Another Flavor of Activation Question

[Arthur Shapiro]

I have an XP Pro desktop machine that has gradually destabilized -
sporadic reboots after waking up from hibernation (after flashing something
in text on the screen that is too quick to read), spontaneous displays of "the
system has recovered from a serious error" giving cryptic register values,
etc., etc. Needless to say, I've been concerned about being dead in the water
one of these times.

I finally today figured I had nothing to lose by trying a reinstall on top of
the existing installation. I just did that and reactivated (it had been more
than 120 days). Unfortunately, the problem still seems to occur.

Now I'm faced in the next few days with doing a parallel fresh installation,
gradually moving over all the apps, and deleting this existing installation.
That will be several evenings of grief - thanks, Bill. Obviously it will want
me to re-register at that time.

Is there some way of retaining the existing registration information so as to
have the clean install be immediately blessed, without having to deal with the
folks at MS?

Appreciate any guidance.



Art
Temporary usercode - to be deleted when spam starts. Use MyBrainHurts at this ISP to reach me

 

[Jeff Clark]

can;t answer your question, but in the future, you should plan on this
happening and kiep your stuff organized so you can pack up and move to a new
installation at anytime

I have an XP Pro desktop machine that has gradually destabilized -
sporadic reboots after waking up from hibernation (after flashing something
in text on the screen that is too quick to read), spontaneous displays of "the
system has recovered from a serious error" giving cryptic register values,
etc., etc. Needless to say, I've been concerned about being dead in the water
one of these times.

I finally today figured I had nothing to lose by trying a reinstall on top of
the existing installation. I just did that and reactivated (it had been more
than 120 days). Unfortunately, the problem still seems to occur.

Now I'm faced in the next few days with doing a parallel fresh installation,
gradually moving over all the apps, and deleting this existing installation.
That will be several evenings of grief - thanks, Bill. Obviously it will want
me to re-register at that time.

Is there some way of retaining the existing registration information so as to
have the clean install be immediately blessed, without having to deal with the
folks at MS?

Appreciate any guidance.



Art
Temporary usercode - to be deleted when spam starts. Use MyBrainHurts at

this ISP to reach me

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

First, be sure your antivirus software has the latest definitions and run a
virus scan.

If your system is clear of viruses, open Control Panel, open System, go to
the Advanced tab, click Settings under Startup and Recovery, remove the
check from "Automatically Restart" under System Failure. This will cause
the system to blue screen instead of restarting on errors and the
information on the blue screen may give a clue as to the source of the
issue.

Open Control Panel, open Administrative Tools, open Event Viewer, look for
errors corresponding to the crash, double click the error, the information
contained within may give a clue as to the
source of the problem.

Assuming you have an XP CD and not a recovery CD, place the XP CD in the
drive, when the setup screen appears, select "Check System Compatibility,"
the report it generates may point to problem hardware or software on your
system. If you do not have an XP CD, you can download this application
known as the Upgrade Advisor from the following site:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/howtobuy/upgrading/advisor.asp
Note: If you have access to a broadband connection it might be best to
download using that as this is a rather large download.

Check for the latest drivers for your hardware, especially your graphics
card and soundcard and all peripherals connected to your system. No not use
Windows Update for this, go to the device manufacturer's web sites and if
you install updated drivers, ignore the message about drivers being unsigned
by Microsoft.


--
Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

I have an XP Pro desktop machine that has gradually destabilized -
sporadic reboots after waking up from hibernation (after flashing something
in text on the screen that is too quick to read), spontaneous displays of "the
system has recovered from a serious error" giving cryptic register values,
etc., etc. Needless to say, I've been concerned about being dead in the water
one of these times.

I finally today figured I had nothing to lose by trying a reinstall on top of
the existing installation. I just did that and reactivated (it had been more
than 120 days). Unfortunately, the problem still seems to occur.

Now I'm faced in the next few days with doing a parallel fresh installation,
gradually moving over all the apps, and deleting this existing installation.
That will be several evenings of grief - thanks, Bill. Obviously it will want
me to re-register at that time.

Is there some way of retaining the existing registration information so as to
have the clean install be immediately blessed, without having to deal with the
folks at MS?

Appreciate any guidance.



Art
Temporary usercode - to be deleted when spam starts. Use MyBrainHurts at

this ISP to reach me

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

First, there's no need to be concerned about the 120 days. If you do a
clean install, you will be prompted to activate and, assuming there have
been no hardware changes it will be nothing more than a handshake between
two computers over the Internet, no different than when you first installed.

