Hi, OMD.
The pc is a three year old DELL and has been working fine.
If that computer was bought with WinXP preinstalled, then you should be
asking Dell, not Microsoft.
When Dell (or any other Original Equipment Manufacturer) licenses the
Windows operating system from Microsoft, a major part of the deal is that
the OEM - not Microsoft - will provide support for any computer sold with
Windows installed on it.
Another part of the deal is that THAT copy of Windows is licensed only to
THAT computer. The OEM handles activation for that copy.
So, whether your problem is with activation or with support, you need to
discuss it with Dell, not Microsoft. Their support website is at
http://support.dell.com, but that might not help if you have no Internet
connection from that computer. I'm trying to find a voice telephone number
on that site and not having much luck. The site is really for Dell computer
owners and I can't get very far without information from the packet that
came with the computer.
Can your daughter find the owner's manual and other documentation? Her
activation code should be there, along with telephone numbers and other
contact information. Since I've never owned a Dell, I don't have access to
any of that.
Since you obviously do have some kind of Internet connection, you might
drill down from that Support site to find this page:
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board?board.id=sw_winxp
That is a peer-to-peer forum (like this newsgroup) where you can discuss the
problem with other Dell owners. I tried to look in the FAQ to the Software
Reinstall Guide, but the first thing it asks for is the Service Tag (which I
don't have, of course) and the second is the Product Model, which you didn't
tell us yet. All you've told us is "a three year old DELL".
If you have access to the Usenet, you can ask the Dell gurus at
alt.sys.pc-clone.dell how to solve this activation problem. That is another
peer-to-peer newsgroup, not sponsored or monitored by Dell employees.
If your daughter has a retail copy of WinXP, rather than the preinstalled
OEM version, then these comments don't apply and we should be able to help.
If that is the situation, please post back with more details.
RC