I receive a "Validation Incomplete: Online Validation Failure" error message or a "0x80080204" error code when I try to validate Windows XP - How can I fix this so I can update.

When you run the Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Tool to validate your copy of Microsoft Windows XP, you receive the following error message or the following error code:

Error message Error code Note Windows Genuine Advantage uses the Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Tool. This tool scans the Windows product key to determine whether the computer's operating system is genuine.

This issue may occur if the computer's date and time are not set to the current date and time.

To resolve this issue, set the date and time in Windows XP to the current date and time. To do this, follow these steps:

1.	Use an account that has administrative credentials to log on to Windows.
2.	Click Start, click Run, type timedate.cpl, and then click OK.
3.	Click the Date & Time tab, and then set the date and time to the current date and time.
4.	Click Apply, and then click OK.
5.	Quit all instances of Microsoft Internet Explorer.
6.	Start Internet Explorer, and then try to validate Windows again.

For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: