Hello:-) Every time I boot into xp it prompts me to activate, so I do and it says congrats... blah and its activated. but as soon as I reboot it goes through the same prompts, does anyone have an Idea on how to fix this prob for me, Please please :-) Thanks in advance

To make sure that you've activated your win xp copy: Start->Run and type oobe/msoobe /a and press OK I'm not sure this will help overcome your difficulty. Other suggestion I've seen is simply bypass the activation request and see if you can boot into windows normally. It may be that if you do this, the next time you boot it won't ask. I used to have a signature but it disappeared and I just couldn't be bothered writing another so please feel free to ingore this.

thanks for the quick reply :-) I've done the oobe/msoobe thing and It says already active How do I bypass the "activation request" as above? please :-)

Not sure. Is this a newly installed operating system? How long ago was XP installed? What happens if you press F8 during boot and try to get into safemode? If your system was activated and working properly in the past then try a system restore point to a date prior to the problem. Another suggestion would be to run System File Checker. Start > Run> scf /scannow I used to have a signature but it disappeared and I just couldn't be bothered writing another so please feel free to ingore this.

Still no joy :-( any other Ideas

phone Micro$oft! MSI KT4AV-L AMD Athlon XP 2800 1Gb Crucial 3200 DDR 160Gb Seagate Barracuda ATI 256Mb 9600XT 16x DL DF DVD/RW 16x DVD ROM 9-in-1 Flash Media FDD

You may try the following troubleshoot: 1. Restart your computer, press F8 during startup, and then on the Windows Advanced Options menu, choose Enable VGA Mode. 2. Start the WPA Wizard, and then try to start Windows XP again. If you can start Windows XP, skip the remaining steps. If you cannot start Windows XP, continue to step 3. 3. Right-click My Computer> Properties > Hardware tab, > Device Manager. 4. Right-click your Video Adapter (Display Adapter), and then click Disable to make your computer start by using the Standard VGA video driver. 5. Restart your computer, start the WPA Wizard, and then try to start Windows XP again. If you can start Windows XP, skip the remaining steps. If you cannot start Windows XP, continue to step6. 6. Locate the following registry key and its associated values: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.htm "PerceivedType"="text" (Default) = "MozillaHTML" "Content Type"="image/x-xbitmap" BEFORE doing any Editing of the Registry key, you must perform a Registry Export and save it in a place where you can use the backup copy to Restore the Registry in case you If this registry key does not exist, go to the step7. If this registry key does exist, modify the values like this: "PerceivedType"="text" (Default) = "htmlfile" "Content Type"="text/html" Restart your computer, start the WPA Wizard, and then try to start Windows XP again. If you can start Windows XP, skip the remaining steps. If you cannot start Windows XP, continue to step7. 7. Reinstall the Oobe.inf file. To do this, follow these steps: a. Click Start> Run. b. In the Open: box, type inf, and then click OK. c. In the Inf folder, right-click oobe.inf and then click Install. d. Insert the Windows XP CD when you are prompted. 8. Manually register the Jscript.dll and Vbscript.dll files. To do this, follow these steps: a. Click Start> Run, in the Open: box, type cmd, and then click OK. b. At the command prompt, type the following commands, and press ENTER after each command: regsvr32 jscript.dll regsvr32 vbscript.dll c. Close the command prompt. 9. Repair Reinstall WinXP using the steps in How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP How To Ask Questions The Smart Way