Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with WindowsXP and laptop

What good is a windows COA sticker?

washburn — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:41:24 -0800

What does it mean when a used laptop is advertised as having Windows XP installed and coming with a COA sticker? Without having a Windows install cd, is there any benefit to having such a sticker? Would it, for example, permit one to call MS and obtain a new install disk for Windows XP?

More like WRONG arrow key, amirite?

Rhaomi — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 19:52:28 -0800

My laptop's right-arrow key is remapping itself. Any tips for diagnosis or repair? The right-arrow key on my laptop is behaving badly. It seems to be wildly remapping itself several times per second, varying between a few keys. After a little testing, here's what I found out:

- Inside a text field, pressing it will produce either "n/ " or "b". It varies between the two randomly with repeated keypresses. Example:

n/ bbbn/ n/ / bn/ / n/ n/ bn/

(Yes, I realize it typed "/" twice in the middle there -- no clue why)

- When it does type "b", it also minimizes whatever application I'm using.
- When testing in Notepad, pressing the arrow also displays the little underscores under "File", "Edit", etc. that usually appear when you press "Alt", suggesting this key is getting selected, too.
- To see exactly how the key was working, I brought up a driving game that has an area in the menu to test the controls -- pressing the acceleration key will fill up a bar slowly to the maximum speed, for instance. I mapped this function to the arrow, then pressed it. Instead of filling the bar smoothly, it caused it to jitter around a bit but never increase, as if I was lightly tapping the key over and over again.
- Lastly, and most puzzling: the problem comes and goes, seemingly not tied to any one program or process. It'll be there when I boot up, disappear for awhile, then return for no visible reason.

I thought the problem was rooted in a Windows Update I had recently added that XP had been nagging me to install, but rolling back to the pre-Update (and pre-problem) state via System Restore didn't fix it. Rebooting does nothing, either. And I don't have any spyware or viruses, to my knowledge -- my AV software hasn't given me any warnings lately.

My laptop is a Dell Latitude D820, running Windows XP SP2.

Any thoughts? Are there any Microsoft diagnostic tools I could run to repair this irritating little problem?

Why am I being prompted to install Windows XP SP3 when I already have it?

Rhaomi — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 20:03:32 -0800

I just got a notification on my Windows XP laptop to install Service Pack 3. Thing is, I already have SP3 installed. Is this a necessary update? A redundant Microsoft goof? Or something more sinister? The notification looked like a standard Windows Update prompt, just a little bubble in the taskbar saying "updates are ready for your computer." So I clicked it and got this pop-up.

It struck me as odd, since

a) I thought service packs were major events in the Windows world, and that I would have heard something about this before now

and

2) I was pretty sure that said major event had already happened, and that I had SP3 installed

A check on Microsoft Word confirmed (2). Help -> About Microsoft Word, and the first line reads:

"Microsoft® Office Word 2003 (11.8227.8221) SP3"

So, why am I getting this prompt? Is it really asking me to reinstall all of Service Pack 3 (which I understand to be pretty large), or is it just an update for it? Is it merely a mistake on the part of Windows? Could it possibly be a virus or some other malicious program masquerading as a system update?

Basically, should I install the thing or just ignore it?

Clean me up, Scotty!

rhoticity — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 13:47:51 -0800

What's the best way to erase my hard drive for resale if I don't have original OS reinstall CDs to work with? I have a 1.5 year old Dell laptop running Windows XP SP2 which I'm selling in the next couple of weeks (getting a Macbook... YESSSS). I'm going to make an attempt to sell it here on campus or through Craigslist before I try other methods, and so as soon as I transfer everything I want to keep over to my new computer, I want to clean the hard drive off as well as I can. The problem is that, in a misguided money-saving attempt when I first ordered the Dell, I did not request physical Windows XP reinstall CDs. Obviously I cannot just completely reformat the hard drive, then, since I will have no way of reinstalling the OS.. right? What do I do to get this thing ready to sell to a stranger?

For the record, there's nothing terribly "sensitive" on here, just personal/academic documents and photos, but I'd rather get it as clean as possible just in case some total weirdo gets a hold of it.

Any other tips on dealing with the less-than-stellar electronics resale market would also be appreciated.

How can I get my laptop to print wirelessly again?

stleric — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 16:15:48 -0800

How can I get my laptop to print wirelessly to an HP DeskJet 6980 like it used to? Okay, so I've got a ThinkPad T42 with XP Home SP2 and Intel 2200BG.

