Windows Activation Error

[GhostRiot]

Tried reaching out in Troubleshooting but havent gotten much feedback, if there are any Sys Admins or Microsoft gurus there that have any insights, Id appreciate your input.

I have 5 systems on a domain that all suddenly started throwing out this activation error today simultaneously. Logging in as an admin and trying to activate doesnt help because system properties shows activation as successful already.... tried running %WINDIR%\system32\oobe\msoobe /a which didnt help. These systems have been error free and running for 2 years + now.

Ive checked the time on all the systems and its correct, the time posted on the Time Server is also correct. Ive also forced Group Policy updates and rebooted which didnt help.

The only other thing I can thing of is removing and rebinding them to the domain, but since this site is an hours drive away Id rather not go out there, do that, and then not resolve the problem. Any ideas for a REMOTE resolution? Reformatting is an absolute last resort, and I see no reason why it should come to that.

Thanks for any input.

[Djole123]

I would just say to use them as they were activated and contact Microsoft support when you can. Are you 100% sure Windows is legal in those computers?

[GhostRiot]

7 hours ago, Djole123 said:

I would just say to use them as they were activated and contact Microsoft support when you can. Are you 100% sure Windows is legal in those computers?

Currently we are, however the users are getting pinged every 15 minutes that Activation is required. Its definitely a nuisance. I've contacted Microsoft support as well, still haven't heard a response.

The image and license are definitely 100% legal. Its the same key we've used for all those models on our network. Why only these 5 are the ones throwing the error is what has me confused.

There hasn't been much I can find online on any forum. Getting to the point that I may have to go out and just SysPrep the PC's.... even if someone doesnt have a solution, Id appreciate speculation. Im very confused what caused this. Functionally and configuration wise there is no difference between these PC's and the other couple hundred systems on the domain, some of which using the same 100 license key, are having no issues.

If its any consolation, the keys for these PC's were Win 8 licenses that were downgraded to Windows 7 Professional.

[Djole123]

1 hour ago, GhostRiot said:

Currently we are, however the users are getting pinged every 15 minutes that Activation is required. Its definitely a nuisance. I've contacted Microsoft support as well, still haven't heard a response.

The image and license are definitely 100% legal. Its the same key we've used for all those models on our network. Why only these 5 are the ones throwing the error is what has me confused.

There hasn't been much I can find online on any forum. Getting to the point that I may have to go out and just SysPrep the PC's.... even if someone doesnt have a solution, Id appreciate speculation. Im very confused what caused this. Functionally and configuration wise there is no difference between these PC's and the other couple hundred systems on the domain, some of which using the same 100 license key, are having no issues.

If its any consolation, the keys for these PC's were Win 8 licenses that were downgraded to Windows 7 Professional.

Oh. I guess your only choice is to update everything and install Windows 10.

 

1) Update everything you can

2) Restart

3) You should see Windows icon near the clock

4) Click on it and follow the steps to install Windows 10. It's free.

[GhostRiot]

19 minutes ago, Djole123 said:

Oh. I guess your only choice is to update everything and install Windows 10.

 

1) Update everything you can

2) Restart

3) You should see Windows icon near the clock

4) Click on it and follow the steps to install Windows 10. It's free.

Uhhh, not sure if that is sarcasm, but no, that's not an option. The machines will remain on Windows 7 for numerous compatibility issues. We are a news paper and basically none of the software we use is compatible with Windows 10. Typically in a business environment changing systems to a different OS is a big deal, theres alot of moving parts. Theres no reason for us to leave Win 7 Pro

Worst comes to worst Ill just drive out there and sysprep the machines to reactivate. Just didn't want to waste a day if someone knows what causes this issue.

[Djole123]

18 minutes ago, GhostRiot said:

Uhhh, not sure if that is sarcasm, but no, that's not an option. The machines will remain on Windows 7 for numerous compatibility issues. We are a news paper and basically none of the software we use is compatible with Windows 10. Typically in a business environment changing systems to a different OS is a big deal, theres alot of moving parts. Theres no reason for us to leave Win 7 Pro

Worst comes to worst Ill just drive out there and sysprep the machines to reactivate. Just didn't want to waste a day if someone knows what causes this issue.

 

 

 

 

[GhostRiot]

Sooooo... this is kind of embarrassing...

It wasnt the PC's, I didn't notice before, but all of the systems had an active remote connection to one of our servers. Whether they were actively in use or not, and it was actually the server that they were connecting to that failed activation 

This didnt occur to me until we got a call from another one of our sites that started having the same problem everytime they initialized their RDP connection.... the other site was just leaving their PC's on with the connection active, hence why theirs kept popping up constantly.

Also explains why the prompt was in a different theme than the rest of the system, I thought that was weird. The server is on DC 2008

Whoops