Win XP asking for activation after 8 years offline?!

[rocko]

What the "H" is this?
Any workaround available? Or should I even worry?
This is my Win XP Capture PC that has Never been connected to the internet since 2010.
I don't even turn turn this PC on, but maybe every 3 months if even that, to Cap some VHS.
Has never been connected to the Internet.

The only connection to the outside world is an external drive that I must use to transfer the capped .avi video files from this XP PC to my Win 7 Video PC. But that is certainly not a major hardware change!

There is a copy of system backup files for the XP PC, stored on that same external drive, in case of failure.

The warning box says that "Due to a Major Hardware Change, this copy of Windows must be Activated", But there have been absolutely No hardware changes at all, since inception of this system in 2010, Exept for the occasional External Drive connection, which does have data from the Win 7 PC.

Apolgies for the Photos of PC screen from my cell phone camera., I don't have time to grab and then convert XP screen shots. :-)

BY THE WAY, I forgot how to make images visible to all viewers, instead of just links to each image, my bad I guess.

[Obsolete Collector]

I believe that if you do press the call option, then it allows you to put the key that the representative would've given you. From there, you can just look online for a list of keys and try them, or see if there's sticker on the PC that has the OEM key. I've usually installed SP3 though, and I've heard SP1 and SP2 have issues with activation. So if you have the latter two, download SP3 and then put the key if you need to.

[lordsmurf]

I turned two of my old laptops into VMs. Both had XP. Each VM placed on a different desktop.

And after the conversion, it was fine for several more years.

After some system upgrades in 2017, then VMs of XP would un-activate themselves. Probably because the CPU was new, and XP activation thought the new hardware was too different from the older laptop hardware from activation.

I was pissed.
I looked for workaround.
I even considered a few shady torrent hacks.

^ That was all a waste of time.

Instead I called the number on screen. Within 5 minutes, I was using it again.

This was in December 2017, just a few months ago.

[rocko]

Thank you LS, and What's a VM? I assume it means Virtual Machine?
I figured since my system has not been online since 2010 or so, that any phone numbers or info was outdated, but I will try, then post here, I imagine there will be a few hundred others going through the same thing next few months?

[rocko]

Ok! Smooth sailing again! I called the phone number, it asked if I was calling from smart phone or other, I said smart phone, and it simply gave me the new activation numbers, after inputting the old activation numbers, In easy to read format.
I was a bit worried at first, because this used XP system plus ATI AIW card including software Capture was put together by a computer store guy who really knew what he was doing, I only supplied the hardware then he went out of buisness, and dissappeared a few years ago, wasn't sure what copy of Win XP he used was legitimate or not. but today 4-20-18 looks like no problem re-activating XP!...All that was sure a big worry for a few days though, even though I only have time to capture as a hobby every few months!