Help! XP Activation Issues with Boot Camp / Parallels -- ARGH!!!

[theman]

I have windows XP Pro installed on my boot camp partition. I just got Parallels to try it out and get faster access to windows. I installed parallels and selected it to run from my BC partition. Worked fine, a bit slow, but it works. Next I restart to boot into Win XP, and I get this message that says "Your Hardware has changed significantly, activate in 3 days or we will lock your account" Ok, so I press activate, and it works. Now I go back to parallels and the same message comes up. Only this this time it asks for my CDKey and then says the Key is used up (or something) and that I need to buy windows again! Ok, so I choose phone activation, and go through that ANNOYING thing, and it activates. ok, but a few more cycles of going from bootcamp to parallels, and the message pops up again!

Am I not allowed to run windows xp, and a virtual machine (OF THE SAME INSTALLATION) on the same computer????

If not, why is it still letting me activate????

Help me, this is so annoying! What number can I call at microsoft to talk to them (gulp...). Just the number for the phone activation???

Please, if you have had this experience help me out, it's so frustrating.

 

[DeaconGraves]

The problem is that Boot Camp uses the full resources of your mac, while Parallels assigns only a fraction of them (so the rest can continue to run OS X.) XP unfortunately interprets it to suddenly be on an entirely new PC and freaks. As far as I know, there's no way around it (though I believe, unfortunately, that the problem was fixed in Vista).

 

[webgoat]

activate in boot camp... run in parallels and install tools... activate by phone in parallels... make sure and say it is installed on only 1 computer and the reason you aren't able to activate by internet again is that you put in a new hard drive and did a clean install of the os and they will give you a new number

 

[theman]

yeah, i did all that, but it's like there's a 50% chance of the message coming back up when I go between the two... wth...

 

[webgoat]

i use vmware fusion myself and vmware tools takes care of the activation issues... never used parallels so i'm not sure i can help

 

[theman]

well, actually, that is a funny story. I'm sorry guys, I have to admit, I kind of lied. I was trying to simplify it a little i guess...

I was actually using VMWare Fusion at first, and just switched to Parallels today hoping it would sort of fix the problem (actually I found Fusion to be annoying, slow and glitchy, Parallels is only slightly better).

so, no VMWare did not fix the activation issues.

 

[webgoat]

so, no VMWare did not fix the activation issues.

well than that is a user problem cause the software holds up its end of the bargain

 

[theman]

Ok, I'm just going to wipe my partition and start all over again using VMWare then. I just don't understand this.

 

[balantzme]

Run the utility.

VMWare has an activation utility to stop the activation window from popping up again in XP. Unfortunately I can't tell you more right now - I ran Fusion with boot camp with no problems for a few days. Then I decided to try Parallels to compare and boom my new iMac crashed and wouldn't reboot - no power no nothing - completely dead. Service tech is replacing the power supply today so we'll see if that fixes it.
I'm not saying Parallels caused it, but the machine crashed as I was starting Parallels for the first time. I'm guessing Parallels and Fusion don't play well together - or it was just a bad power supply and completely coincidental.
Read through the Fusion install stuff and there is a utility mentioned - I'm sure of it. When I get my mac back - I'll be able to tell you more.

B.

 

[mkaake]

I set up Fusion last weekend on a family member's mini (runs exceptional for being on a mini... very handy program).

He had been running bootcamp for quite a while (almost a year, if memory serves), and wanted to try out fusion. After some hiccups with the transition, we had to re-activate windows inside of Fusion (we have it sandboxed from the internet, so we had to do the phone call). A few minutes later, we switched back to running in bootcamp (to make sure the transition worked well, if he feels the need to use a 'full' windows machine in the future), and we had to activate a second time - over the phone again.

However, once we had activated twice (as it really is on two seperate machines - your virtual machine is a... virtual machine, with different specifications than your real machine) - it ran just fine. We switched back and forth a dozen times to make sure, and it's been running like a champ since.