R
Ralph Sepulveda
I'm very much a newbie, so please be kind. I wonder if
anybody out there can figure out what's going on with my
newly installed XP Operating System and what I might be
able to do about it?
Here are a few details that may provide some clues to any
Windows maven/detectives out there: A few days ago, I
upgraded to Windows XP Home Edition from Windows Me.
Everything during the upgrade procedure seemed to me to
go smoothly and well, with no glitches that I was aware
of, although I now suspect that perhaps I may have done
something incorrectly at the start--I just have no idea
what that might be.
I had not spent much time on the computer until today,
when I started discovering all sorts of problems. The
reason for that being that immediately after installation
(perhaps this is a clue?), I was forced to spend over 4
hours on the phone trying to resolve a virus problem. I
had never had any experiences with a virus before, and it
appeared that this one (called, I think, Soundblaster
PRC) got in at some point during the upgrade, because it
most definitely was not there before. And not being
familiar with the symptoms of viruses, I initially
assumed that there must be some problem with my DSL
connection, and so the first thing I did was to get on
the phone with my Internet Provider. The immediate
problem then was that I was not able to get online or
maintain a connection for very long. I would click in,
and in a few seconds the computer would quickly sign out
and then automatically shut down. This happened 5 times
before I decided I'd better call tech support. After
about an hour of walking me through various procedures
and trying this and that, the guy on the other end
figured out that this was not a connectivity issue after
all; it was this virus that he was sorry he couldn't help
me with and advised that I get in touch with Microsoft
immediately. I will spare you the details of what
happened for the next three hours (believe me, you don't
want to know), but suffice it to say that Microft
confirmed that it was indeed this dread virus and we
finally were able to take care of it. I was extremely
late for a meeting and ran off as soon as the problem had
been resolved. For one reason or another, it was
impossible for me to get back to the computer until now.
What I discovered was that not all my files and programs
got transfered over into the new system. Or perhaps they
did; I just don't know where to find them? Some of the
icons I had on my Windows Me desktop reappeared on my XP
desktop, but many did not; and of those that did, some
are not opening when I click on them, such as my Netscape
icons, even though Internet Explorer is right there and
functioning perfectly, along with Windows Media Player,
my DVD and several others. But, for example, there
doesn't seem to be any trace of Word or my Word files,
but, strangely enough, WordPad and Notepad were somehow
able to survive the transition. Also missing are other
key programs that I use a lot and had many files in, such
as Paint, Adobe Reader, Outlook Express, several
utilities and others. And of the standard folders that I
expected to see, only My Pictures and My Music arrived
intact. But no My New Briefcase and no My Documents. They
must be hidden somewhere and retrieavable, are they not?
Or is it likely that (please don't tell me!) the virus
gobbled them right up? I've looked everywhere that I
could think to look, but perhaps not in the right places?
Has anyone experienced anything like this, and if so, is
there anything that anyone has done to achieve a happy
outcome? I really would appreciate it if someone could
let me know. Thank you in advance.
I apologize for such a lengthy post; however, I simply
didn't know what might be deemed relevant by the
cognescenti and what might not. And now that I think of
it, here's another weirdness that occured after the
install, and I'm mentioning it on the chance that someone
may perceive a hint in it of what may have gone wrong:
It's a program that I use fairly frequently and in fact
its icon was one of those which reappeared automatically
on the desktop after the upgrade installation. Only now,
suddenly, I'm no longer able to use the program; that is,
it loads up fine and I can open it without any trouble,
but a panel on the right hand side which contains the
buttons that I click on to take me to the various
activities within the program has totally disappeared
(?), leaving just an empty white space where the panel
once used to be. So that for all intents and purposes the
program has been rendered useless. Now I did have the
idea that maybe if I uninstalled the program and then
installed it right back, I'd be able to recover the
program cleanly in its entirety. I've got the original
disk with which to do it; trouble is, when I stick the CD
in, that missing panel is missing on the CD, too--
something which I'm utterly incapable of understanding.
Even so, I tried uninstalling it and installing it again
3 times--to no avail.
If this is not enough information to go on, I'll be happy
to elaborate, but for now, I'll let this stand and see if
any responses come in.
