G
Guest
Some relatives have just gotten an old machine (Compaq Presario 7360 Desktop)
with Win XP on it. It works with a handful of applications, but not with
browsers. The machine is connected to a router then to a DSL modem, that
part is working fine.
The machine is not here, and some of the following information is from
memory, a few hours ago. I can get more specific answers later if anybody
can suggest some good questions.
First sypmptom was trying to use Internet Explorer 6:
1. Sometimes IE just dies, disappears with no error message.
2. Sometimes it starts, but dies as soon as we type certain addresses in
the address bar. Two examples are www.hp.com and www.compaq.com.
Www.google.com is okay, but some search results link to pages that make it
crash.
3. Sometimes, even when IE doesn't crash, it acts strangely. For example,
when we go to Yahoo and try to login (to see Yahoo mail, My Yahoo for news,
etc.) we need to login using a "secure" server. We have been using Yahoo for
years and have never needed to do this before, the standard server has been
sufficient.
4. After logging, Yahoo works okay. Other web sites seem to work well
without logging in, but then sometimes, at random, IE will crash again.
We tried Firefox also, and when it starts it shows up in the Task Manager,
but never opens a window. The CPU load for this process jumps between 40 up
to about 70%, the CPU meter does not stay "pegged" at the maximum, but jumps
around and never goes back below about 40%.
I asked on another help group and somebody suggested a bad malware / spyware
infestation. I was given a long list of tips and tools on how to find and
delete it or them. When I started following them, nothing showed up except a
handful of cookies. That was odd. I use several security programs
(Ad-Aware, Spybot, Microsoft AntiSpyware) but the first time I used WebRoot
SpySweepr it found hundreds of "traces". It found several thousand on
another relative's machine. On this one, just the few cookies.
then I remembered that the machine has almost no software on it, and so
Windows XP might have just been installed on it. So the lack of spyware is
not such a surprise.
I went to the XP System Restore command, but when I click to ask for a list
of previous restore points, the application dies, just like IE does.
Looking somewhere in XP, I found an error log. It contains dozens of
errors, mostly stating that some program is trying to access memory
illegally. Usually it was IE, but also included notes about Firefox hanging.
The really odd thing is, the date and time are set properly (since before we
brought the machine home) but the error log contains a lot of references for
dates in the future: April and May 2005, October 2005.
Looking some more, the BIOS is dated March or May 2000. That's when I
realized, this machine may not work with XP. I learned from the Compaq site
that it originally shipped with Win 98.
The Compaq site offers BIOS and other updates for Windows 2000 and 98, but
no BIOS updates for XP.
Compaq warns of several possible problems when upgrading an older model PC
to XP, on this page: http://tinyurl.com/58xdt
Compaq also informs me that the original Restore CD containing Win 98 is not
available, since Microsoft doesn't support Win 98 any more.
My plan now is to find a copy of Windows 98 or 2000 and install it on this
machine, and also install the BIOS and other updates available from Compaq.
I don't see any need to get XP, the computer is going to be used mostly for
email, web browsing, and a little bit of typing and printing.
Questions:
1. Am I on the right track? Could an outdated BIOS cause IE to shutdown
like this, and Firefox to hang? Does it explain the future dates in the
error log? Or does anybody have any other suggestions or explanations?
2. If I go ahead with this plan, should I install the BIOS and other updates
from Compaq BEFORE installing Windows 2000 or 98? Or AFTER?
3. Anything important to look out for as we "downgrade"? There's no
documents that need to be backed up or restored, we might go ahead and
reformat.
Thanks for any help and feedback.
Steven
with Win XP on it. It works with a handful of applications, but not with
browsers. The machine is connected to a router then to a DSL modem, that
part is working fine.
The machine is not here, and some of the following information is from
memory, a few hours ago. I can get more specific answers later if anybody
can suggest some good questions.
First sypmptom was trying to use Internet Explorer 6:
1. Sometimes IE just dies, disappears with no error message.
2. Sometimes it starts, but dies as soon as we type certain addresses in
the address bar. Two examples are www.hp.com and www.compaq.com.
Www.google.com is okay, but some search results link to pages that make it
crash.
3. Sometimes, even when IE doesn't crash, it acts strangely. For example,
when we go to Yahoo and try to login (to see Yahoo mail, My Yahoo for news,
etc.) we need to login using a "secure" server. We have been using Yahoo for
years and have never needed to do this before, the standard server has been
sufficient.
4. After logging, Yahoo works okay. Other web sites seem to work well
without logging in, but then sometimes, at random, IE will crash again.
We tried Firefox also, and when it starts it shows up in the Task Manager,
but never opens a window. The CPU load for this process jumps between 40 up
to about 70%, the CPU meter does not stay "pegged" at the maximum, but jumps
around and never goes back below about 40%.
I asked on another help group and somebody suggested a bad malware / spyware
infestation. I was given a long list of tips and tools on how to find and
delete it or them. When I started following them, nothing showed up except a
handful of cookies. That was odd. I use several security programs
(Ad-Aware, Spybot, Microsoft AntiSpyware) but the first time I used WebRoot
SpySweepr it found hundreds of "traces". It found several thousand on
another relative's machine. On this one, just the few cookies.
then I remembered that the machine has almost no software on it, and so
Windows XP might have just been installed on it. So the lack of spyware is
not such a surprise.
I went to the XP System Restore command, but when I click to ask for a list
of previous restore points, the application dies, just like IE does.
Looking somewhere in XP, I found an error log. It contains dozens of
errors, mostly stating that some program is trying to access memory
illegally. Usually it was IE, but also included notes about Firefox hanging.
The really odd thing is, the date and time are set properly (since before we
brought the machine home) but the error log contains a lot of references for
dates in the future: April and May 2005, October 2005.
Looking some more, the BIOS is dated March or May 2000. That's when I
realized, this machine may not work with XP. I learned from the Compaq site
that it originally shipped with Win 98.
The Compaq site offers BIOS and other updates for Windows 2000 and 98, but
no BIOS updates for XP.
Compaq warns of several possible problems when upgrading an older model PC
to XP, on this page: http://tinyurl.com/58xdt
Compaq also informs me that the original Restore CD containing Win 98 is not
available, since Microsoft doesn't support Win 98 any more.
My plan now is to find a copy of Windows 98 or 2000 and install it on this
machine, and also install the BIOS and other updates available from Compaq.
I don't see any need to get XP, the computer is going to be used mostly for
email, web browsing, and a little bit of typing and printing.
Questions:
1. Am I on the right track? Could an outdated BIOS cause IE to shutdown
like this, and Firefox to hang? Does it explain the future dates in the
error log? Or does anybody have any other suggestions or explanations?
2. If I go ahead with this plan, should I install the BIOS and other updates
from Compaq BEFORE installing Windows 2000 or 98? Or AFTER?
3. Anything important to look out for as we "downgrade"? There's no
documents that need to be backed up or restored, we might go ahead and
reformat.
Thanks for any help and feedback.
Steven