Intermittent Windows Activation Errors

Question

Hi,

We have a Azure Hybrid environment and every so often devices will fail Windows activation with either errors;

Event ID 8198, Security SPP - License Activation (slui.exe) failed with the following error code: hr=0x800705B4

License Activation (slui.exe) failed with the following error code:
hr=0x800705B4
Command-line arguments:
RuleId=eeba1977-569e-4571-b639-7623d8bfecc0;Action=AutoActivate;AppId=55c92734-d682-4d71-983e-d6ec3f16059f;SkuId=73111121-5638-40f6-bc11-f1d7b0d64300;NotificationInterval=1440;Trigger=NetworkAvailable

Event ID 8198, Security SPP - License Activation (slui.exe) failed with the following error code: hr=0x8007139F

License Activation (slui.exe) failed with the following error code:
hr=0x8007139F
Command-line arguments:
RuleId=eeba1977-569e-4571-b639-7623d8bfecc0;Action=AutoActivate;AppId=55c92734-d682-4d71-983e-d6ec3f16059f;SkuId=73111121-5638-40f6-bc11-f1d7b0d64300;NotificationInterval=1440;Trigger=NetworkAvailable

Event ID 8198, Security SPP - License Activation (slui.exe) failed with the following error code: hr=0x8007232B

License Activation (slui.exe) failed with the following error code:
hr=0x8007232B
Command-line arguments:
RuleId=eeba1977-569e-4571-b639-7623d8bfecc0;Action=AutoActivate;AppId=55c92734-d682-4d71-983e-d6ec3f16059f;SkuId=73111121-5638-40f6-bc11-f1d7b0d64300;NotificationInterval=1440;Trigger=UserLogon;SessionId=4

I'm finding that these errors relate to timeouts connecting to Key Management Services (KMS) but should it not use Azure AD to activate?

Any troubleshooting steps I can take in Azure?

Answer 1

According to related issues I have seen online and in support cases, this error is generally triggered when the license activation process tries to activate a Microsoft product, but the network is not ready yet. As you mentioned, this could be related to a timeout. The 8198 error may pop up if you have a slow wifi, disconnected network cable, VPN connection that is not working, or firewall that is blocking port 1688.

If you have not done so already, you can retry the activation by opening a Command prompt and typing “slmgr /ato” to trigger a new activation attempt.

On the Azure side of things, the activation could fail because the activation request comes from your on-premises network instead of from an Azure public IP address. To resolve this, you should use the Azure custom route to route activation traffic to the Azure KMS server.

Sources:
Custom Routes Enable KMS Activation
Fix for Event 8198 – License Activation (slui.exe) failed with the following error code: hr=0x800705B4
Windows 10 Update Error (0x800705b4)

Let me know if this helps at all.