WinXP RC1 Activation Problems, 1st Hand XPerience

[Ultrix 0]

This is just an exmaple of how much trouble product activation is going to cause customers, and I experienced it first hand.

 

I signed up for the WinXP Beta program and just yesterday, i got around to installing RC1. Here are my system specs:

 

Abit VP6

Dual PIII 700CC0 @ 1001MHz

256Mb Ram

Geforce2 GTS

3Com 3C905

WinTV Theater

Gametheater XP

RealMagic Hollywood Plus

Adaptec 2940U2W

 

Well, RC1 installed fine, and on the first reboot after installation, WinXP prompted me to activate it. Knowing that I have a legitamate copy of WinXP, I clicked register over the internet, and in less than two seconds, it was activated. I thought, well, that was easy.

 

So I got into WinXP and got ready to install updated device drivers for my hardware. The first thing I did was go to device manager and see what was installed. WinXP installed working drivers for my Geforce2, SCSI Card, and NIC just fine.

 

My sound card was listed in the "Sound, Video and Game Controllers" as "Unsupported Crystal Audio Sound Device". I also had three entries in the "Other" field. There were two "Multimedia Controller" listed and a "Multimedia Video Controller" listed. I knwe these devices were for my DVD Decoder and my TV Tuner. I proceeded to update my Nvidia drivers and install my Gametheater XP drivers.All was still good. Next I installed the Hauppauge WDM Drivers for my Tv Tuner. I restarted, and on the next boot, WinXP said that I needed to activate the OS with Microsoft.

 

Aparently, installing the TV Tuner drivers was enough to trigger WinXP into thinking it was installed on a different computer. That was really bad, considering the expansion cards were installed, just unrecognized by the OS

with working drivers. So now I have to call Microsoft, explain them the situation, and get my copy of WinXP reactivated.

 

Now my question is, if a simple driver installation for my WinTV caused WinXP to deactivate, what is to say a simple ram upgrade or hard drive addition won't do the same.

 

My only advice to other WinXP users out there is to install all of your drivers first, then activate the OS, otherwise you could wind up in the same situation.

[imtim83 0]

Ultrix wow i hope not going to windows xp and staying with win2k pro which i am on now is the right choice i am making. So far it seems like it.

What if you were on a plane and that happen. That wouldnt be too much fun

I cant wait to hear what happens when someone changes their ram , Hard drive , mobo , power supply , processor , etc

i really want to know what will happen.

lol if you change one of your cooling fans in the computer watch product activation go off.

I wouldnt be suprised. And plus i bet it has bugs in it even on the final version of windows xp which means maybe it will be buggy and go off for no reason

That would be so bad to happen on a business trip , or kind of trip which you need your laptop.

 

But for now i will stay on win2k pro and read everything that happens with that dum product activation.

I am sure there will be a lot to read soon.

[LeeThompson 0]

I've been running Windows XP since beta 2, I have a video capture board that is not supported, directly, by XP. (Sigma Designs DV-R)

 

So at the end of any XP installation, I have two unsupported devices in device manager under sound, video, multimedia. I have to install each driver from the 2000 driver set for the board and I've never had XP 'deactivate' on me. (Incidentally, each interim build I reinstall the XP partition, clean -- so I've been through this process a lot in recent weeks.)

 

Ultrix, be sure to file your experience as a bug with Microsoft. It's not supposed to work that way and there's still time to fix it.

 

 

System Specs:

 

Gigabyte 7IXE

Athlon K7-600

256MB RAM

Geforce2 GTS 32MB SGRAM

Netgear 310TX

Soundblaster Live!

RealMagic DV-R

Toshiba M1302 DVD-ROM

HP Scanjet 4200C

 

(Currently running XP build 2505 - RC1; Professional Edition)

[EddiE314 0]

you guys need to stop whining and just stay with win2k or crack WinXP like every other person.

[CM 1]

I still use Office 2000 because of product activation in Office XP. Sure you can crack the activation but this is not the solution. I think MS should dump the activation...

[miku 0]

Well,

 

Guys there are corporate versions of XP available on net and you can check to see that they do not require activation.

 

ARC

[Ultrix 0]

I know that activation shouldnt work that way, but it did. If anyone knows how i go about filing a bug report, let me know. this problem sucks, and i would like to see it get fixed.

 

Ultrix

[imtim83 0]

Ultrix what if it isnt fixed?

I heard of some strange things happen on Office XP while someone on a plane the product activation just went off and said you needed the cd and call MS.

[imtim83 0]

If Windows XP is the best MS OS in history i still wouldnt touch it.

I dont care if its better than 2000 or more stable. Which i dont think it will be. It is just as stable i bet but not any more stable than windows 2000. And the emulation mode i dont care about cause windows 2000 has that and plus if a game dont work in 2000 then i just wont play it. Thats fine.

But like some people are saying Windows 2000 to Windows XP is like windows 98 to windows 98 SE.

