W
Wildepad
On a Compaq with XP Home . . .
No 'User Accounts' (I am owner/administrator).
Trackball, microphone, and two printers.
Updates current through 10 Oct 04.
Three different virus-detecting programs say the machine is clean.
HP has been unwilling to provide support (ignored all but one of my
nine e-mails).
Complete history:
(I apologize for the length of this, but something in here might be an
important clue . . . Current problems near the end, after 'However'.)
I installed SP2 through Windows Update.
The keyboard and trackball didn't work.
I put on the old mouse. It worked. I used it to reinstall all the
trackball drivers. Trackball then worked, but keyboard still didn't.
Used 'Add/Remove Programs' to uninstall SP2.
Keyboard then worked. I went on-line and found the problem (had to
delete the keyboard from 'Device Manager' and reboot so that it saw
the keyboard as new hardware).
Went back to Windows Update, reinstalled SP2 (in 1/4 the time
previously). (Had to redo the trackball and keyboard fixes.)
One printer didn't work. Had to reinstall printer from CD. However,
there was a printer icon in the notification area which I couldn't
remove (because of my disability, any change from the arrangement that
I had creates a hardship).
Clicking 'Dial-Up' did nothing. (Screen blinked, but nothing came up,
and there was nothing in 'Task Manager'.) Tried deleting the
'connection' and creating a new one with the same info.
Nothing . . . there was a connection icon (little computer) in the
notification area with a red x through it.
Tried everything I could think of (I was computer savvy up until Win95
.. . . since then it seems like I don't know anything, but occasionally
I get lucky).
Used 'Add/Remove Programs' to uninstall SP2.
Dial-up worked perfectly. Went on-line to try to find out why SP2
wouldn't run dial-up, and how to correct several other problems.
Found nothing 'official', but did run across some suggestions.
Reinstalled SP2. Tried several different things in both msconfig and
the registry. Dial-up still wouldn't work.
Used 'Add/Remove Programs' to uninstall SP2.
Ran a 'Restore Point' created the day before I first installed SP2.
Since then, I have also used several earlier 'Restore Points' to try
to make the system stable again.
HOWEVER (now to get to the current problems), the way the computer
runs (and doesn't run) is significantly changed:
1) Every time the computer starts, it asks for a password, and when
shutting it off, there is a dropdown list instead of the 3 icons to
click. (I tried changing this in 'user account', but it doesn't matter
what I select there, it's always this way.) (There is only the 'owner
account', no 'guest' or 'user' accounts.) (Oh, and there is no
password.)
2) If the computer goes to 'Stand-by', it is impossible to bring it
out. Nothing I press/click brings it back, and even the on/off button
on the front of the computer does nothing. I have to physically unplug
the computer, wait a minute, plug it back in, and press the 'on'
button.
3) About one time in five, when I start the computer it doesn't
recognize the keyboard and/or trackball and I have to reboot. (It has,
so far, always rebooted properly.)
4) The printer icon is in the notification area and has to be removed
manually each time.
5) When I'm running a program and have to change CDs, a window pops up
that says it's 'mixed content' and asks what to do about it. About 80%
of the time, this crashes the program that I'm running. (I've changed
AutoPlay to 'Take no action' for this type of disk, and to all disks,
but it still does it.)
6) I can read and write to CD-R, but any CD-RW disks return an error
message and cannot be read or rewritten. (Commercial disks work fine.)
7) My spyware program detects six registry entries, but it is unable
to delete/change/quarantine them (and I don't know enough about the
registry to go messing about without specific instructions).
8) Two programs which used to work (after setting the 'Compatibility
Wizard' to Win95) now frequently crash no matter what compatibility
settings I use.
Odd sidelight: when SP2 was installed, System->General said I had only
224MB of RAM instead of 512. After uninstalling SP2, it returned to
normal.
What I hope is that there is one little line in one easy-to-access
place that will return my computer to exactly the way it was before I
installed SP2 (well, one can always hope).
(And, to avoid the usual advice -- no, I can't switch to Linux. The
software for my medical-aid device is only available in WinXP.)
Is there any hope to get this computer back to the way it was without
doing a complete 'System Restore'?
