3120 Activation problem with Windows Update

P

pmarshall

Bit poster
I am getting an empty dialog box with a stop sign and an OK button - nothing else - when I try to log into Windows in the VM, using the bootcamp partition.

If I boot direct into Windows (i.e. bootcamp, not VM), everything works fine.

Looking in the event log, it appears to be a Windows Activation problem - there are repeated failures.

3120 did work fine until Windows installed some automatic updates.

I've tried making a new VM and starting the process again, but it's always the same. I tried to uninstall Parallels tools, but a dialog box told me that is only possible from within a VM. In the VM, I can not do anything because of the empty dialog box - it just logs me immediately out again if I click on OK.

Anyone else seeing this? How can I reset the activation if all I have is an empty dialag box? There seems to be no way of entering anything!!
 
Have you tried booting in SAFE MODE?

ajm

pmarshall said:
I am getting an empty dialog box with a stop sign and an OK button - nothing else - when I try to log into Windows in the VM, using the bootcamp partition.

If I boot direct into Windows (i.e. bootcamp, not VM), everything works fine.

Looking in the event log, it appears to be a Windows Activation problem - there are repeated failures.

3120 did work fine until Windows installed some automatic updates.

I've tried making a new VM and starting the process again, but it's always the same. I tried to uninstall Parallels tools, but a dialog box told me that is only possible from within a VM. In the VM, I can not do anything because of the empty dialog box - it just logs me immediately out again if I click on OK.

Anyone else seeing this? How can I reset the activation if all I have is an empty dialag box? There seems to be no way of entering anything!!
Click to expand...
 
No - I hadn't until you suggested it (I didn't know you could before then!).

Booting the VM in safe mode works fine. However, I still have the same empty dialog box problem which logs me straight out again when I go back to booting the VM in normal mode.

Do you have any suggestions on what I should do when in safe mode to fix things?

Thanks.
 
P.S. I uninstalled Parallel tools while in safe mode. I still get the same problem in normal mode, rendering my bootcamp XP in the virtual machine totally unusable. Any suggestions anyone?
 
I've tried that. I've also tried using the system restore option in safe mode to take my XP installation back to before what I thought was the windows update problem that broke it.

My Bootcamp VM is still broken - all I get is the unhelpful dialog box with no text and an OK button so I can't log in.

The only clue is the Windows Product Activation error in the EventViewer.

Is there a safe way to clear all the Parallels stuff out of the bootcamp VM and start the Parallels bootcamp magic installation stuff again?
 
pmarshall said:
MacBook Pro 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo, 2Meg ram.
Click to expand...
That's identical to my hardware and I have no problems other then some minor annoyances.

Since you are using boot-camp. A reinstall is not a big deal.
try uninstalling Paralles. Use the uninstall tool.
Then use spotlight or Find and remove any and all parallel files that might be left behind.
Boot into Boot-Camp and make sure there are no Parallel tools etc. installed.
If you find any - remove them.
Check registry also.

Re-install Parallels 1320
Unfortunately, I am not at home or would give you how I have MBP configured.

ajm
 
My setup worked fine as well with 3120 until something unknown went wrong.

Although I didn't go as far as completely reinstalling Parallels, I followed your suggestion of removing all the parallels files and registry settings I could find while running XP via native bootcamp. I had uninstalled Parallels tools, but there were still loads of drivers lying around. Success! When I next created a VM, Parallels went through its install routines again - this caused an Activation request, and now everything seems ok again.

I can't help thinking this problem is going to bite again at some point. An easier way of forcing Parallels to re-install itself into the bootcamp image would certainly help.

Thanks for taking the time to reply,
Pete.
 
Glad it worked out!
BTW
I always add ALL Windows updates directly to Boot Camp including Window Updates.
I've disabled the automatic install of updates to notification only.
Naturally, the Parallel tools are an exception.
You may want to try disabling the Apple Keyboard Manager when using Parallels, via "msconfig"

ajm
 
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