XP Home -- Just plain weirdness

T

Time2mod

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 19, 2003
Messages
319
The wife's computer decided to freak out on me. It is a Dell Inspiron 600m. I don't know ir it is significant, but it uses the Centrino chip, which I always felt produced some funky effects (ie windows opening up behind other windows instead of active like the should).

Some of the problems:

1.) Internet Explorer refuses to open. Whenever it is clicked on, it comes up with the error reporting thinger. Now, the weird part of this is that if I decide to file the report, then IE opens and works. I can surf from there, or at least I could until problem #2 came up. Also, I installed Opera, and it runs just fine. I went onto the Microsoft site, read and successfully utilized the registry edit that allowed me to re-install IE, but it made no difference. Also, the repair installation of Windows made no difference in this problem.

2.) The Ethernet port refuses to work. I drop this here is OS's, because after exhausting all possibilities like deleting and reinstalling the connection, deleting and reinstalling the drivers, running System Restore, and examining damn near every setting I can find, I put in my Knoppix Linux CD, and it worked right off the bat. Again, the repair reinstallation did not affect this in any way.

The rest of these are minor, and probably unrelated, but I include them here just in case they are related.

3.) Outlook locks up in the middle of typing messages sometimes. Whenever it happens, it is always during the actual typing, as in while keystrokes are occuring. These lockups do not save the message; it is always lost.


I thought there was one more, but I can't think of it right now. Maybe that was all there is. Anyay, I thought of doing a reformat and reinstall, but I question whether or not it would help, as the repair installations not only didn't fix the problem, but had no effect at all.
 
When was the last time that you updated your anti-virus def files and did a full system scan? Barring the virus scenario, your best bet may be to reinstall.
 
I update it myself once in a while, but since I didn't use it really at all, I can't really say.

I can't update now, because I can't get it to connect to the Internet.

I've been thinking I was going to reinstall. I'm just hesitant because there is not net connection to my server in order to back stuff up to. I thought I'd use this forum as a last ditch effort. Sometimes great ideas just come out of nowhere around here.
 
1.) Internet Explorer refuses to open. Whenever it is clicked on, it comes up with the error reporting thinger
Click to expand...

what exactly was the "error reporting thinger" message?
 
Sorry, I was just trying to be cute.

I meant that it crashes immediately, and Windows gives me the opportunity to send an error report. It has the "Send Report" and "Don't Send" buttons in a dialogue box.

Again, sorry I was unclear.
 
I'd say you need to run adaware/spybot and your antivirus.

Download the siqnature file on another computer and then sneakernet it over
 
I've checked for spyware. I'm pretty sure I need to format at this point.

What do you mean by sneakernet, though?
 
If the problems occured all of the sudden, the two most probable causes are some drastic change in the software or a hardware failure.

You might find some hard drive and memory test utilities and give them a run.

Also remove and software installed in recently.
 
Originally posted by [MS]
If the problems occured all of the sudden, the two most probable causes are some drastic change in the software or a hardware failure.
Click to expand...

I most heartily agree with this, and I'm pretty sure it's software. Notice how how the connections work under Linux. However, this happened so long ago that I don't have any idea what she installed on the machine. There is nothing obvious, anyway. And the thing is that she just decided to "trun stupid" about her computer. She told me she's never installed any programs at all. Of course she did--PS Elements and Pagemaker 7, and Cubis Gold (puzzle game). These were a long time ago, though.

I think I should amend this now, unless someone see this and says "That happened to me! Here is how you fix it."

How does one backup a large amount of data (<10GB) without a network connection? She has no burner on the lappie, and I obviously have external HD's or Burners.
 
usb [zip drive; external burner; nic] are really the only realistic options.
 
Depending on the brand the HD my be easy to get to, though you'd need an adapter.

You could also try setting up a serial\parallel connection using a null modem cable or something.

Sorry I can't be of much more help. It sounds like you're already knowlegable about systems, so you've probably tried the things I could mention for trying to fix the issue.
 
Yeah, thanks.

I figured as much, but thought I'd give it a shot. Time to let the thread die, though. I do appreciate people trying to help. Really.
 
Run your system restore, and choose a point from when you remember it working. If that fails do a repair, insted of a reinstall. Try booting into safemode with networking, and see if you can get the sucker to connect to the network.

You still have options my man!

Cheers,
 
Well actually I don't, cause I already did all that. In fact, I think I made note that the repair installations didn;t help. Thanks, though.
 
if you have your windows cd, i would just reformat man. that's me though. sounds like there is too many bugs on there and i wouldn't even bother trying to fix them, as a format will give you the best improvement in performance anyway, and much less of a headache as well.
 
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