Saturday, October 24, 2009

Cannot login to Windows XP with error code 0x80070002

Windows has never been the most stable of operating systems. Windows Product Activation just gives it more chances to screw up. If you start up your computer and get greeted by the message "A problem is preventing windows from accurately checking the license for this computer. Error code: 0x80070002", then you know what I mean.

There are any number of possible causes and error codes from a third party software interfering with Windows to a simple software update to hard disk failures. Microsoft cites changing of security providers and change of system drive letter as causes.

Here's another one that may have escaped their radar: oembios.bin

Boot into safe mode, and try finding oembios.bin in %systemroot%\system32. Chances are the file isn't there or it's been renamed. Quite likely it's been corrupted by malicious software (if it's there), or it's been removed by one (if it's not).

You best bet in this case is to restore the file from the pristince copy in your Windows XP installation disc. Pop in you Windows XP CD and extract the file back into it's proper place using the command prompt:

:\Windows\system32> extract drive:\I386\oembios.bi_ oembios.bin

Replace drive with the drive letter for your CDROM (usually D:\). Reboot and Windows XP should boot all the way to the desktop.

Related posts:

How to remove malware from Windows

Reference:

- Tip and Trick
- Microsoft

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