Windows Help & Support wont connect to net

[Peter]

I have an "always-on" cable connection and everything has no problems
connecting to the web except the Help & Support Center's "Did you know"
module.

I've tried a repair install of Windows and reinstalling the H & S Center at
Rebecca Chen MVPS page...nothing worked.

Any ideas?

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Clicking "Related Topics" and other hyperlinks cause "Cannot display the
page" error in Help and Support Center
http://www.winxptutor.com/helpctrscripting.htm

Error "Your current security settings prohibit running ActiveX controls on
this page" in Help and Support Center
http://www.winxptutor.com/helpsecerror.htm

Troubleshooting problems with Help and Support Center
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/helpctr.htm

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Peter]

Thanks for those links, but they aren't the problems I'm having. Links
work OK, it's just the "Did you Know" news section doesn't update and says I
need to use the Connection Wizard: which leads nowhere because I already
have a connection.

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Peter,

Try deleting the following file...

C:\WINDOWS\PCHEALTH\HELPCTR\Config\News\newsver.xml



--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Peter]

Thanks Wesley but that didn't fix it either. I'm wondering if any updates
to either Windows itself or to any of my software might have started this
problem?
I have McAfee Firewall but it always asks if an application wants access and
I either say yes or no.
The weird thing is I can click links at H & S (such as Windows Update) and
they all work.

Here's an extract from that XML... it refers to Professional where I'm home,
but I doubt that's any reason. I also noticed in the Registry that the
clients folder for PC Health was empty.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="unicode" ?>
- <NEWSVER URL="" FREQUENCY="2">
- <LANGUAGE LCID="1033">
- <SKU VERSION="Personal">
<NEWSBLOCK
URL="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/shared/hscheadlines/home/newsblock01.xml"
OEM="0" />
<NEWSBLOCK
URL="http://support.microsoft.com/support/worldwide/en-us/headlines/newsblock02.xml"
OEM="0" />
</SKU>
- <SKU VERSION="Professional">
<NEWSBLOCK
URL="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/shared/hscheadlines/pro/newsblock01.xml"
OEM="0" />
<NEWSBLOCK
URL="http://support.microsoft.com/support/worldwide/en-us/headlines/newsblock02.xml"
OEM="0" />
</SKU>
- <SKU VERSION="Server">
<NEWSBLOCK
URL="http://windows.microsoft.com/windowsxp/en/server/headlines/newsblock01.xml"
OEM="0" />
<NEWSBLOCK
URL="http://windows.microsoft.com/windowsxp/en/server/headlines/newsblock02.xml"
OEM="0" />
<NEWSBLOCK
URL="http://windows.microsoft.com/windowsxp/en/server/headlines/newsblock03.xml"
OEM="0" />
<NEWSBLOCK
URL="http://windows.microsoft.com/windowsxp/en/server/headlines/newsblock04.xml"
OEM="0" />
<NEWSBLOCK
URL="http://windows.microsoft.com/windowsxp/en/server/headlines/newsblock05.xml"
OEM="0" />

 

[frodo]

I have an "always-on" cable connection and everything has no problems
connecting to the web except the Help & Support Center's "Did you know"
module.

a common "problem", still no known solution. If you can do a search and
get Knowledgebase hits then you are just fine.

The Did You Know problem is under investigation.

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Here is my experience with the "Did you know?" section in Help Center:

I've observed this always happens with broadband connection. When I
connected to internet using dial-up, Help and Support could connect to the
internet and download the news block XML files (2 XML files will be
downloaded, and then merged based one some criteria) and the "Did you know?"
updated correctly. "Did you know?" actually reflects what;s in the XML file.

When using broadband (ADSL), I changed the value "EnableAutodial" to 1 in
this key:

[HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings]

This works sometimes, but not consistently.

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Hi again, frodo!

 

[Peter]

Thanks all...I guess I'll just have to "grin & bear it" ;-)

 

[Peter]

I just got a reply from Microsoft Support asking for screenshots. They say
it's a known issue, especially with OEM installations. Well, how come it
worked fine until a week or so ago?

 

[Wesley Vogel]

SWAG
The way that some OEM help programs are linked to Help and Support. I.e
Gateway and HelpSpot. <shrug>

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Peter]

SWAG .. ? I thought that it was more WYSIWYDG (What you see is what you
don't get)....LOL

 

[frodo]

Hi again, frodo!

Back at ya Ramesh.

I have seen this issue w/ both dial up and broadband. I set up new PCs on
a regular basis, and lately virtually every single one will not update its
Did You Know. Then out of the blue one will. No big deal, but a mystery
none the less. My current machine, running broadband, is stuck back at
May 05, 2005. Yesterday while dialed-in it was stuck there too
[obviously].