Second, I'm not sure what you meant be reinstalled. Did you not do a clean
install when you reinstalled. If no, that's one possible reason why the
problem didn't clear up. Unless setup identifies something as an issue or a
problem, you simply replicate the problem. An over the top reinstall does
not overwrite everything, it uses whatever is there that appears to be good
and functional; setup cannot always determine that something is corrupt.

Now, perhaps some diagnosis would be order before doing a clean install.


--
Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

I have an XP Pro desktop machine that has gradually destabilized -
sporadic reboots after waking up from hibernation (after flashing something
in text on the screen that is too quick to read), spontaneous displays of "the
system has recovered from a serious error" giving cryptic register values,
etc., etc. Needless to say, I've been concerned about being dead in the water
one of these times.

I finally today figured I had nothing to lose by trying a reinstall on top of
the existing installation. I just did that and reactivated (it had been more
than 120 days). Unfortunately, the problem still seems to occur.

Now I'm faced in the next few days with doing a parallel fresh installation,
gradually moving over all the apps, and deleting this existing installation.
That will be several evenings of grief - thanks, Bill. Obviously it will want
me to re-register at that time.

Is there some way of retaining the existing registration information so as to
have the clean install be immediately blessed, without having to deal with the
folks at MS?

Appreciate any guidance.



Art
Temporary usercode - to be deleted when spam starts. Use MyBrainHurts at

this ISP to reach me

 

[Arthur Shapiro]

First, there's no need to be concerned about the 120 days. If you do a
clean install, you will be prompted to activate and, assuming there have
been no hardware changes it will be nothing more than a handshake between
two computers over the Internet, no different than when you first installed.

Oh???? If that's true, I'm impressed and it eliminates any wory.

Second, I'm not sure what you meant be reinstalled. Did you not do a clean
install when you reinstalled.

No - my first approach was to install over itself, in hopes of correcting the
issue. The clean install is much more drastic a solution, so I had nothing to
lose at least trying what I did.

I've turned off auto restart; the one failure so far directed me to a MS site
which said there was nothing in the knowledge base for the particular failure
in question.

I keep virus defs updated daily, and run Windows Update quite frequently -
several times per week. But I haven't normally gone to individual
manufacturers' web sites for updates; this is a somewhat fully-configured
machine and we're talking a fair amount of equipment. But we'll give it a
try.

Appreciate the input, guys.

Art

Art
Temporary usercode - to be deleted when spam starts. Use MyBrainHurts at this ISP to reach me

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

All drivers are supplied by and the responsibility of the hardware
manufacturers. That said, the drivers supplied to Windows Update are not
usually as fully featured as the drivers at the manufacturer's websites not
to mention the fact most manufacturer's don't supply updated versions to
Windows Update, hence you could have a lot of out of whack drivers,
especially if you've been doing the other updates because some can
substantially change the environment and require you update your drivers as
well.

Second, you need to do virus scans regularly. Simply having antivirus
software that is routinely updated isn't enough. Often, updates don't
appear until after something has begun to propagate and you can end up with
infected files so it's important to use the antivirus scanning feature as
well as allowing it to act as a gateway.

Unfortunately, I hit send too quickly on one of my posts so look at the
longer version as there is also information about check the Event Log for
errors.

Also, download, install and run Ad Aware:
www.lavasoftusa.com

You never know if you have some adware installed on your system or some
other form of crippleware that is playing havoc with things and these often
are not picked up by antivirus software because while they can play havoc
with your setup they aren't necessarily viruses or seen as viruses and Ad
Aware can often ferret these out.

--
Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

Oh???? If that's true, I'm impressed and it eliminates any wory.


No - my first approach was to install over itself, in hopes of correcting the
issue. The clean install is much more drastic a solution, so I had nothing to
lose at least trying what I did.

I've turned off auto restart; the one failure so far directed me to a MS site
which said there was nothing in the knowledge base for the particular failure
in question.

I keep virus defs updated daily, and run Windows Update quite frequently -
several times per week. But I haven't normally gone to individual
manufacturers' web sites for updates; this is a somewhat fully-configured
machine and we're talking a fair amount of equipment. But we'll give it a
try.

Appreciate the input, guys.

Art

Art
Temporary usercode - to be deleted when spam starts. Use MyBrainHurts at

this ISP to reach me

 

[Arthur Shapiro]

Appreciate the input. Virus scans, Ad Aware, and Spybot are run frequently.

