Quick XP Help for DAD

[Rusty]

April 1 dad is bringing in his Compaq desktop. He has 512k and running Mcafee suite and Aol( pretty much enough said) he has never defragged or cleaned
He was just going to buy a new one lol but i convinced him to let me reinstall xp. A good cleaning and uninstall of Mcaffee would probably suffice
The pc hangs when starting windows and the hourglass never goes away. He has an nvidia6150 i think so that is probably the only driver i need to worry about.

i have about 2 days to set him up no prob. But here is my issue.
He has no OEM Xp disk 9 i know he does but cannot find it). i have xp retail but out of activations. And i have a Dell OEM no drivers on it but the product key for it is off my dell id tag. So i doubt it will install
i rather not hack his XP that can screw up later on him.
So what are my options?
When i asked him about disk cleanup or defrag his comment was "i dunno". Probably a thorough cleaning will do but i doubt it. for all i know it may be to much running at start up ( which is my guess) . Or maybe even bad RAM i think his machine is crapped up and full of viruses. With the time frame i have to work in i think a clean restore is the option but how if i do not have the right XP disks
if i could activate xp retail legally it be the best
So any help would be appreciated and REWARDED SOMEHOW

[Polkadot]

You cannot use the OEM on any motherboard other than the one it was installed on. Even if you upgrade MoBo's, you need to get a new OS. OEM's are 'married' to the hardware they were originally installed on. You can get 'divorced' but you cannot 'remarry'.

[hellnoire]

If you need the key, Magic Jellybean Keyfinder will find it. Try using that with your stock CD, and downloading the drivers after that.

[Rusty]

That is what i thought. great so i need a compaq xp oem disk or to install the vista retail which is out of activations. i'd rather not crack his aactivation and have it possibly mess up later.
I doubt if i could get the disks here in time IF they were kind enough to send them. I guess i could try and fib and tell MS iwas dual booting WIN07 and it crashed my system and i need an activation to start over MAYBE some kind soul would help me out. But i doubt it
My father could not even give me the model of his PC lol. i had to direct him to the id tag and man is it OLD. Compaq presario sn2000 series actually its a 2010nxr i think. I think the retail is worth 95 usd lol

Hellnoire i thought of that it will pull the original product code off the oem. I can find jelly bean i have it saved on the laptop somewhere. Actually the standard drivers would probably work for him. He can install printer and stuff all i am dealiing with is an off the shelf Compaq with an nvidia 6150 i think. i just cannot see him spending 150 for a tech guy to do what i can do wehn the PC is worth about 95
only thing i really worry about is he pulled a HDD out of his Emachine and had it put in this one. He cannot tell me if its listed as a separate drive or if the 2 are linked together lol. I NEVER should have offered this but he is my Father. If he buys new he will have to get a dual core with vista and then he will really be screwed
Funny thing is he was Aircraft commader of a B52 during Nam and had to calculate wind speed velocities and landing vectorss in his head. And he cannot keep an Xp machine clean lol. He can land FULLY LOADED '52 without landing gear but cannot defrag a machine
But he is like me its a tool to be used. but i have kept my XP running for 15+ years. ITs thsi HP with vista i have issues withThanks for the help. Any other "GREY" suggestions email me lol

[OUSAK]

perhaps it's time for him to get a new pc?

[Rusty]

perhaps it's time for him to get a new pc?

Well for what he uses this one for it works well. It just needs an enema

You dont knwo my father if he gets a new one. He will have to get dual core and x64 OS vista and he will hate it and it will sit there and collect dust.
in all good conscience i cannot allow him to just go buy another w/o trying to help

then again if he gets a new one and hates it I"LL GEt it. Then i'll hate it cuz its vista lol

Also he just broke his fujitsu laptop ot broke the screen part. So i mean its my dad.
Last year i had my SPINE REPLACED with METAL and could not walk. I am 38 he is 80 i am 6'1" 275 at the time and that old man carried up 3 flights of stairs and spent 3 weeks working EVERYDAT to make my house so i had a bedroom downstairs and make it wheel chair accessible. And the doctors told him the paralysis may be temp. So if i can never do another thing for that man I need to at least try this.
I am the type of person that i HAVE to try and help peep. Even if iam wrong i HAVE to try

[OUSAK]

too much info there?

[tangomouse]

do the pc have a windows sticker on it? with product key? ,if so just install any xp and activate it by fone , its a machine u talk to , and who ever said u cannot install oem on any other pc its crap ,ive done it 100s of times

[Rush]

Before you wipe out the System, back up the activation files.
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/kbase/WindowsTips/WindowsXP/UserTips/Miscellaneous/BackupRestoreXPActivation.html
After that, wipe it, reformat it, reinstall windows and then restore the activation files. You will have to do it from safe mode. Also make sure you are set to view both hidden and system files.
There is also a program called RockXP. It will find your keys and offers you the option to backup the activation files.
I also must admit, when it comes to these "marriages" I have been wrecking homes for years, and have reinstalled many an integrated machine with an OEM cd.