I really hope someone is able to help. I'll try to be as thorough as possible in my explanation.
Here is the scenario. I have a Dell laptop with an OEM version of XP. I want to turn this into a Virtual Machine, then install Windows 7 on the laptop, then run the VM from within 7. However, I do not want the configuration of XP to change (the machine name and domain).
First I did the conversion (which took an act of Congress to complete succesfully). Then I needed to install the AHCI drivers. So I used my OEM disk and a floppy with the driver I needed and did a repair installation. And never during the repair installation did I get prompted for a product key.
Then I move my VM to a seperate machine (a Dell server). Windows boots up. I type in my password to login and it prompts me with You must activate this copy of Windows. Do you want to do it now? If I say No it logs me out. If I say Yes, the popup box goes away and I am left staring at my wallpaper. I've let it sit like that over night and nothing ever appears to happen.
The reason I moved the VM to the server is to avoid having duplicate names on the network. I have also checked the network connectivity of the server and it is fine. The VM shows that the virtual NIC is bridged but I don't really have a way to verify connectivity.
I know the OEM product key is a violation, but I plan on changing to a volume license as soon as I get the chance. I've tried using the SMBIOS.reflectHost = "TRUE" to see if that would let me login but it still prompts for activation (I expected that since it's on the server and not the laptop).
So my question is, what is causing XP to hang? From what I've read I think the Product Activation window is supposed to come up to either let me activate online or tell me to call, but I never get it.
Is there any solution other than changing the product key of the laptop to a volume license and then converting?
Thanks in advance!
