I am trying and failing to fix a computer running XP home.
I received this machine and it would not boot to the desktop. The error message was: "license is invalid". Sorry I can't remember the exact error message, I fixed this by deleting the contents of a registry key as recommended at Microsoft web site.
So now the computer booted normally ..
... but then I had various other problems for example: failed boot to black screen, and booting to a corrupt desktop. AVG anti virus would not update, and a suspicious message on boot about there was an error in the registry and windows replaced it from a log or a copy. Then I updated AVG and received the message: avg "license number could not be fully verified". I un-installed it, re-installed it several times. Eventually I repair installed XP. Still I received error messages about windows encountered a serious problem and the registry had to be copied from a log and the AVG license problem continued. Also after the repair installed I watched as the AVG processes closed down one by one .. avg***.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. I chose to reboot.
I ran Sophos rootkit detection program, I scanned the computer at Housecall and also with AVG and Avast! several times. No malware showed up
Eventually I did a clean install of XP and now I still get the message about avg "license number could not be fully verified" which I have downloaded and reinstalled several times. Also I still receive randomly on boot '" ... registry had to be copied ..."
Also I replaced the boot sector using FIXBOOT from the recovery console.
and updated several device drivers
One of the few things I have not done yet is wipe the entire hard disk I only wiped the windows partition( it has 2 partitions )
Where could this problem be coming from? I'm at a loss
I also ran Hijack this, but I didn't seen anything interesting, (although I may have missed something)