motivated by a malicious 3rd party may be taking place, & also makes the observation
that prescribed (socially acceptable) or otherwise predictable responses are almost 100% ineffective responses as regards solution
of the issues created by the attack? The conditions seem to point to a well-informed attacker, in possession of a certain type of
information which may include the inner workings of the OS & the usage habits of the target. Hmmm ... gotta wonder.
note: The best defense is a good offense.