Error 0x800705B4 when you activate an Azure Windows virtual machine

Article
03/27/2024

Applies to: ✔️ Windows VMs

This article provides a solution to the error 0x800705B4 that occurs when you try to activate an Azure Windows virtual machine (VM).

Symptoms

When you try to activate an Azure Windows VM, you receive the 0x800705B4 error:

Windows Activation
A problem occurred when Windows tried to activate. Error Code 0x800705B4.
For a possible resolution, click More Information.
Contact your system administrator or technical support department for assistance.

It can also be displayed as a Security-SPP error (Event ID 8196) in the Application log.

Cause

This error indicates a time-out. It might be caused by network connectivity or Domain Name System (DNS) resolution problems.

Troubleshooting steps

Perform the following steps to check network connectivity problems, and then retry the activation.

Verify the connectivity between the VM and the Azure KMS service

Make sure that the VM is configured to use the correct Azure Key Management Services (KMS) server. To do this, run the following command:
```
Invoke-Expression "$env:windir\system32\cscript.exe $env:windir\system32\slmgr.vbs /skms azkms.core.windows.net:1688"
```
The command should return the following text:

Key Management Service machine name set to azkms.core.windows.net:1688 successfully.
Ensure that the outbound network traffic to the KMS endpoint on port 1688 isn't blocked by the firewall in the VM. To do this, run the Test-NetConnection PowerShell cmdlet or the PsPing tool.
- Verify by running Test-NetConnection:
```
Test-NetConnection azkms.core.windows.net -port 1688
```
  If the connectivity is permitted, you can see TcpTestSucceeded: True in the output.
- Verify by using PsPing. Switch to the folder in which you extracted the Pstools.zip archive, and then run the following command:
```
.\psping.exe azkms.core.windows.net:1688
```
  On the second-to-last line of the output, make sure that you see the following text:
  
  Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss)
  
  If Lost is greater than 0 (zero), the VM doesn't have connectivity to the KMS server. In this situation, if the VM is in a virtual network and has specified a custom DNS server, you must make sure that the DNS server is able to resolve azkms.core.windows.net. Or, change the DNS server to one that does resolve azkms.core.windows.net.
  
  Note
  
  If you remove all DNS servers from a virtual network, the VMs use Azure's internal DNS service. This service can resolve azkms.core.windows.net.
Verify using Azure Network Watcher next hop that the next hop type from the VM in question to the destination IPs 20.118.99.224 and 40.83.235.53 (for azkms.core.windows.net) or the IP of the appropriate KMS endpoint that applies to your region is Internet.

If the result is VirtualAppliance or VirtualNetworkGateway, a default route likely exists. Contact your network administrator and work with them to determine the correct course of action. This might be a custom route if that solution is consistent with your organization's policies.
After you verify successful connectivity to azkms.core.windows.net, run the following command at an elevated Windows PowerShell prompt. This command tries activation multiple times:
```
1..12 | ForEach-Object {
    Invoke-Expression "$env:windir\system32\cscript.exe $env:windir\system32\slmgr.vbs /ato" ; start-sleep 5
}
```
A successful activation returns information that resembles the following text:

Activating Windows(R), ServerDatacenter edition (12345678-1234-1234-1234-12345678) … Product activated successfully.

Contact us for help

If you have questions or need help, create a support request, or ask Azure community support. You can also submit product feedback to Azure feedback community.

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