The event viewer, which I should have considered before posting, was the guy
which directed me to a MS site which asserted no info was available on the
failure in question. I'll see if subsequent failures are similar; the
reinstall wiped the event logs that existed previously.


Art
Temporary usercode - to be deleted when spam starts. Use MyBrainHurts at this ISP to reach me

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

You can copy the information here, we might see something in the error
messages. Double click the error, the third box down, copies the error
information to the clipboard.

--
Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

Appreciate the input. Virus scans, Ad Aware, and Spybot are run frequently.

The event viewer, which I should have considered before posting, was the guy
which directed me to a MS site which asserted no info was available on the
failure in question. I'll see if subsequent failures are similar; the
reinstall wiped the event logs that existed previously.


Art
Temporary usercode - to be deleted when spam starts. Use MyBrainHurts at

this ISP to reach me

 

[Gary Tait]

Is there some way of retaining the existing registration information so as to
have the clean install be immediately blessed, without having to deal with the
folks at MS?

AFAIK, no, you have to do the telephone activation.

 

[Doug]

I do not think that is true. With my Tweak XP Pro, one of the options is to
make a backup copy of my activation code and files. Having used it twice I
know it works. I do not know if the XP OS has this feature built in some
where though.
Cheers Doug

 

[Alex Nichol]

I finally today figured I had nothing to lose by trying a reinstall on top of
the existing installation. I just did that and reactivated (it had been more
than 120 days). Unfortunately, the problem still seems to occur.

Now I'm faced in the next few days with doing a parallel fresh installation,
gradually moving over all the apps, and deleting this existing installation.
That will be several evenings of grief - thanks, Bill. Obviously it will want
me to re-register at that time.

Is there some way of retaining the existing registration information so as to
have the clean install be immediately blessed, without having to deal with the
folks at MS?

It will want activating - not registering, and as you have made no
significant change in hardware setup, it should activate in seconds when
you get on the net and use
Start - All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Activate Windows to
activate on the net

But see the Hint in 'Format a hard drive' at
www.aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.htm to conserve one 'vote' that you would
otherwise lose

 

[Arthur Shapiro]

Folks, after installing a bunch of critical updates (interestingly, service
pack 1 wasn't listed) and some non-critical ones, I haven't had the problem
recur, at least in 12 hours. As it wasn't highly predictable, I cannot make
a judgement yet.

The over-itself-reinstall improved the hibernation speed, which is one of the
issues I hadn't mentioned. In recent weeks, the progression bar during the
hibernation process had slowed down dramatically - one "dot" every couple of
seconds, and now it's back to being a reasonably smooth process as we would
expect.

When the problem in question recurs, I'll post the requested info, which is
utterly Greek to me. Without a source listing, I don't know how one divines
any meaning out of the register settings.

Art

 

[Arthur Shapiro]

The original problem prompting the enquiry has returned. We blue-screened
with

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, citing NVENET.SYS.

I'll assume that's an NVIDIA video file, not a Norton AntiVirus file.

So can anyone tell me what the complaint might be with respect to the
interrupt queue?

This was waking up from hibernation this morning. After the subsequent
restart, the complaint about "recovered from a serious error" popped up in a
minute or two, but didn't cause a restart.

Art


Art
Temporary usercode - to be deleted when spam starts. Use MyBrainHurts at this ISP to reach me

 

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP Windows Shell/User\)]

This is an nVidia network driver. You will have to contact nVidia or the
licensed manufacturer of your card about this issue. I was not able to find
a fix but I have confirmed that many users are having the same problem.

--
Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/

The original problem prompting the enquiry has returned. We blue-screened
with

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, citing NVENET.SYS.

I'll assume that's an NVIDIA video file, not a Norton AntiVirus file.

So can anyone tell me what the complaint might be with respect to the
interrupt queue?

This was waking up from hibernation this morning. After the subsequent
restart, the complaint about "recovered from a serious error" popped up in a
minute or two, but didn't cause a restart.

Art


Art
Temporary usercode - to be deleted when spam starts. Use MyBrainHurts at

this ISP to reach me

 

[Alex Nichol]

The original problem prompting the enquiry has returned. We blue-screened
with

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, citing NVENET.SYS.

I'll assume that's an NVIDIA video file, not a Norton AntiVirus file.

Consult http://aumha.org/win5/kbestop.htm#0x0a
for comment on this sort of error and a lot of links. And go look for
an upgrade of drivers for your card, I would get the generic ones at
www.nvidia.com, and refuse any that are offered by Windows Update