G
Guest
Recently, my computer has decided to spontaneously self-destruct.
I was told by tech support from VALVe software (makers of Half Life 2) to do
a few routine maintence things to my machine in an attempt to get HL2 to run
better. The suggestions didn't work, but they did do "something" to my
machine.
First, Norton Antivirus 2003 has started tossing out error messages about
how it can no longer scan messenger downloads. Then it tells me to uninstall
and reinstall.
Here's where the Microsoft portion of this question comes in:
When I try to uninstall, Windows Installer tries to initialize for a bit,
but then says "The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed". So I
can't uninstall. HOWEVER, if I go into services.msc, find the Windows
Installer, and Start the service, it succesfully runs and lets me uninstall.
The same thing happens when I try to reinstall Norton.
The solutions described here (
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315346 ) do not help
(and method 2 is unclear as to which directory I'm supposed to be doing the
renaming in anyway).
In addition, Windows started crashing randomly, especially when I tried to
access Explorer (i.e. open My Computer, or Explorer itself).
So I ran a repair installation of WinXP. Of course, I forgot to unplug my
computer from the 'net and get a firewall from another source so that WinXP
wouldn't be flooded with viruses and worms. So after getting a firewall, I
had to run ANOTHER repair installation of WinXP. This one went much better.
I've since cleaned the machine of all spyware and viruses I could, and
successfully installed Norton again.
Everything was going great until I reinstalled SP2. Then, all of a sudden,
my problems were RIGHT back to where they started, as if I had never changed
a thing. Norton's screaming at me, same error message, same internal errors
as well, and same problems. I haven't crashed Explorer yet, but I'm betting
it's only a matter of time.
I'm assuming that my first step will be to uninstall SP2 and try and install
it "fresh". Windows didn't download anything when installing it this time
around, so I can only assume that it used a copy it had still saved somewhere
on my machine. What do I delete to force it to redownload SP2 once I've
uninstalled it?
Second, how do I repair Windows Installer? Or test it to see if it works
everywhere else BUT with Norton, so I can find out whether or not this is a
Norton specific problem or not?
If someone has any other suggestions, or thinks I shouldn't have to do any
of the stuff I've asked about, I'm more than willing to try other solutions,
except for total reformatting.
Help? Please?
I was told by tech support from VALVe software (makers of Half Life 2) to do
a few routine maintence things to my machine in an attempt to get HL2 to run
better. The suggestions didn't work, but they did do "something" to my
machine.
First, Norton Antivirus 2003 has started tossing out error messages about
how it can no longer scan messenger downloads. Then it tells me to uninstall
and reinstall.
Here's where the Microsoft portion of this question comes in:
When I try to uninstall, Windows Installer tries to initialize for a bit,
but then says "The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed". So I
can't uninstall. HOWEVER, if I go into services.msc, find the Windows
Installer, and Start the service, it succesfully runs and lets me uninstall.
The same thing happens when I try to reinstall Norton.
The solutions described here (
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315346 ) do not help
(and method 2 is unclear as to which directory I'm supposed to be doing the
renaming in anyway).
In addition, Windows started crashing randomly, especially when I tried to
access Explorer (i.e. open My Computer, or Explorer itself).
So I ran a repair installation of WinXP. Of course, I forgot to unplug my
computer from the 'net and get a firewall from another source so that WinXP
wouldn't be flooded with viruses and worms. So after getting a firewall, I
had to run ANOTHER repair installation of WinXP. This one went much better.
I've since cleaned the machine of all spyware and viruses I could, and
successfully installed Norton again.
Everything was going great until I reinstalled SP2. Then, all of a sudden,
my problems were RIGHT back to where they started, as if I had never changed
a thing. Norton's screaming at me, same error message, same internal errors
as well, and same problems. I haven't crashed Explorer yet, but I'm betting
it's only a matter of time.
I'm assuming that my first step will be to uninstall SP2 and try and install
it "fresh". Windows didn't download anything when installing it this time
around, so I can only assume that it used a copy it had still saved somewhere
on my machine. What do I delete to force it to redownload SP2 once I've
uninstalled it?
Second, how do I repair Windows Installer? Or test it to see if it works
everywhere else BUT with Norton, so I can find out whether or not this is a
Norton specific problem or not?
If someone has any other suggestions, or thinks I shouldn't have to do any
of the stuff I've asked about, I'm more than willing to try other solutions,
except for total reformatting.
Help? Please?