Getting out of a closed loop about WPA for XP

[Kiwi]

On a particular system I use that is normally booted to Win2000, the WinXP dual-boot part got munged up by one of Microsoft's security updates, maybe a month ago. When it happened, I tried the usual fixes that didn't work, and left it unfixed. I have since then removed one of the three 1 GB DIMMs I had in it.

Yesterday, I decided that I had the time to play with WinXP's repair Reinstall, and started that running to get XP back in order. There were two anomalous items along the way. First, it had problems with SHLWAPI.dll and procedure entry points. I copied over a newer version of the DLL from another PC, and continued, but the setup asked for a CoA number instead of looking that up in the registry.

I really am not methodical enough about recording stuff; I didn't know for sure which of the five XP copies I'd installed on that machine, and just gave it a random choice, figuring that could be rectified in due course. Sure enough, though, when I want to Log on, it complains about needing to be authenticated. I didn't have any Log-On at all before. It logged me in automatically.

Instead of loading whatever contact procedure it uses and connecting to MS, it aborts, either immediately after I click on the "YES" choice, or after merely a couple of seconds of my desktop background image with an hourglass, and logs back out to the Shut Down screen. It won't work any better in Safe Mode when I try to log on as Administrator.

Is there any hope for this at all? A SECOND try on top of the recent reinstall? And use the Jellybean on all the other PCs to improve the odds of getting the right CoA number?

What say, folks?

[nhs0111]

WPA only in the Windows startup or other software running when the one before the checks to prove your legal owner of the software, it will not harm your pc.

[Kiwi]

I know what it is, I know why MS added it, I know how it is supposed to work, but is does not do as it is supposed to.

I've even followed all of the steps from a Knowledge Base article of MS's about erasing/ renaming the WPA file and any scripts related to activation, without improving the situation (on one try, it allowed me to log in as myself in Safe Mode). Right now, it looks as if I'll be re-running the entire Repair reinstall procedure all over again soon.

(New Edit: early this morning, I waked before the chickens, practically, and as long as I was up, and nothing else happening, re-ran the over the top Repair. I'm using the PC that was involved now, in XP, and it seems fixed so far!)