Audio/Memory Problems + Windows.old

I tried contacting Microsoft Support about this, but I kept getting this; "An
unknown application error occurred. Please try again in a few minutes."

Keep in mind, my knowledge with computers is somewhat limited.

I recently purchased a Dell XPS 1530 laptop for college. It has been working
fine for the last month (on Vista SP1), but this morning I was getting a few
errors. First, the sound wouldn't work. The icon in the system tray had a big
red 'X' over it, and when I right-clicked it, had the 'Open Volume Mixer'
option grayed out. Also, the Network icon in the system tray said that the
operation didn't have enough memory storage for it to operate. I don't
remember the EXACT errors for these, but I'm almost positive the audio one
was along the lines of, "The audio service is not running" and the memory one
was "Not enough storage is available to complete this operation". However,
rather than find a solution for this, I tried to system restore, but when I
got the the system restore screen, I was met by the same "Not enough storage
is available to complete this operation" error that I had seen previously. I
then tried to use the internet to search for a solution but I had another
error that stated how many bytes of memory it took to load the page, and how
many I had. After this, I figured a free install of Windows Vista would do
the trick. However, I didn't think it through before I had done this. Rather
than have one CD that installs all of your drivers and everything for you
(like the computer I am using now), the CDs that came with the laptop make
you manually install every little thing. Rather than do this, and reinstall
all the programs I previously had, restoring back to my old OS (still Vista)
would probably be the best bet. Which is where the Windows.Old folder comes
in. I searched the Microsoft Support site for how to take these files and
restore my old OS. I had a little trouble in understanding what they wanted
me to do, however, when I tried doing so, the install CD of Vista said it
would delete any previous Windows.Old I had, so I canceled the installation.
So, there are multiple questions here; How do I restore my previous OS, with
all my files/settings and such? and upon doing so, How would I go about
fixing the audio/memory problems? (given that they are still there after
restoring)

You need to contact Dell support, not MS. MS will just refer you back to
Dell anyway.

"Shadz07x" <Shadz07x@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:53402BC0-6A4F-4113-A5E6-2F2328C41B7C@microsoft.com...
>I tried contacting Microsoft Support about this, but I kept getting this;
>"An
> unknown application error occurred. Please try again in a few minutes."
>
> Keep in mind, my knowledge with computers is somewhat limited.
>
> I recently purchased a Dell XPS 1530 laptop for college. It has been
> working
> fine for the last month (on Vista SP1), but this morning I was getting a
> few
> errors. First, the sound wouldn't work. The icon in the system tray had a
> big
> red 'X' over it, and when I right-clicked it, had the 'Open Volume Mixer'
> option grayed out. Also, the Network icon in the system tray said that the
> operation didn't have enough memory storage for it to operate. I don't
> remember the EXACT errors for these, but I'm almost positive the audio one
> was along the lines of, "The audio service is not running" and the memory
> one
> was "Not enough storage is available to complete this operation". However,
> rather than find a solution for this, I tried to system restore, but when
> I
> got the the system restore screen, I was met by the same "Not enough
> storage
> is available to complete this operation" error that I had seen previously.
> I
> then tried to use the internet to search for a solution but I had another
> error that stated how many bytes of memory it took to load the page, and
> how
> many I had. After this, I figured a free install of Windows Vista would do
> the trick. However, I didn't think it through before I had done this.
> Rather
> than have one CD that installs all of your drivers and everything for you
> (like the computer I am using now), the CDs that came with the laptop make
> you manually install every little thing. Rather than do this, and
> reinstall
> all the programs I previously had, restoring back to my old OS (still
> Vista)
> would probably be the best bet. Which is where the Windows.Old folder
> comes
> in. I searched the Microsoft Support site for how to take these files and
> restore my old OS. I had a little trouble in understanding what they
> wanted
> me to do, however, when I tried doing so, the install CD of Vista said it
> would delete any previous Windows.Old I had, so I canceled the
> installation.
> So, there are multiple questions here; How do I restore my previous OS,
> with
> all my files/settings and such? and upon doing so, How would I go about
> fixing the audio/memory problems? (given that they are still there after
> restoring)

have you wiped your os? sound like it might still be running? your storage
problem ? how big was your hard disk and what was on it? see this link for
the other thing

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933211/en-us

let me know how you get on
jph