Virus or What ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter R!
  • Start date Start date
R

R!

This Morning got a message:

Too many hardware changes XP must be reactivated...

You have 3 days...

The problem is I haven't changed any hardware since XP
was installed in 2003...

I restarted and told it to activate and got stuck with only
wallpaper, no taskbar or icons on desktop...

What gives...??

R!
 
From: "R!" <[email protected]>

| This Morning got a message:
|
| Too many hardware changes XP must be reactivated...
|
| You have 3 days...
|
| The problem is I haven't changed any hardware since XP
| was installed in 2003...
|
| I restarted and told it to activate and got stuck with only
| wallpaper, no taskbar or icons on desktop...
|
| What gives...??
|
| R!


What happens if you logon to a different account ?
 
R! said:
This Morning got a message:

Too many hardware changes XP must be reactivated...

You have 3 days...

The problem is I haven't changed any hardware since XP
was installed in 2003...

I restarted and told it to activate and got stuck with only
wallpaper, no taskbar or icons on desktop...

What gives...??
Click to expand...

This is known as WPA (Windows Product Activation).

When you install XP for the first time on a computer, it generates a
code that is based on the model or serial numbers of various hardware
components (hard drive, CD-rom, video card, MAC address, etc) as well
as how much ram you have, type of CPU. There are about 10 or 12
different items. Each time XP starts, it checks each item to see if
any have changed. At least 5 or 6 must be the same as when you first
installed XP (doesn't matter which ones). As long as 5 or 6 are still
the same, XP will start.

There is a program called XPinfo.exe that will tell you which items
are the same and which have changed (however, once you've fallen below
the 5 or 6 threshold, xpinfo won't work).

You probably changed a bunch of stuff since 2003, and finally one item
has changed recently to force XP to think it's no longer valid. Could
be as simple as your CD-rom drive became un-plugged, and so causing
you to fall below the threshold. Or you changed the amount of memory
(maybe added more RAM?). I've seen where updating a video driver has
caused the video card to be seen as different, hence you would lose
the "vote" of that device.

Ordinarily, this is not a problem. Once you get that warning, you
need to have a working internet connection and follow the prompts to
re-activate your XP installation. Presumably you've already upgraded
to SP-2, and furthermore you've probably done the windows-update thing
regularly, which would have forced you to re-validate your
installation at some point this past summer (Windows Genuine Advantage
program).

Micro$haft allows you to re-validate your XP installation once every
120 days (in case you're in the habbit of changing your hardware on a
regular basis I guess).
 
The problem is I haven't changed any hardware since XP
You probably changed a bunch of stuff since 2003
Click to expand...

So... simply put, you're just calling him a liar? LOL!

-Frank
 
From: "R!" <[email protected]>

| This Morning got a message:
|
| Too many hardware changes XP must be reactivated...
|
| You have 3 days...
|
| The problem is I haven't changed any hardware since XP
| was installed in 2003...
|
| I restarted and told it to activate and got stuck with only
| wallpaper, no taskbar or icons on desktop...
|
| What gives...??
|
| R!


What happens if you logon to a different account ?
Click to expand...

Same Thing no taskbar or Icons on desktop...

Safe mode keeps asking for password but won't accept the correct
(admin...) one.

Puzzle ?

BYW this is XP Home...

Except for cleaning dust bunnies the cover hasn't been off the
machine since 2003...

Could this be virus/malware or a hardware problem ?

R!
 
R! said:
Same Thing no taskbar or Icons on desktop...

Safe mode keeps asking for password but won't accept the correct
(admin...) one.

Puzzle ? BYW this is XP Home...

Except for cleaning dust bunnies the cover hasn't been off the
machine since 2003...

Could this be virus/malware or a hardware problem ?
Click to expand...

Is this a laptop? Is there a docking station involved? Is it a
name-brand computer - or generic?

Have you updated any hardware driver recently (like for the video
card)?

Are you able to de-activate (and have you de-activated) any hardware
components in your system bios (like the CD-rom drive or network card)
?

If you did none of the above, and you did not take the cover off the
computer, then you'd better be searching the net or search XP-specific
newsgroups for information (if any) about known issues with WPA. What
you're describing should not have happened. And apparently, no-one
here is coming forward with information about specific mal-ware that
can cause the symptoms that you are seeing.

If I were you, I would remove the hard drive and hook it up to another
computer as a secondary or slave drive. That second computer should
be running XP (home or pro) and should be SP2 and fully updated (and
should be trusted as being virus-free). It should also have some AV
scanning software on it. Once your problem drive is connected to it
and the computer is up and running, it will be easy to scan your
problem drive for viruses or other mal-ware.

Alternatively, you might simply want to go out and buy a new drive,
put in your computer (take your current problem drive out and set it
aside) and install XP-home on your new drive (still have the CD?).
After you've installed XP on the new drive and have updated it to SP2
(and I hope you have a NAT router) then you can connect your problem
drive as a slave and copy-over any personal files (documents, etc).
 
From: "R!" <[email protected]>


| Same Thing no taskbar or Icons on desktop...
|
| Safe mode keeps asking for password but won't accept the correct
| (admin...) one.
|
| Puzzle ?
|
| BYW this is XP Home...
|
| Except for cleaning dust bunnies the cover hasn't been off the
| machine since 2003...
|
| Could this be virus/malware or a hardware problem ?
|
| R!

Not sure yet. Do you use StopZilla ?

When you do logon, can you hit Ctrl+Alt+Del and run the Task Manager ?
If you can, go to; File --> New Task (Run)
enter; %windir%\system32\USERINIT.EXE

What happens ?
 
This Morning got a message:

Too many hardware changes XP must be reactivated...

You have 3 days...

The problem is I haven't changed any hardware since XP
was installed in 2003...

I restarted and told it to activate and got stuck with only
wallpaper, no taskbar or icons on desktop...

What gives...??

R!
Click to expand...

I was a bad Motherboard.....

Thanks....

R!
 
Back
Top