Hard disk crashed - where is my 50-digital WinXP installation id?
 

On Sun, 04 Nov 2007 06:11:08 -0500, Lee wrote:
I thought you just needed 25 character string, on the CD or the
holigraphic label on the laptop/PC case.
It is normally asked for whem one does a complete initial install, or
first start of Laptop
It also asks if you change motherboard, hard drive or network card.

My kid's laptop didn't come with a CD for Windows.
It just came with Windows XP on it.Then the hard disk drive crashed.

When I put a spare hard drive I had lying around in, up came this message
about Windows Activation being needed before I could log in. OK. Fine.

But, the Windows Activation window just came up blue and blank with no
buttons, no action, no words, no nuthin'. I waited an hour and still
nothing. I plugged into a live ethernet, and did a hardware reboot, and
still nothing when it came up the same way.

What's wrong with Windows Activation?