No 'User Accounts' (I am owner/administrator).
Trackball, microphone, and two printers.
Updates current through 10 Oct 04.
Three different virus-detecting programs say the machine is clean.
HP has been unwilling to provide support (ignored all but one of my
nine e-mails).
Complete history:
(I apologize for the length of this, but something in here might be an
important clue . . . Current problems near the end, after 'However'.)
I installed SP2 through Windows Update.
The keyboard and trackball didn't work.
I put on the old mouse. It worked. I used it to reinstall all the
trackball drivers. Trackball then worked, but keyboard still didn't.
Used 'Add/Remove Programs' to uninstall SP2.
Keyboard then worked. I went on-line and found the problem (had to
delete the keyboard from 'Device Manager' and reboot so that it saw
the keyboard as new hardware).
Went back to Windows Update, reinstalled SP2 (in 1/4 the time
previously). (Had to redo the trackball and keyboard fixes.)
One printer didn't work. Had to reinstall printer from CD. However,
there was a printer icon in the notification area which I couldn't
remove (because of my disability, any change from the arrangement that
I had creates a hardship).
Clicking 'Dial-Up' did nothing. (Screen blinked, but nothing came up,
and there was nothing in 'Task Manager'.) Tried deleting the
'connection' and creating a new one with the same info.
Nothing . . . there was a connection icon (little computer) in the
notification area with a red x through it.
Tried everything I could think of (I was computer savvy up until Win95
.. . . since then it seems like I don't know anything, but occasionally
I get lucky).
Used 'Add/Remove Programs' to uninstall SP2.
Dial-up worked perfectly. Went on-line to try to find out why SP2
wouldn't run dial-up, and how to correct several other problems.
Found nothing 'official', but did run across some suggestions.
Reinstalled SP2. Tried several different things in both msconfig and
the registry. Dial-up still wouldn't work.
Used 'Add/Remove Programs' to uninstall SP2.
Ran a 'Restore Point' created the day before I first installed SP2.
Since then, I have also used several earlier 'Restore Points' to try
to make the system stable again.
HOWEVER (now to get to the current problems), the way the computer
runs (and doesn't run) is significantly changed:
1) Every time the computer starts, it asks for a password, and when
shutting it off, there is a dropdown list instead of the 3 icons to
click. (I tried changing this in 'user account', but it doesn't matter
what I select there, it's always this way.) (There is only the 'owner
account', no 'guest' or 'user' accounts.) (Oh, and there is no
password.)
2) If the computer goes to 'Stand-by', it is impossible to bring it
out. Nothing I press/click brings it back, and even the on/off button
on the front of the computer does nothing. I have to physically unplug
the computer, wait a minute, plug it back in, and press the 'on'
button.
3) About one time in five, when I start the computer it doesn't
recognize the keyboard and/or trackball and I have to reboot. (It has,
so far, always rebooted properly.)
4) The printer icon is in the notification area and has to be removed
manually each time.
5) When I'm running a program and have to change CDs, a window pops up
that says it's 'mixed content' and asks what to do about it. About 80%
of the time, this crashes the program that I'm running. (I've changed
AutoPlay to 'Take no action' for this type of disk, and to all disks,
but it still does it.)
6) I can read and write to CD-R, but any CD-RW disks return an error
message and cannot be read or rewritten. (Commercial disks work fine.)
7) My spyware program detects six registry entries, but it is unable
to delete/change/quarantine them (and I don't know enough about the
registry to go messing about without specific instructions).
8) Two programs which used to work (after setting the 'Compatibility
Wizard' to Win95) now frequently crash no matter what compatibility
settings I use.
Odd sidelight: when SP2 was installed, System->General said I had only
224MB of RAM instead of 512. After uninstalling SP2, it returned to
normal.
What I hope is that there is one little line in one easy-to-access
place that will return my computer to exactly the way it was before I
installed SP2 (well, one can always hope).
(And, to avoid the usual advice -- no, I can't switch to Linux. The
software for my medical-aid device is only available in WinXP.)
Is there any hope to get this computer back to the way it was without
doing a complete 'System Restore'?