I've installed Windows XP numerous times. On this occasion, after installing the system reboots, starts to load, comes to a screen that says 'please wait' and hangs there. We reboot, we get to the logon screen and it says it needs to be validated. We validate via Microsoft phone computer system, enter the validation code and will not let us past the validation screen, keeps telling us to validate. We try to validate again and the screen says we are validated. Why?? Is there a way to get into XP and bypass the logon icon?

What are the computer specs?

Since it seems as though preserving any data on your drive is not a priority, I would start over and reformat the drive to ensure no remnants of previous installations are there causing problems. This assumes, of course, you have a legal Windows installation disk.