Help and Support does not work

[KPrivitt]

I have tried all of the suggestions from "Why doesn't
Help and Support work?" http://www.kellys-korner-
xp.com/top10faqs.htm and the "Help and Support" still
does not work.

This is a new PC from Dell and I have gone through Dell
Support, which suggested trying many of the items from
kellys-korner-xp. Their final suggestion was to re-
backup the system and then re-install the OS, dirvers and
applications. That is not a trivial task which I do not
want to undertake. Another user posted on this forum a
similar issue and after doing the re-installation it did
not fix the problem.... This appears to be a Microsoft
problem.

Since this is an OEM installed OS I cannot ask Microsoft
for assistance and they sent me to this Newsgroup site.
As I mentioned above, I re-tried all the suggestions from
the kellys-korner-xp.com site to no avail.

Any suggestions?

If Microsoft is listening, can you provide any assistance.

 

[R. McCarty]

To determine if the problem is profile specific, log in to
another account and try to start Help & Support there.
Create a new user if you only have the single account.

If it doesn't work then the problem is system wide and
may require some kind of severe action like a Repair
install.

 

[Unknown]

Control panel--administrative tools---services---enable (Start) help and
support.

 

[KPrivitt]

I only have one account (other than the Guest Account).
I created a new account called Test and it has the same
issue. Help and Support does not work.

Thanks for the new suggestion. Any thing else I should
try?

Ken P.

 

[Guest]

I have already tried this. But I re-verified that
the "Help and Support" service is started and is set to
automatic. I tried stopping the service and re-starting
it, but this did not help.

Thanks for the suggestion, Anything else I should try?

Ken P.

 

[R. McCarty]

Using a new account means it's system wide. The next
thing to check, would be boot to safe mode (F8). If
Help & Support functions there, then it is something that
Dell loaded on the PC that is causing it not to work.

 

[Unknown]

Did you do a search on the Microsoft site? Google?

 

[KPrivitt]

I tried booting into Safe mode with and without
Networking. The Help and Support still does not work
when loged on as Administrator or my personnal account.

Any additional suggestions on what to look at. I really
do not want to do a backup, reload the OS, drivers and
all the applications as Dell Support has suggested.

Ken P.

 

[R. McCarty]

There is a detailed procedure on Experts Exchange.
The link is provided below, Note: You will have to
sign up to view the answer. Because of the length of
the article, I was reluctant to post the contents on the
newsgroup.
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/WinXP/Q_20822905.html#9920377
The procedure is found about 8-9 answer down the
page.

 

[KPrivitt]

I have tried this and it also did not work. I had
previously done this per Dell Support, but I tried it
again anyway.

Any additional suggetstions?

Thanks, for your assistance...

Ken P.

 

[Unknown]

Talk about coincidences. When I powered up this morning I could not start
'Help and Support'. I went to services from administrative tools and checked
that it was still started. It is set to manual. To make a long story short, I
highlited help and support by clicking on it once (in services) and then on
the left side I clicked on 'restart' It is now back to normal. Will miracles
never cease?

 

[KPrivitt]

I purchased an external backup drive and will reload the
operating system as recommended by Dell Support. I have
found that the help with two other programs (MyDVD and
RecordNOW!) also does not work.

 

[Chuck]

If those programs were supplied by Dell on the install image disk, as part
of the image, then you should certainly complain to Dell.
On the other hand they may have been supplied as optional installs, and are
not part of the image, even though they are present on the image CD. If
this is the case, the manual or automatic install may not have installed the
need help files. In this case, the usual cure is to rerun the install
sequence for the program(s) and make the appropriate selections when
prompted. This may be different than the usual default menu option, and say
something like install selected options.

Things can really get messy when the system is supplied with a slightly
different image than that present on the install/image CD. If this is the
case, you should ask Dell for updated install CD(s).