Flashed BIOS needed XP re-activation I got a new BIOS for a Gericom laptop I'm testing and flashed it with the BIOS, and all went swimmingly.
The good thing about flashing BIOS in a laptop is you don't have to sweat if your power's cut off for any reason since you'll probably have a few minutes battery life left, if you're very fortunate.
All went well at first, and I booted my legal copy of Windows XP Home edition, but when I got the XP welcome screen Microsoft annoyingly told me I'd need to activate my copy again. I could not log at all to the laptop with only activate or shut down available.
Of course, I was not close to any source for Internet access and apart from anything else was really ticked off with Mr Vole as I just could not do any work until I got to close to the Internet once more.
God help you if you're working on ancient relics in the Gobi Desert and you've got XP on your machine, and no satellite phone.