Curisously, back on may 5th, when it did update, the link was rather busy,
and yet it updated! Can't figure it out. Still convinced its an XML
filtering issue, the newsxxxx.xml files are always zero-length in the IE
cache. All these machines are using various ISPs, so it's not related to
a specific ISP (but perhaps a common proxy/cache app that some isp's might
be using?? Squid??).

BTW, newest machine's I've been setting up are NOT using Zone Alarm,
so ZA is NOT the cause of this issue as far as I can tell.

[Brand fresh XP SP2 installs show this issue, before installing any
Windows Updates].

The mystery continues...

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Thanks frodo.

You're correct. They end-up as 0 byte files in the two content.ie5
sub-folders.

Ditto here. I re-imaged one of my systems here and the problem is seen in
that as well.

Here is what I did to manually update the DIY (tedious process - for most
users)

For XP Pro - English edition
===================

Download newsblock1.xml and newsblock2.xml using your Download manager. (not
via IE)

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/shared/hscheadlines/pro/newsblock01.xml
http://support.microsoft.com/support/worldwide/en-us/headlines/newsblock02.xml

Open newsblock1.xml with Notepad
Open newsblock2.xml with Notepad

Merge both the files (leaving out the redundant NEWSHEADLINES tags) and save
as the following

"NewsHeadlines_1033_Professional.xml"

Format of the NewsHeadlines_1033_Professional.xml file:
Example: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/temp/mergedxml.txt

Place this file in this location:
C:\WINDOWS\PCHealth\HelpCtr\Config\News

--
Ramesh, Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Shell/User
http://windowsxp.mvps.org

Hi again, frodo!

Back at ya Ramesh.

I have seen this issue w/ both dial up and broadband. I set up new PCs on
a regular basis, and lately virtually every single one will not update its
Did You Know. Then out of the blue one will. No big deal, but a mystery
none the less. My current machine, running broadband, is stuck back at
May 05, 2005. Yesterday while dialed-in it was stuck there too
[obviously].

Curisously, back on may 5th, when it did update, the link was rather busy,
and yet it updated! Can't figure it out. Still convinced its an XML
filtering issue, the newsxxxx.xml files are always zero-length in the IE
cache. All these machines are using various ISPs, so it's not related to
a specific ISP (but perhaps a common proxy/cache app that some isp's might
be using?? Squid??).

BTW, newest machine's I've been setting up are NOT using Zone Alarm,
so ZA is NOT the cause of this issue as far as I can tell.

[Brand fresh XP SP2 installs show this issue, before installing any
Windows Updates].

The mystery continues...

 

[Peter]

For XP Pro....darn.

--
Peter.
Toronto, Canada
XP Home SP2
P4 HT @ 3ghz, 1gb RAM, 160gb HD.

Thanks frodo.

You're correct. They end-up as 0 byte files in the two content.ie5
sub-folders.

Ditto here. I re-imaged one of my systems here and the problem is seen in
that as well.

Here is what I did to manually update the DIY (tedious process - for most
users)

For XP Pro - English edition
===================

Download newsblock1.xml and newsblock2.xml using your Download manager.
(not via IE)

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/shared/hscheadlines/pro/newsblock01.xml
http://support.microsoft.com/support/worldwide/en-us/headlines/newsblock02.xml

Open newsblock1.xml with Notepad
Open newsblock2.xml with Notepad

Merge both the files (leaving out the redundant NEWSHEADLINES tags) and
save as the following

"NewsHeadlines_1033_Professional.xml"

Format of the NewsHeadlines_1033_Professional.xml file:
Example: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/temp/mergedxml.txt

Place this file in this location:
C:\WINDOWS\PCHealth\HelpCtr\Config\News

--
Ramesh, Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Shell/User
http://windowsxp.mvps.org

Hi again, frodo!

Back at ya Ramesh.

I have seen this issue w/ both dial up and broadband. I set up new PCs
on
a regular basis, and lately virtually every single one will not update
its
Did You Know. Then out of the blue one will. No big deal, but a mystery
none the less. My current machine, running broadband, is stuck back at
May 05, 2005. Yesterday while dialed-in it was stuck there too
[obviously].

Curisously, back on may 5th, when it did update, the link was rather
busy,
and yet it updated! Can't figure it out. Still convinced its an XML
filtering issue, the newsxxxx.xml files are always zero-length in the IE
cache. All these machines are using various ISPs, so it's not related to
a specific ISP (but perhaps a common proxy/cache app that some isp's
might
be using?? Squid??).

BTW, newest machine's I've been setting up are NOT using Zone Alarm,
so ZA is NOT the cause of this issue as far as I can tell.

[Brand fresh XP SP2 installs show this issue, before installing any
Windows Updates].

The mystery continues...