XP keeps asking for activation

[luisr]

I have a problem with Windows XP Home asking for reactivation very often with no changes in hardware or anything. My copy of Windows is a legal copy - OEM version in original CD with original MS certificate of authenticity purchased along with a new motherboard back in November 2001.

I did the first installation back then, then in August 2004 I installed a new motherboard which, of course, required reactivation which I had to do via phone because I have not yet installed network adapters needed for Internet access. This was just a repair installation, not a clean reinstall as I kept the existing hard drive. Later in May 2005 I replaced my hard drive and this time I did a clean install, which again, required re-activation. No big deal with this so far. I had prepared a CD with SP2 slipstreamed before I installed the new hard drive to do the upgrade to SP2 in a single step.

After I did this new install (and third activation for the same license) every so often Windows asked for reactivation without changing anything in the hardware or even software. Other times if I had a system crash this reactivation thing could come up again after restarting. Some times I go by the wpa.dbl file backup method to reactivate, other times I just clicked on the activate button.

It seems like I had clicked on Activate too many times now since May 2005 and last time I got a warning indicating that I have installed my license in too many machines or something like that and that I need a new license. I had to use the wpa.dbl backup method to regain use of the machine. And after this happened, nearly every time Windows starts (I never turn off the machine, so this is not really very often) I get the reactivation notice. Now I have to do the wpa.dbl thing and restart again to be able to use the computer since I won't be able to reactivate anymore.

How can I fix this problem and prevent Windows from asking for reactivation again and again? I am not paying for a new license for a software I paid for and have been using legally in a single machine for so many years.

[luisr]

Just a thought. At what stage is the autoexec.bat file executed? Just thinking that I might put a simple batch file to restore the wpa.dbl file from a known-good backup every time the system starts.

[EzyStvy]

Why not just activate it again and see what happens?

Have you recently created any non admin user profiles?

[luisr]

I already did and it says my license cannot be activated anymore. Already explained in the first message.

I am the only user of the machine. There are two non admin users but they were created long after this problem started.

[glc]

I would call Microsoft and start asking some pointed questions.