I've never had this problem before either.

If I was you I'd probably try to activate it wired rather than wireless, and if you have another device try activating the user on that.
What about the PIM data; does that populate properly?
Try changing the number of days that it populates the device with to 3 or something and see if this works?

Did you just wipe the handheld or did you completely reinstall the OS?

I know this is not a solution but just a few ideas of what I'd do if I had that problem?

Also....any messages in the logs?