SWMBO's Dell laptop came with Dell OEM Win XP Home installed. This afternoon I attempted to install a legitimate new and unused academic version of Win XP Pro upgrade over XP Home. All went well until the end of the installation when I got a blue screen message with an error code and instructions to reboot if it was the first such screen. Windows booted successfully as Win XP Pro but, whenever I click on the only user to complete loading, the error message 'WP Activation - A problem is preventing Windows from accurately checking the licence for this computer. Error code: 0X80004005' appears. Windows then shuts down. Having checked the requirements for the upgrade, including the licence conditions and the laptop spec, there is no reason why this upgrade should not be possible.

Can anyone please help with an explanation of what is going on and where/how I can get help from Microsoft? And can I roll the system back to XP Home or, better still, complete the upgrade? I could try a clean install but would rather not lose all the old settings and files. Fortunately I saved My Docs to CD so I am not totally in the doghouse with SWMBO. :(

Denis, check this

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;306081

Looks like you needed to disable or uninstall the virus prog before the upgrade, Luckily this link contains instructions on how to fix.

edit. looks like you need method 2

Manny, I think that you may well have found the solution for me. Fortunately I can print off the fix on my PC and give it a try. Will report back idc.

Manny, I've got as far as Method 2 para 2 but don't get the KB options. Message reads: this computer is already in the process of being upgraded to MS Windows. What do you want to do?

* To continue the current upgrade, press ENTER.

* To cancel the current upgrade and install a new version of MS Windows, press F10.

* To exit setup without installing MS windows, press F3.

Option 3 shuts the laptop down. Option 1 returns the laptop to the Preparing Installation phase of the upgrade (after the Collecting Info and Dynamic Update stages). It is currently on the Installing Windows stage followed by Finalising Installation and will then give the same error message.

Is there another KB fix specifically for the upgrade option since, although KB 306081 has the fix I need, I can't access it?

If you start the machine and hold down F8 after it's displayed the BIOS stuff, you should get boot options for XP - in this, IIRC, there is an option to use the recovery console, though I might be wrong...

Rob.

TBH denis... i would say wipe the hd and do a clean install for pro my techies say that the upgrade routine is not the best.....

Denis

I had a very similar problem, I bought a new Toshiba (XP Home) and wanted to upgrade it to Pro, The upgrade would work OK until it got to about 30 mins to run, then came up with the error, The only way around this was to boot up from the XP Pro disk and do a complete fresh install, I was OK because it was a brand new PC and had nothing on it. Another problem you may find is that quite a few drivers were not compatible, I didn't have a sound driver, USB Bus controller driver was missing, it wouldn't play DVD's and a few other probs I can't remember, sorted it out via the Tosh driver website but a friend of mine had to revert his HP back to XPhome as he couldn't find the right drivers.

George

Denis, if only I had read this the other day I could have sorted it for you after jabba.

Try this, it might work.

1) boot off the CD again.

2) when that message pops up, select the option to install a fresh copy. The process will then discover that you already have an installation and ask if you wish to repair it.

3) select the repair option, dont be alarmed it will delete a load of files and go on to install XP again, hopefully repairing the files.

Doing this may make things worse, so be prepared to do a full install.

Thanks for all the advice, including Colin's subtle 'bin XP!' I managed to try the KB fix you pointed me to, Manny, but that didn't work, and no matter what I tried I was left with an incomplete upgrade. Fortunately it turned out that SWMBO was eligible to be included on her school's XP licence so I have spent most of today wiping the hard drive and doing a complete installation which went smoothly. That leaves me with the original XP Pro upgrade (plus Partition Magic 8) which I could install on my PC over the original Win ME and XP Home upgrade.....but.....once bitten twice shy. Perhaps I have been lucky to date, but this is the first time I have had a Windows installation/upgrade fail on me. :(

I've found XP to be the most troublesome OS from the Microsoft stable, so I wouldn't bother with the upgrade if you don't have to...

Rob.