Lordseck,

You are correct. OEM XP installations are pre-activated via Dell's Volume License. However, yours is the second post I have seen this week regarding Microsoft Validation not seeing the a valid XP Activation.  Microsoft  may have changed the rules again.  You may have to register your Windows XP with Microsoft to get it to recognize your Windows is activated.

To activate XP manually:  Click on Start|Run. Type oobe/msoobe /a and press Enter.  This will tell you if your XP is activated or not.

    

In the future:

If you plan to do a repair/install of XP on the same hardware, you can back up the activation status and then restore it after you repair/install Windows XP.  Back up your activation status by copying the wpa.dbl file from the %systemroot%\system32 folder to a floppy disk.

Once the repair/install of XP OS is done,  start in Safe Mode. Open the \%systemroot%\system32 folder.  Rename wpa.dbl to wpa.new. Copy your old wpa.dbl file to the system32 folder. Reboot .

This works only on the same hardware for a previously activated XP installation.

 

You mentionned logo verification was OFF.  Did you mean Block was selected on Driver Signing?

Click Start|Control Panel|System. On the Hardware tab, click Driver Signing. Under File Signature verification, click Warn (This should be the default).  Do not select Block.  Under Administrator option, click Apply setting as system default to apply the selected setting as the default for all users who log on to your computer.

Tony