Dell Activation Stall

  • Thread starter Thread starter Otter7917
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Otter7917

I have a Dell laptop, and I think I listened to some bad advice. My
Internet Explorer was causing an error, and I was advised to reinstall
Windows XP after some failed attempts to fix it.

After reinstalling XP from my Dell recovery CD, suddenly the computer wanted
me to activate again. The only hardware I changed was to add a mouse! When
I try to login, it asks me to activate. I'll say yes, register now, and it
shows my desktop for a bit, acts as though it's thinking, then dumps me back
to the login page, accomplishing nothing.

If it's trying to connect to the internet, I'm not sure it can. I haven't
been able to log in and change the settings to hook up to my school network!

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!

Teddy
 
Otter7917 said:
I have a Dell laptop, and I think I listened to some bad advice. My
Internet Explorer was causing an error, and I was advised to reinstall
Windows XP after some failed attempts to fix it.

After reinstalling XP from my Dell recovery CD, suddenly the computer wanted
me to activate again. The only hardware I changed was to add a mouse! When
I try to login, it asks me to activate. I'll say yes, register now, and it
shows my desktop for a bit, acts as though it's thinking, then dumps me back
to the login page, accomplishing nothing.

If it's trying to connect to the internet, I'm not sure it can. I haven't
been able to log in and change the settings to hook up to my school network!

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!

Teddy
Click to expand...

If you did a "system recovery" from the Dell CD then it probably did a
complete reformat of the hard drive and then installed a clean new
copy of Windows on the empty hard drive. In that circumstance the
records of the previous activation would have been erased from the
hard drive so you will need to reactivate.

If the internet activation does not work then try choosing the
"activate by telephone" and phone the Microsoft number that will be
shown.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."
 
I would just add that Otter has 30 days to sort it out, so don't
panic. He should be able to connect to the 'net as before. If not, it
is not because the system is not activated.

Peter Kaufman MCP
 
I thought the same thing... but for some reason it's acting like my 30 days
are up. I'm already locked out of my system even though I just restored it,
and the activation wizard just won't start. I can't even get to the
activation phone number if I wanted to, much less the online activation!

Teddy
 
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