0X80070002 License Check Failure and Unable to Logon Error After Installing Windows XP SP3

After installing Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3), the system may encounter an error code 0x80070002 that saying “A problem is preventing Windows from accurately checking the license for this computer.” The computer boots up and log on to desktop, but the error dialog pops up. Cancel the dialog will log off user. Attempt to login will fail again and logout. The process repeats endlessly in loop, and users cannot access the desktop. The only thing user can do is to restart the computer.

To recover from the unable to logon to desktop due to failure to checking the license error after installing Windows XP SP3, there is various solutions available. If the solutions suggested not working, try one of the following resolutions to fix the error.

Boot up to Safe Mode (by pressing F8 during initial startup), then copy the oembios.bi_ and expand.exe from the Windows XP installation CD (locate both files in i386 folder) to local hard disk, such as C:\ drive. Then open a command prompt window (Cmd), and run the following command to expand or unpack the compressed file:

expand oembios.bi_ oembios.bin

Alternatively, use WinRAR to extract oembios.bin from oembios.bi_ if expand command fails. Then, copy the the oembios.bin to C:\Windows\System32 folder (replace C to your system drive letter if applicable). Restart the computer.

If the above method fails to fix the problem, or you can’t find oembios.bi_ on your retail Windows XP setup CD, try to uninstall the Windows XP SP3 to revert back to error-free Windows XP SP2 which working properly. To uninstall Windows XP SP3 manually, restart computer and go into Safe Mode (press F8 on system startup), then run the following command in the Run command box or command prompt window:

C:\WINDOWS\$NtservicePackUnistall$\spuninst\spuninst.exe

Alternatively, go to Folder Options‘s View tab to uncheck the option to hide protected system files. Then manually traverse the folder tree above, and double click on spuninst.exe to start uninstallation process of Windows XP SP3. After able to boot into XP desktop, you may want to fix the issue before reinstalling again.