I dont care about the new GUI , i dont care about system restore or any of those other programs built in to it.

I mean hey if you use Windows XP thats cool but i suggestion people not too because win2k is good enough.

 

Thanks

[dhopton 0]

I spent all day and all night moving hardware & drivers in and out of my machine, and i've never been prompted for re-activation. There is a bug. Bug it

 

Windowsbeta is the place to go - sign up for a guest account, and then you can submit bugs and also get feeback on them. I suggest you provide as much detail as possible - software you've got installed and other things.

 

As for cracks - There are (that I have seen) no cracks that dont bring in old code from pervious builds, which IMHO is bad move, esp with RTM. The one crack that claims to to do it with out this doesnt work. I know this because i tried it.

 

Go, bug it so it works properly.

 

Thanks,

dhopton

 

edit: If you want to know about the changes that have gone on in the kernel of WinXP, I suggest you go and hunt out the document. I cant remember where i saw it, but it is out there. There are some very significant changes in the kernel. I also suggest that in the future the things that you need for games wont be available else where. But then again WinXP is not going to be "must have" upgrade - certainly not for the Win2k user. For the Win98 user it makes a world of differance. They have a proper o/s at last. All we need to worry about is shoddy driver writters.

[imtim83 0]

still

[Kyguy 0]

Looks like the crack I got worked fine. Dont get the activation reminder

 

[edit]

Dont get the reminder but the event log still has a msg counting down, every day it says I have one less day.

[/edit]

[EddiE314 0]

corporate edition works great here, if you click the Activate shortcut, nothing happens.

[SFH 0]

Huh? Didn't M$ claim that one activation key would work for some hundred configurations?

[Ultrix 0]

Well, I called MS last night, spoke to the people and got my installation reactivated. The whole process took less than 5 min, but thats not the point!!! I did ask the guy I spoke with if my situation was a common occurance. He told me he has recieved neumerous calls of users having the same problem. Go figure. I just hope they get this problem fixed before RTM.

[goathead42 0]

I have yet to get XP RC1 to ask me to reactivate, or any other inconvience. I have swapped video and sound, added and removed a scsi controller. My only hangup was the silly par port camera, which works, but is not setup correctly according to XP's device manager. Now Im curious...I have the time to deal with Microsoft to get the activation sorted out if I mess it up....but I cant seem to get it upset enough despite multiple hardware changes. I have almost identical machines side by side running XP and 2000, and XP is by far the least troublesome.....I must have the luck of the irish or something....XP is kicking 2000 Pro's tail in ease of use around here.

[JohnnyChangs 0]

I had one issue with Office XP activation, so I called Microsoft. They asked for my Activation key, I gave it to them, and they gave me a new key. They also emailed me the key.

 

Easy enough.

 

If this is what they're going to use, we might as well get used to it. Being a new feature, of course there are going to be problems at first. Ease up and wait a bit for them to sink some more money into Product Activation R&D.

[wai2 0]

we have to admit that M$ marketing is doing really well. no one would say windows is a stable platform but most of us are using it. I am waiting to see how M$ corrupt her own business by using this so-called activation code.

[BladeRunner 0]

"no one would say windows is a stable platform"

 

Ummm, I would.

My home PC has been using Win2k for about 18 months and in that time it has crashed twice.

Once where I was trying to use a hand written INF file for a monitor - totally my fault, didn't follow the correct structure.

Second time was a little unknown, but as it hasn't happened to me since I'll class that as 'one of those things'.

I have Win2k PC's at work that stay on 24/7 and I'm not just talking about the Win2k Servers.

Some of my servers and Win2k workstations now have some 5-6 months of uptime without a re-boot.

 

Yes, I would say that Windows is a very stable platform.

[Jam 0]

How much HDD space does XP take to install on the HDD. Is it taking Bloatware to the next level?

[goathead42 0]

I forgot to see how much it took before Apps. I have alot of applications including XP Office, etc.....at this point....the windows dir is 1.16G.....yow! If I wasnt so lazy...I would run over and compare that to some of the other workstations. BUT.....downloaded and installed the morning it came out....no lockups, BSOD, demons or anything else....can't complain...even if its taking alot of space.

[Intlharvester 0]

Just in case anyone missed it, exactly what hardware modification which will force re-activation is described in a paper at http://www.licenturion.com/xp/

 

(To the person who remove the SCSI card without having to reactivate, it sounds as if you added a different SCSI card, you would probably trip the mechanism.)

[scsi_guru 0]

Just did a clean install of WinXP and it takes 920 MB...

[imtim83 0]

scsi_guru pretty much but win2k pro i know takes about 700 MB to 750 MB maybe more forgot

but thats not much more.

[Gemfire James 0]

the OS is NEVER going to stay down at a low amount of space, I mean, now a days, 1 GB is pretty much nothing, if you can't handle 1 GB of usage, then your screwed anyways