problems after installing security (?) updates

[Guest]

Hello...sorry if someone has already posted something like this, but after
wasting a long time trying to find out what exactly caused the following
problems and how to fix them, I'm hoping everyone will be patient with me : )

So, after I installed some updates, I began having some annoying problems.

- My sound driver disappeared, or was just not detected by my computer.
Sound was present except when watching videos or listening to music, and
volume control was no longer available. I downloaded the correct driver three
times (3 because it "disappeared" that many times)
- My IntelPROSet/Wireless card, which had been working fine until then,
began saying that my current driver did not support the version I had. So, I
downloaded the most recent driver for that, which fixed that problem. But, I
then got a message saying that no wireless card device was detected...it was
still working, but yeah...
- Every time I ran Internet Explorer, I got a Generic Host Process error
message saying that it "encountered an error and needs to close."
- Each time I tried to install a driver when IE had been running at any
point during the session, Windows Explorer and Dr. Watson's Postmortem
Debugger would give me an error message saying " -- has encountered an error
and needs to close", at which point the computer would become unresponsive.
- Windows Firewall was no longer functioning, because the "associated
applications are not running."
Here are (some of) the file names that were in the error reports:

AppName: iexplore.exe AppVer: 7.0.5730.13 ModName: winhttp.dll
ModVer: 5.1.2600.2180 Offset: 0002a835

C:\DOCUME~1\BACKUP~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER319e.dir00\drwtsn32.exe.mdmp
C:\DOCUME~1\BACKUP~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER319e.dir00\appcompat.txt

C:\DOCUME~1\BACKUP~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\WERba8e.dir00\svchost.exe.mdmp
C:\DOCUME~1\BACKUP~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\WERba8e.dir00\appcompat.txt

C:\DOCUME~1\BACKUP~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\bca4_appcompat.txt
(For the last one I'm not sure what it corresponds with, so I'm sorry about
that But appcompat was always somehow involved)

I tried a lot of things, but nothing helped. Finally I resorted to
reinstalling XP SP2, which basically got rid of the problems even if it was a
stupid idea, but I really would like to know what was the cause of these
problems and what to do if and when they arise again. (I eventually have to
install all of the updates, and because I never found which one caused the
problems exactly, I'm probably gonna end up getting it again)
Also, just a few minutes ago, an appcompat file caused a problem with
Office 2003................
If anyone can help me out, I would really, really appreciate it!!!

 

[Guest]

The maker of the device is responsible for creating a driver that works in
Windows. If the driver you are using is failing, the maker needs to make
available a better driver. You are faced with either buying a device that
works, or getting the maker of your existing device to make a new driver
available. Go to their site for info.

 

[Guest]

So - I did some research and I found out that appcompat isn't causing the
problems >.> But anyway, I've done all I can about the non-Microsoft drivers
by getting the most recent drivers, etc etc. I have no idea what to do about
the majority of the problems though - Windows Explorer, Windows Firewall,
Generic Host Process, Dr.Watson's Postmortem Debugger, or even Internet
Explorer. Just so anyone reading this doesn't have to read the long post I
wrote earlier:
-Windows Explorer crashes when IE is launched.
-Windows Firewall is gone.
-Generic Host Process crashes when I try to install downloads, if IE has
been running at all. Then, Dr.Watson's Postmortem Debugger crashes.
-IE crashes a lot, and unexpectedly.
-Overall performance is slower than usual, despite me "cleaning" stuff and
removing unused programs, etc.