An unauthorized change may have been made to your Windows license.

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  A quick update here, I have uninstalled all the software I added to the machine last night.  That didn't make a difference.  Although the error message I get indicates "The security processor reported a system file mismatch error," when I run MGADiag.exe, the report doesn't list anything under file scan data.  I'm running a virus scan right now to be sure that I don't have any unwanted critters running on the machine.
  
  I have to say, it pretty well ticks me off when I think about how much money I paid for Windows, and now it screws up, decides that I've done something wrong, and locks down.
  

  • Marked as answer by Darin Smith MS Tuesday, March 17, 2009 12:32 AM

  Monday, March 16, 2009 2:48 AM
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  I have run a full scan of my system with both AdAware, and CA Antivirus, and both come up clean.  Windows is now "not activated."  When I follow the instructions from the help website, they tell me to click on start, then right click on computer and choose properties.  That does nothing.  I was able to open up the system properties by rebooting, and following those steps as soon as the start button appeared, however clicking on the link to activate windows only brings up a nag window warning me that an unauthrized change was made to windows.  System Restore doesn't have a restore point far enough back to get me past the problem.

  Monday, March 16, 2009 1:06 PM
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  Hi TomHerringJr,
  
    

  Vista is in, what we call a 'Mod-Auth' Tamper state.  There are 2 types of Mod-Auth tampers (both types are caused by modifing a file (i.e. file mismatch), but the distinction is that the mismatch is occuring on Disk or In System Memory).

  1)    A critical system file was modified On Disk - What this means is that the file, located on the hard drive, was modified in some way. This can be caused by a malicious program (spyware, malware, virus) or by manual file modification (by a user of the system). There is also a very small chance that an Update may fail in mid-update and cause this type of issue. As a safety mechanism, Updates are made so that if they fail, they roll back any updating that was done before the failure, but there is an off-chance that the roll back did not occur.

   

  2)    A critical system file was modified In Memory - What this means is the file itself (on the hard drive) is un-modified, but the code, from that file, running in the system, was modified in some way and is caused by a running program that is incompatible with Vista.

   

    Because there is No Mismatched files listed under the "File Scan Data-->" line of your Diagnostic Report, we know that your issue is an In Memory Mod-Auth and therefore caused by an incompatible program. This means there is a program install and Running that is trying to access parts of the OS that Vista does not allow, which by definition, means it is incompatible with Vista.

   

    In addition to why a Mod-Auth occurs, it's also important to understand how Vista detects a Mod-Auth event. There is a Service that runs in Vista that detects a Tamper to a Critical System file. But this Service runs randomly, so if you were to install an incompatible program and run it, Vista (most likely) would not immediately enter a Mod-Auth  State and it could take some time for the Mod-Auth to be detected. The important point to note is that the moment Vista detects the Mod-Auth, you know that the program that is causing the Mod-Auth, is currently running.

   

     Below I have provided a number of steps to help you identify the program that is causing the tamper:
   
    First, go to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931699/ and confirm that you do not have any of the programs known to cause this type of issue.
   
    Second, in your Diagnostic report above, you can see the line that starts with 'TTS Error:' followed by a bunch numbers: M:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx- This is the Tamper Time Stamp and it breaks down like this:

      (year)  (month) (day) (time in 24format) (millisecond)
  M:2009          03       15                0500                  52484-

   

  Note, I also see a "K" type Tamper Time Stamp. The “K“ stands for Kernel Mode tamper. This is a minor tamper and is most likely directly related to the Mod-Auth tamper. Once you remove the program that is causing the Mod-Auth tamper, I believe that the Kernel mode tamper will stop as well.

  
  Now that you know the time of the tamper, you can now try to connect that time with a program.

  1)    Login to Vista and select the option that launches an Internet Browser

  2)    Type into the browser address bar: %windir%\system32\perfmon.msc and hit Enter

  3)    When asked if you want to Open or Save this file, select Open

  4)     In the left hand panel, click Reliability Monitor

  5)    Click on the “System Stability Chart” above the date 03/15

  6)    Below the chart, in the “System Stability Report” section look at the report titled "Software (Un)Installs for 03/15/2008"

  7)    Look for any program that shows "Application Install" in the 'Activity' column.

  8)    Since the process that detects Tampers runs randomly, it can take up to 3 days for the process to detect the tamper and set Vista to a Tamper State. Because of this, please repeat steps 5) thru 7) for the dates 03/14/2009, 03/13/2009 and 03/12/2009 

    This could tell you what programs were installed on or around the Tamper date and should help you narrow down the possible programs that could be causing the issue. Unfortunately, if you installed the program at some time in the past, but didn’t run it till now, this process may not be helpful.  The removal of any application you may have installed recently could go a long way to troubleshooting this issues.

   

  Note: Since everyone has different programs installed on their computer, it is extremely hard for support to figure out what program is causing the problem, but if you still need assistance in identifying the Incompatible Program, please create a no cost support request at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=52029

  Also Note: it has been found that Malware, such as Viruses and Trojans, can also be incompatible with Vista and can cause an In Memory Mod-Auth. A few users (that were experiencing an In Memory Mod-Auth) have confirmed that a Malware infection was the cause. If you follow the above steps and cannot find a program that is causing the Mod-Auth, you may want to investigate if a Virus or Trojan may be to blame. You can contact PC Safety, which is a Microsoft group, which provides free help with Malware infections.

  <Removed by Moderator: Phone number and/or site link no longer in use>

  
  
  Darin MS
  
  

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  • Marked as answer by Darin Smith MS Tuesday, March 17, 2009 12:40 AM
  • Edited by Darin Smith MS Tuesday, April 10, 2012 7:08 PM <Removed by Moderator: Phone number and/or site link no longer in use>

  Tuesday, March 17, 2009 12:32 AM
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  Darin, thanks so much for the response.  I thought I had it covered with the AdAware, and CA Antivirus, however it appears I was wrong.  The Windows Live scanner has been running for more than 8 hours now, and is only about 8% done with the Virus and spyware scan.  It has already identified 18 items and 6 issues.  Of course, only time will tell if that is my entire problem, but it is promising since my software was unable to find any of those problems.

  Tuesday, March 17, 2009 10:12 AM