XP activation - makes me activate, but says it's already activated

I recently purchased a used computer with XP professional on it. It worked
fine for several weeks, but now I get a message that Windows must be
activated to continue.

If I say "activate," it tells me Windows is already activated, but when I
try to enter Windows, I get the "must activate" message again. If I say
"don't activate," it shuts down the computer.

I can't boot into safe mode, either.

I'm assuming that it's a legal copy of XP (bought it from a reputable
store), and I have the product key, but the store is closed today. Is there
any way to know whether the product key is legal? I don't want to pay
Microsoft $59 for support only to have them tell me that it's not a legal
copy. Or is there any way around this message so I can use the computer
until the store opens tomorrow?

bpattex wrote:
> I recently purchased a used computer with XP professional on it. It
> worked fine for several weeks, but now I get a message that Windows
> must be activated to continue.
>
> If I say "activate," it tells me Windows is already activated, but
> when I try to enter Windows, I get the "must activate" message again.
> If I say "don't activate," it shuts down the computer.
>
> I can't boot into safe mode, either.
>
> I'm assuming that it's a legal copy of XP (bought it from a reputable
> store), and I have the product key, but the store is closed today.
> Is there any way to know whether the product key is legal? I don't
> want to pay Microsoft $59 for support only to have them tell me that
> it's not a legal copy. Or is there any way around this message so I
> can use the computer until the store opens tomorrow?

If you bought it from a store , call them on MOnday; it's up to them to
get you going. If it's a used computer and the OS wasn't
built/installed by the seller, then it's always a very wise move to blow
everything away and reinstall it from scratch, so that's the best bet
there. Grab the restore or XP CD, boot from it, and reinstall
everything. YOu'll need the original CDs and keycodes for things like
Office if you have it, so have all those handy too.

If you don't have CDs & docs to do a reinstall, you should have them.
Again, return to where you bought it. They are required to be provided
with any computer sale.

HTH,

Twayne`