Vista - Vista login blocked by Genuine validation

I can't login to my Vista machine. I can see all the users on the welcome
screen, but when I try to login, an error message dialog box comes up saying
that there was an unathorized change to windows, and it offers me a link to
online help. The link opens IE to www.microsoft.com/genuine. When I try to go
through the authorization process, downloading and running the code it asks
me to, it tells me my install isn't genuine.

I bought the computer from dell almost a year ago, and it's worked fine
since then. I did notice some drive errors, so I think there must be some
kind of file corruption.

I would normally just give up and reinstall, but I can still access the
shared folders from the machine, and have copied them over. There are still a
few things I wanted from the machine, but I can't login.

I've tried booting from the Windows DVD and using the repair computer tools.
I used the restore wizard to roll back to a restore point, and I used the
command line to run chkdsk /r to fix file system errors, but still I get the
"genuine" problem.

Is there some list of executables that I can copy over to the ailing machine
that might fix the problem? I have an almost identical PC running Vista also,
so I could grab files from there and load by hand (after booting from the
DVD and using the shell). I have all the product keys from the DVD and the
sticker on the PC.

Hi Hugh,

You may be in "Reduced Functionality Mode". If you are, then you will need to activate Vista again. You will most likely need to do a phone activation. These links will show you how to get out of this and how to activate Vista.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66990-activation.html

and

Activate Vista by Phone

Hope it helps you,
Shawn

Brink,

Thanks for the tip. I guess I should have known the trick of entering C: in
the browser address bar to access the file system. You've gotten me a lot
closer to solving this, but I'm still running into obstacles.

I got to the command prompt and tried entering the command from your
suggestion: slmgr -rearm, but I got an error message in a popup window for
"VBScript permission denied". I was logging in with the administrator
account, so I'm confused about the error. I also tried to run the command
suggested by the "Genuine" web page, "net start slsvc" but got the error on
the command line "System error 5 has occured. Access is denied".

I'll try to educate myself on the "net user" command and see if I can adjust
my permission level and try to run the command again.

Thanks,
Hugh



"brink" wrote:
[snip included text from my original message]

Oops! Just to follow up my own post, when I launched the cmd window, I
neglected to right-click on it and select run as administrator. This
eliminates the "system error 5" for the net start slsvc command, but I now
get another error. Here's the output:

C:\Windows\System32>net start slsvc
The Software Licensing service is starting.
The Software Licensing service could not be started.

A system error has occurred.

System error 54273 has occurred.

The system cannot find message text for message number 0xd401in the message
file for BASE.

In googleing (googling?) the error message, I found a Vista Validation
issues forum at forums.microsoft.com/Genuine, so I'll look around in there
for ideas.

Thanks again,

Hugh




"Hugh Bussell" wrote:

Hugh,

Are you able to do a Activation? You will probably have to do a phone activation.

Shawn