BleepingComputer.com: Dell Hell

I have a dell Inspirion 1000 that was cleaned of viruses (using superanti spyware and Malwarebytes) and was running perfect right up to the point where SP3 was downloaded and installed. On reboot the wallpaper comes up and the HD is cranking and then up pops a "this copy of windows must be activated". If I hit yes then it acts like it's going to boot and gives me a "this copy of window is already been activated, do you want to cancel. I click yes and it shuts down. If I click no the computer shuts down.
After cleaning the computer I ran a scan disk and all was one with the world right up till service pack 3 was installed. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Strugoi

Hi Strugoi -

Have you attempted to uninstall SP3 from Add / Remove in control Panel, and then reinstalling it ?
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic146857.html

An onsite link above to Installing SP3 and what you should know -

Regards -

EDIT - If you think there may be infections involved, after you try this, then post in the Malware removal area
Thank You -

This post has been edited by noknojon: 25 September 2011 - 10:27 PM

The Product Activation info is stored in the files "wpa.dbl" and "wpa.bak" which live in the Windows\System32 folder. If you delete those files and reboot, then the only thing Windows will let you do is activate. I think it will work in this case, but I strongly urge you to back up all your data before trying it, there is a risk that you could end up locked out of Windows altogether.

@ Noknojon:
I cannot uninstall SP3 because it doesn't boot properly and keeps me in the "activation" loop. It asks for windows activation even when I try to boot through safe mode.

@USN Vet:
I'm not sure how to get to those files when the computer doesn't let me get through the activation windows.

I was successful at booting up when I place my desktop XP pro disk in a booted (this is how I got to the point of downloading SP3) It was able to boot, but then I had to reload all security packs and the like from square one.
I suppose I could try that again after reading a bit in Noknojon's link that was sent to me.

Thanks for the advice,
Strugoi

Strugoi, on 26 September 2011 - 09:46 PM, said:

Create rescue disk on a working Computer. I assume safemode doesn't work.