XP Activation windows is blank?! (missing graphics)

So im working on my friend's computer and did a repair install of windows XP pro on top of his XP pro. When i go to activate, this comes up...



not sure what to do. Ive tried registering a few dlls, ive tried looking into some registry stuff (maybe not the right things), and i saw a microsoft article on this and it didnt help. Any ideas? Really really dont want to reformat.

typically i have found.... doing a repair install, ESPECIALLY ON XP.... usually does more harm than good.

the quickest and best way will be to back everything up, and reinstall.

but id check this out

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314935

yeah, ive came across that article. It was no help.

From my experience if a friend's pc is borked just reinstall clean and then show them what a backup image is for.

Yeah I've never had a repair install do anything in Windows, except make it worse. I'd backup and wipe and reload.

SeanBest said:

Yeah I've never had a repair install do anything in Windows, except make it worse. I'd backup and wipe and reload.

Click to expand...

Well i made some progress kind of. I created a new user profile then tried activating again and it let me, the window actually showed this time. But then the key wouldnt activate and i know its legit. Tried another legit key and updated then got a new installation ID but he box where the ID was supposed to be was blank. I had enough at that point and reformatted. Thanks anyways.