Again, thanks,
Ralph Sepulveda
(e-mail address removed)
anybody out there can figure out what's going on with my
newly installed XP Operating System and what I might be
able to do about it?
Here are a few details that may provide some clues to any
Windows maven/detectives out there: A few days ago, I
upgraded to Windows XP Home Edition from Windows Me.
Everything during the upgrade procedure seemed to me to
go smoothly and well, with no glitches that I was aware
of, although I now suspect that perhaps I may have done
something incorrectly at the start--I just have no idea
what that might be.
I had not spent much time on the computer until today,
when I started discovering all sorts of problems. The
reason for that being that immediately after installation
(perhaps this is a clue?), I was forced to spend over 4
hours on the phone trying to resolve a virus problem. I
had never had any experiences with a virus before, and it
appeared that this one (called, I think, Soundblaster
PRC) got in at some point during the upgrade, because it
most definitely was not there before. And not being
familiar with the symptoms of viruses, I initially
assumed that there must be some problem with my DSL
connection, and so the first thing I did was to get on
the phone with my Internet Provider. The immediate
problem then was that I was not able to get online or
maintain a connection for very long. I would click in,
and in a few seconds the computer would quickly sign out
and then automatically shut down. This happened 5 times
before I decided I'd better call tech support. After
about an hour of walking me through various procedures
and trying this and that, the guy on the other end
figured out that this was not a connectivity issue after
all; it was this virus that he was sorry he couldn't help
me with and advised that I get in touch with Microsoft
immediately. I will spare you the details of what
happened for the next three hours (believe me, you don't
want to know), but suffice it to say that Microft
confirmed that it was indeed this dread virus and we
finally were able to take care of it. I was extremely
late for a meeting and ran off as soon as the problem had
been resolved. For one reason or another, it was
impossible for me to get back to the computer until now.
What I discovered was that not all my files and programs
got transfered over into the new system. Or perhaps they
did; I just don't know where to find them? Some of the
icons I had on my Windows Me desktop reappeared on my XP
desktop, but many did not; and of those that did, some
are not opening when I click on them, such as my Netscape
icons, even though Internet Explorer is right there and
functioning perfectly, along with Windows Media Player,
my DVD and several others. But, for example, there
doesn't seem to be any trace of Word or my Word files,
but, strangely enough, WordPad and Notepad were somehow
able to survive the transition. Also missing are other
key programs that I use a lot and had many files in, such
as Paint, Adobe Reader, Outlook Express, several
utilities and others. And of the standard folders that I
expected to see, only My Pictures and My Music arrived
intact. But no My New Briefcase and no My Documents. They
must be hidden somewhere and retrieavable, are they not?
Or is it likely that (please don't tell me!) the virus
gobbled them right up? I've looked everywhere that I
could think to look, but perhaps not in the right places?
Has anyone experienced anything like this, and if so, is
there anything that anyone has done to achieve a happy
outcome? I really would appreciate it if someone could
let me know. Thank you in advance.
I apologize for such a lengthy post; however, I simply
didn't know what might be deemed relevant by the
cognescenti and what might not. And now that I think of
it, here's another weirdness that occured after the
install, and I'm mentioning it on the chance that someone
may perceive a hint in it of what may have gone wrong:
It's a program that I use fairly frequently and in fact
its icon was one of those which reappeared automatically
on the desktop after the upgrade installation. Only now,
suddenly, I'm no longer able to use the program; that is,
it loads up fine and I can open it without any trouble,
but a panel on the right hand side which contains the
buttons that I click on to take me to the various
activities within the program has totally disappeared
(?), leaving just an empty white space where the panel
once used to be. So that for all intents and purposes the
program has been rendered useless. Now I did have the
idea that maybe if I uninstalled the program and then
installed it right back, I'd be able to recover the
program cleanly in its entirety. I've got the original
disk with which to do it; trouble is, when I stick the CD
in, that missing panel is missing on the CD, too--
something which I'm utterly incapable of understanding.
Even so, I tried uninstalling it and installing it again
3 times--to no avail.
If this is not enough information to go on, I'll be happy
to elaborate, but for now, I'll let this stand and see if
any responses come in.
Again, thanks,
Ralph Sepulveda
(e-mail address removed)