Acer One netbook laptop got scrambled brain.

[onederer]

One thing that I'm not sure, if this time, I didn't register my recovered WinXP once more, will it stop and seize up on me after a certain amount of time, or is that just for new purchases of the OS. If I can get away with it, I'd rather not contact MS to beg them to give me a key code so that I can run my machine once more. The WindowsXP installer wrote that registering was "optional". Is that true??Okay, I was using that netbook computer as a dedicated magicJack USB telephone appliance. It was on 24/7 to send and receive telephone calls. I never enjoyed the fact of having to keep a computer on all the time, but the cost of only $20.00/year for telephone service was quite an attractive incentive.However, after a while with all the MS updates, loss of telephone service, and the required rebooting afterwards, it got to a point that I could no longer get MJ to function anymore. Sometimes it took me around two frustrating hours to finally get MJ up and running. It looks like MJ slowly corrupted WinXP over time. At first, I was blaming the MJ dongle as going bad. I didn't suspect the computer. However, after a while, I tried the dongle on a different Windows Vista laptop. And it worked! Well, that really pointed to the netbook as being the culprit. It needed rescue.Well, things came to a head. I had to lose all my preferred OS settings, and start all over again from scratch. It took no time at all to complete the OS recovery procedure to bring it back to factory specifications. The pain came in having to download and re-install all the applications that were necessary for adequate machine usage. Yep, the application(s) teaks sure took up a great amount of time!Now, Acer One is back up and running just fine. The difference is that I just won't keep it on all the time anymore. During the time that I was thinking that the MJ was bad, I went out and replaced it with an alternative telephone appliance. It's called Ooma. It plugs directly into the router. No need to keep a computer on all the time for telephone access. Kind of expensive up-front, but if I don't subscribe to the extra monthly Ooma add-ons services, there won't be anymore future bills to be paid out for telephone access. Love all those toll-free telephone calls that I can make!Cheers!

[lewmur]

One thing that I'm not sure, if this time, I didn't register my recovered WinXP once more, will it stop and seize up on me after a certain amount of time, or is that just for new purchases of the OS. If I can get away with it, I'd rather not contact MS to beg them to give me a key code so that I can run my machine once more. The WindowsXP installer wrote that registering was "optional". Is that true??Okay, I was using that netbook computer as a dedicated magicJack USB telephone appliance. It was on 24/7 to send and receive telephone calls. I never enjoyed the fact of having to keep a computer on all the time, but the cost of only $20.00/year for telephone service was quite an attractive incentive.However, after a while with all the MS updates, loss of telephone service, and the required rebooting afterwards, it got to a point that I could no longer get MJ to function anymore. Sometimes it took me around two frustrating hours to finally get MJ up and running. It looks like MJ slowly corrupted WinXP over time. At first, I was blaming the MJ dongle as going bad. I didn't suspect the computer. However, after a while, I tried the dongle on a different Windows Vista laptop. And it worked! Well, that really pointed to the netbook as being the culprit. It needed rescue.Well, things came to a head. I had to lose all my preferred OS settings, and start all over again from scratch. It took no time at all to complete the OS recovery procedure to bring it back to factory specifications. The pain came in having to download and re-install all the applications that were necessary for adequate machine usage. Yep, the application(s) teaks sure took up a great amount of time!Now, Acer One is back up and running just fine. The difference is that I just won't keep it on all the time anymore. During the time that I was thinking that the MJ was bad, I went out and replaced it with an alternative telephone appliance. It's called Ooma. It plugs directly into the router. No need to keep a computer on all the time for telephone access. Kind of expensive up-front, but if I don't subscribe to the extra monthly Ooma add-ons services, there won't be anymore future bills to be paid out for telephone access. Love all those toll-free telephone calls that I can make!Cheers!

Use clonezilla to make an image of the HDD. Then, when XP gets corrupted, just restore the image and you are back in business. Much, much easier than a re-install.

[daveydoom]

One thing that I'm not sure, if this time, I didn't register my recovered WinXP once more, will it stop and seize up on me after a certain amount of time, or is that just for new purchases of the OS. If I can get away with it, I'd rather not contact MS to beg them to give me a key code so that I can run my machine once more. The WindowsXP installer wrote that registering was "optional". Is that true??

Activation is required, Registration is optional . Edited April 1, 2011 by daveydoom

[onederer]

yes, daveydoomdetails:activation is the vista/7 that requires the install to be verified legal with microsoft.---this can be done via the internet in a few seconds---or via phone to india in about 15 minutes.registration merely divulges all your personal data to microsoft for future marketing campaigns

Hi, I don't remember at the moment if I had stated that before, but I was inquiring about activation for WinXP, which runs in an AcerOne netbook. Does MS still require activation for XP netbooks? I suppose the netbook will let me know when the time is up, and activation is needed.Cheers!