I bought one of HP's DeskJet 6980 inkjets with wireless built in, and I used to be able to connect and print to it flawlessly for the first few months, but just as soon as I installed this IPSec client for my school's wireless network (I never got the client to work), I couldn't print to my printer wirelessly anymore. My laptop still connects to the printer's ad hoc network, but I can't get access anything that requires communication between the computer and printer (printer status, remaining ink levels, etc.), and every time I attempt to print, the print job hangs for about a minute and I get this message. Trying to ping it through DOS returns some message along the lines of "configuration error." Given that I could never get the IPSec software to work, I uninstalled it, but the problem remained. (Incidentally, the laptop still works just fine with every other wireless network.)

I've tried contacting HP support on the issue both over their online chat (not helpful at all) and their phone number (at least the guy tried), but nothing that they suggested ultimately helped. I've tried different IP and firewall configurations, I've attempted all sorts of ipconfig trickery, I've reset the printer to factory settings several times, and I've uninstalled and reinstalled the printer software probably about 5 or 6 times. Every time, it still works completely the same - it prints fine and easily via USB, it works over an ethernet/patch cable after about 10 minutes of cajoling.

The curious thing, though, is that I can get it to print wirelessly just as easily as it used to when, and only when I connect the computer via ethernet cable to my desktop (which, incidentally, is neither wireless, nor is it connected to the printer). Every time, I connect the cable, the local area network icon in the system tray comes up with the little yellow/exclamation point warning bubble (this happens every time), I select "repair connection," and like magic, not only does this let me access shared folders on the other computer, the wi-fi printing on my laptop works again. I know that repairing the wired connection seems to go through some things like renewing the IP address and clearing (I think) NetBT cache or something to that effect. Nevertheless, after that, every time I wake the computer from standby or restart, I can't print wirelessly again.

So what gives? How can I get my laptop to do whatever it's doing when it connects to the other computer and repairs automatically, or figure out what the IPSec install screwed up in the first place?

If anyone can actually help me out with this, much, much, much thanks - I've been trying to fix this for months...

Using laptop IR to control TV

punishinglemur — Mon, 26 Dec 2005 13:47:01 -0800

How can I use the IR port on my Windows XP laptop to control my television?

Hot & Noisy Laptop

srboisvert — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 01:59:00 -0800

My laptop is running hot lately with the fan going all the time regardless of processor load. Is there a windows XP setting that controls processor stepping? I may have screwed my settings up using systweak and I see no options for untweaking.

Why won't wireless networks show up?

borkencode — Sat, 17 Sep 2005 18:53:21 -0800

Strange laptop wireless problems following Windows XP Home upgrade to Pro.... My girlfriend bought a new Dell 600m laptop for law school and it came with XP home. The law school requires XP Pro to connect to the network, so I upgraded it for her, and the next morning she took it to school, where they had her modify some things to connect to the network. After this she noticed that when she viewed the available wireless networks it would continue to show networks she had previously connected to, even though they were impossibly far out of range (ie the law school network while she was at home). The networks were displayed with full strength, but she could obiously not connect to them.
I tried messing with some configuration things, and managed to somehow clear the list of networks, exept for the law school network. The problem is that now it doesn't show any networks besides that one. So she can't reconnect to her home network, and is worried that she might not be able to connect at school on monday.

Any wireless gurus with an idea how to fix this?

XP install: how do I find my sound card's drivers? And what programs do I really need?

twine42 — Thu, 16 Dec 2004 15:23:50 -0800

Laptop Clean XP Install:
1] My (on board?) sound card is unrecognised. How do I find out what drivers to use?

2] What programs do you really think I need? I already have VNC, VLC, Firefox, Thunderbird and AVG installed. What else should I add? (Freeware/OS appriciated but not needed.) VNC = Remote access program
VLC = DVD player type thing
AVG = AntiVirus

XP update problem

grumblebee — Wed, 27 Oct 2004 11:14:58 -0800

WinXP: my laptop downloaded a windows update (not sure what sort). Now, when I shut down, it tries to update my machine. I get a message saying that Windows is updating, and it advises me NOT to turn off my machine until it's done. But it continues to "update" forever. I've let it sit for two hours, and it still claims to be updating. Finally, with clenched teeth, I shut off the machine and rebooted. Everything seems okay. Now, whenever I shut down, it asks me if I want to install the upgrade or not. If I say yes, the machine stalls on that upgrading message. If I say no, it shuts down fine. I'm ok with saying no all the time, except that now I can't ever add any new updates. What should I do?

Wireless Network Setup Question (for PC)

scarabic — Wed, 24 Dec 2003 09:55:29 -0800

Twiddling my thumbs... wirelessly! I'm setting up a new Windows XP Pro laptop with built-in 802.11b. It seems to detect our Apple Airport (I) base station just fine, and connect to it. Just can't get any network services through it (ie: web pages are all 404s). Any suggestions?