Help! Windows Server 2003 R2 activation broken after upgrade of SB

DavidMorandi

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Jan 1, 2007, 5:41:00 PM1/1/07

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I just ran through the upgrade from Window 2003 SBS R2 to Windows Server 2003
R2 using the SBS 2003 R2 Transition Pack. After it was all done and rebooted
the last time, I can't log into the server due to an activation problem:

When I log in from the console, after accepting an validating the password
it shows a dialog reading:

This copy of Windows must be activated with Microsoft before you can
continue. You cannot log on until you activate Windows. Do you want to
activate Windows now?
To shut down the computer, click Cancel.
[Yes][No][Cancel]

Yes and No have the same effect - get a saving settings message and then
returns to the Enter Ctrl-Alt-Del to logon dialog box. Cancel shuts down as
it says. Nothing actually lets me activate over the internet nor gives me a
way to activate over the phone, just logs me out.

During the installation I entered the new Window Server Standard product
license that comes in the transition pack and said yes to activate and
register. Everything else went fine and the upgrade proceded through all the
steps and reboots (I didn't have Backup Exec installed and didn't experience
the problem described in KB 914990).

The system seems to be running fine otherwise. Exchange and OWA appear to
be working, for example. Trying to logon from Remote Desktop has the same
problem.

I really need to get this fixed fast but I don't know what to try from where
I am.

SuperGumby [SBS MVP]

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Jan 1, 2007, 5:48:49 PM1/1/07

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I can't remember hearing of this behaviour previously. You can hang around
and wait for another response, MS may have advice to offer, but personally
I'd be on the phone to support. You have several reasons why this would be a
free call. They may ask for CC details but I expect not.

"DavidMorandi" <DavidM...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:042B6381-BC58-47D9...@microsoft.com...

DavidMorandi

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Jan 1, 2007, 6:52:00 PM1/1/07

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Thanks, I have opened a case but no progress yet.

bbrock

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Jan 4, 2007, 7:54:00 PM1/4/07

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Did you get your problem resolved? I have run into a similar problem trying
to upgrade from windows 2003 SP1 to SBS 2003. The upgrade apeared to be
successful, but when I try to login the first time after the upgrade I go the
same

This copy of Windows must be activated with Microsoft before you can
continue. You cannot log on until you activate Windows. Do you want to

activate Windows now? message box.

I have HealthMonitor http://healthmonitor.zucchetti.com installed and it
emailed me the folling events from the event log.

EventID 1009 You have not activated Windows within the grace period. To
activate Windows, contact a customer service representative by telephone.

and then EventID: 1000 Faulting application msoobe.exe, version 5.2.3790.0,
faulting module urlmon.dll, version 6.0.3790.2612, fault address 0x0000618c.

DavidMorandi

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Jan 4, 2007, 11:06:00 PM1/4/07

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It's not resolved so far. I'm likely to bail and build a new server from
scratch and migrate the old server to the new server.

The current guess (not confirmed) as to what is going on is that Windows
Updates have upgraded IE from IE6 to IE7 but the transition pack having been
released before IE7 is overwriting with IE6 and that may be what is causing
the problem. I see an event in the event log when the attempt to run
activation fails that says in part "faulting application msoobe.exe, faulting
module urlmon.dll". msoobe.exe is the activation application and urlmon.dll
is distributed with IE.

bbrock

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Jan 5, 2007, 1:40:02 AM1/5/07

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Thanks for the info. That is consistant with my situation, IE7 was installed
on the server I tried to upgrade. Good thin I made a drive image backup
before the upgrade and so I was able to recover. I will uninstalling IE7 and
try the upgrade again.

DavidMorandi

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Jan 5, 2007, 1:33:05 PM1/5/07

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Let us know what happens. I think this makes at least three different site
seeing this problem.

bbrock

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Jan 6, 2007, 8:01:00 PM1/6/07

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Installing IE7 first worked. This time I still received the message that I
had to activate windows before I could log in, but when I clicked yes the
activation window came up and I was able to successfully activate. Checking
the logs shows that windows thought the activation grace period had expired.
When I upgraded another server from Windows 2003 SP1 to R2 I had 30 days to
activate.