BootCamp & Parallels - Significant Hardware Change Reactivation

J

JByron

Junior Member
When I booted into my Bootcamp partition in Parallels for the first time it required me to reactivate windows because of a significant hardware change. I did, but now when I boot directly into Windows via Bootcamp it again required me to reactivate. Loaded my Bootcamp partition back in Parallels and once again I had to reactivate.

Of course because of wonderful Microsoft you can only activate products a certain number of times. I don't want to have to jump through these hoops every time I decide to change boot methods (Either through Parallels or Bootcamp)

Is this a known problem? All my searches on this forum have come up empty. I've got to believe when testing their Bootcamp implementation this is something Parallels came across.

This is also not just specific to the OS. Visual Studio '03 also sees the hardware change and makes you reactivate.

Thanks!
 
Excellent Question, my apologies.

I am using Windows XP Pro SP2.

Those host machine is a Mac Pro running OS X 10.4.9
 
Another quick note:

When I boot into Windows XP via Bootcamp instead of loading the Parallels Configuration option I load my default Windows XP Configuration.

I figured that made sense since I am not in Parallels. Not sure if that is doing it. Right now I am just running my Bootcamp Install in Parallels. I am afraid of breaking it by switching back and forth.
 
I find this strange... I have never had this sort of issue before. I was primarily wondering if you were using a VISTA OS that does not allow emulation and perhaps it was detecting the changes...

I have heard of the other software being an issue at times... Do you have a volume license? Those make life much easier.
 
No Vista. I have a license I bought through school. I am not sure really if it is a volume license. I've already tried to reactivate with my new license and Microsoft wouldn't let me. I guess that is what I get for trying to do things the legitimate way!

So I used an older license I’ve used in the past and activation went through fine. Unfortunately as soon as I booted with Bootcamp the same significant hardware change alert box came up and now I have three days to reactivate.

Like I said in my last post at this point I’ve resorted to just using Parallels until this issue can be resolved.

If it would help I can post a screen capture of the exact message XP gives me when I reboot.

The interesting thing is now anytime I load via Parallels I get the message.

Really wish I knew what was going on.

Thanks!!
 
Is it an academic license by any chance?

You can get a screenshot... Whatever your screenshot is bound to for OS X... At least while you are using Parallels. Or use Snapz Pro
 
MAC Address?

I had a similar problem with Office XP activation recurring when switching back and forth. In my case, it was fixed by changing the MAC address in Boot Camp to match the MAC address under Parallels (see full thread here).
 
I never thought to look for Office Posts with Activation problems as well. First thing at work tomorrow I'll give the MAC spoofing a try. Hopefully it will work!
 
There's not much you can do to avoid the reactivation nightmare short of working for a company that has access to an enterprise volume license of Win XP that does not require activation. With Vista, it's worse, as even the Enterprise version requires activation.

This is a huge hassle and effectively prevents frequently switching between a VM and Bootcam.
 
Fixed!

Much to my surprise fixing the MAC address as outlined in the thread posted by Tait solved my problem.

I changed the MAC address in parallels to be the same as my OS X MAC Address. Then loaded Parallels and re-Activated XP. Then restarted into Bootcamp and no prompt for re-activation. Restart back into OS X and parallels, again no re-activation.

Thanks for all your help, I was getting a bit worried that this would be a problem.

Jordan
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top