I've had a copy of WHS running quite happily for a few months now but a few days ago the server seemed to have gotten a bit sluggish so I connected in with remote desktop and did a reboot. All my clients then reconnected and my media players all work etc but when I try and use RDC I now get met with "a problem is preventing windows from accurately checking the license for this computer" and I get into the all too common loop of 'already activated', 'not activated' and I can't actually log into the server at all. I've tried numerous fixes such as replacing wpa.dbl and re-registering dlls etc but to no avail. Is there any way I can get out of this loop without having to do a re-install? Also, would it be possible to turn my current install into an OEM version or can this only be done at install time? I don't know why it should have chosen to lock me out at this point but it seems it's fairly commonplace for it to happen for both legit and illegit installs so is there any benefit to an OEM install with bios mod over the OOBETimer hack (the method I'm currently using)?
Hi, I think your best bet would be to backup your data, reinstall WHS and don't connect it to the net so it won't update and you should be fine again.
How is it that you can not activate a simple w2k3 server? HP SLP 1.0 in BIOS & the HP oembios* set Nothing easier... sebus
Certainly sounds easy when you put it like that but is it possible to retro-fit this or does it have to be done at install time? The reason I ask is because I have already tried this and it hasn't made any difference whatsoever - still tells me there is a problem etc. I don't know if this is because I did it wrong or because it's not possible to turn my install into OEM at this point. The steps I took were: 1. Add HP info to bios using HP_AMI_DMI.iso 2. Extract oembios bin, cat, dat and sig from HP 2003 CRC-D107C3EA 3. Boot server in safe mode and replace the above files. 4. Reboot. If I did something wrong or missed something out then please point out the error of my ways. If these are the correct steps then it looks like I'm up the creek.
Well, I have to admit I was a little bit pessimistic about whether this was going to work out as I had seen so many reports on the internet about legit OEM versions of XP and WHS running into this problem but after using the OEM Bios Changer all the nags have gone away and I can once again get into my desktop. Thanks to sebus for giving me the kick up the ar5e I deserved and also to everyone involved in putting together all the fantastic tools and info on the site.