Activation Wizard Disappears
Hi All We have a customer with SBS 2003 Std that has had hardware issues and is now requireing reactivation. The problem is though that the wizard for reactivation never starts. The "keys" icon pops up in the system tray saying that the grace period has expired and to click here to activate but when you click on it they just go away. If you start msoobe.exe /a manually from the shortcut in programs/accessories it has similar behaviour. Related events from the application log: Event Type: Error Event Source: Windows Product Activation Event Category: None Event ID: 1009 Date: 25/10/2010 Time: 9:05:11 AM User: N/A Computer: SERVER01 Description: You have not activated Windows within the grace period. To activate Windows, contact a customer service representative by telephone. For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp. Event Type: Warning Event Source: Windows Product Activation Event Category: None Event ID: 1011 Date: 25/10/2010 Time: 9:09:19 AM User: N/A Computer: SERVER01 Description: Your Windows product has not been activated with Microsoft yet. To activate Windows, use the Product Activation Wizard. For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp. [Failure0] LoadLibrary=LoadLibrary(OOBE_MAIN_DLL) failed. GetLastError=1114 NtCurrentTeb=Teb.LastStatusValue = c0000142 [Failure1] LoadLibrary=LoadLibrary(OOBE_MAIN_DLL) failed. GetLastError=1114 NtCurrentTeb=Teb.LastStatusValue = c0000142 ... And many more exactly the same I am also unsure as to wether I should attempt a restart of the server in case it ceases servicing client requests (it seems to be accepting clients OK for now) and also physical access to the machine is difficult. Would someone be able to enlighten me as to what services will stop and when if I don't get this sorted? Thanks in advance, SunnyITGuy.
October 25th, 2010 2:38am

Hi, call Activation Center in your country. You can find telephone number here http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/existing-customers/activation-centers.aspx HTHEdoardo Benussi - Microsoft MVP Management Infrastructure - Systems Administration https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/Profile/Benussi Windows Server Italian Forum Moderator edo[at]mvps[dot]org
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October 25th, 2010 3:20am

I did end up restarting the server last night as I thought it may have been the IE7 issue that some people have when trying to activate XP but unfortunately that wasn't it. So now when I try to log in the "Do you want to actiavte Windows now?" comes up and if we say yes it just goes back to the login prompt again, obviously if we say no it goes back to the login prompt and saying cancel shuts down the server. How do I break out of this cycle? From what I have been reading whilst it may be possible to restart in safe mode (slightly awkward as the server is in production), but it is not possible to activate in safe mode. Is that acurate? I will try a restart in safe mode after hours and trying replacing a few DLL files from backup and reregister them and will let you all know how it goes. In the meantime any other suggestions are more than welcome. Thanks.
October 26th, 2010 4:30pm

in the same way, call Activation Center in your country and explain exactly your problem.Edoardo Benussi - Microsoft MVP Management Infrastructure - Systems Administration https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/Profile/Benussi Windows Server Italian Forum Moderator edo[at]mvps[dot]org
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October 26th, 2010 5:00pm

Hmm, unfortunately they can't help as the activation wizard doesn't run to generate the numbers that they need. If I can just get the wizard to run then we could reactivate and it wouldn't be a problem.
October 26th, 2010 5:07pm

Well I am closing this case down now. I must say I am dissapointed with Microsoft's response. Yes we had to replace a mainboard which voids the current OEM license - fair enough that is part of the limitations with OEM, what surprised me was that Microsoft support would not help me even if we paid the full support fee and bought a full version of the OS again. What the?!? At least we managed to figure out that it was due to corruption of quite a few different files (that SFC wasn't picking up for some reason) due to the hardware issues and rolling back to a really old backup (about 5months old - before any of the hardware issues started) fixed the problem. Thanks everyone for your input and let this be a lesson to keep monthly backups as you don't know how long an issue has been brewing under the surface that will completely hamstring you. Merry Christmas everyone, SunnyITGuy.
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December 6th, 2010 6:32pm

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