Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with system and xp

strange WindowsXP problem

Meatbomb — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 05:55:16 -0800

Strange thing happening on my Windows XP, don't know what to do... OK, you know down in the system tray, bottom right corner, how sometimes you get a little speech bubble pop-up, with a little popping noise, when something noteworthy has happened? For example, when a torrent has completed downloading, or a new external hard drive is detected, or whatever? Usually they stay up long enough to click on them for further information, to act on the information.

So my problem is that for the last few months I have been getting these strange little events, where a speech bubble pops but is really quick, too quick for me to see what it is talking about. It is only there for like 1/5 of a second, even when I stare intently and wait for it I cannot read it. When it starts doing this it will continue for an extended period, every minute or so, giving me the little pop / speech bubble.

How the hell do I figure out what is up?

Some further info:
-happens whether or not I am running BitTorrent or Skype
-I have updated AVG on, it tells me I am clean
-I just did a full system malware scan with a couple different tools, nothing fishy was indicated
-here is an image of my current tray, if that is of any help. It is going on right now...

I would love to make this slightly irritating thing stop. Can you nice and knowledgeable people advise me on how to proceed? Thanks in advance.

How to install XP to a brand new Vista-riddled Dell?

jdruk — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 09:09:34 -0800

How to install XP to a brand new Vista-riddled Dell? Hey all!

I just brought home a new, Vista-riddled Dell inspiron, and I HATE VISTA. I have an old XP Pro CD, and I'd like to install the old operating system, but Vista won't let me do it (did I mention that I hated Vista? Yup.)

So... How do I do it? I saw some old posts on this, but I am a complete non-techie, so would someone spell it out for me in 1st grade English? Seriously, I am a complete moron when it comes to rooting around in a computer. And... I'd be indebted to you forever.

-Julia

User Migration between PCs

zephyr_words — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:21:20 -0800

What programs\packages are available that allow one to plug a cable into one pc, the other end to another pc, and then migrate the data? I know there are other better ways to do this but I'm specifically looking for a USB cable in-between the two PCs or a regular network cable. Something like this http://www.belkin.com/easytransfercable/advantages/

If you are aware of any regular programs that are very good at user migration (does not have to have the cable requirement) I would love to hear those as well.

XP to XP, Vista to Vista, XP to Vista.

Thanks a lot MeFi!

What was that password again?

al_fresco — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 17:02:03 -0800

In Windows XP, is there a way to see the password that is stored in the system to log into a wireless network? In OS X, this is easy – one just goes to Keychain Access, looks up the entry, and by entering an administrator password one can see the given password. Is there a way to do this in XP? I'm not a Windows person, so don't know where to look.

This is for a client for whom I set up a wireless network over a year ago. She created the password and it's stored in her system, as she connects fine to the network. She now wants to get another computer onto the network. I guess I need to start saving clients' passwords.

Why is System using 85% of my CPU?

signal — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 07:10:02 -0800

The task manager on my WIndows XP SP2 box shows 100% CPU usage constantly. Whenever I'm not doing anything actually resource intensive (like using Firefox, sigh), "System" uses up 80-90% of the CPU. This is not normal Procces Explorer shows a thread within "System" which is using around 75% of the CPU with the following start address: parport.sys+0xe474

Any suggestions? I'm running NOD32. Could post a hijackthis log if that helps.

Is data recovery possible?

FireStyle — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 23:34:18 -0800

my brother had a corrupt system file that causes windows XP media center ed. to not boot up. while in the recovery console, he accidentally clicked an option to restore the computer to factory settings. Is it possible to recover the data he lost?

Korean Language XP Operating System

endlessknot — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 10:44:05 -0800

Korean Language XP Operating System Can I buy a "Korean Language XP Operating System" here in the USA ? I want to get a Laptop in Korean Language. Where can I get one ? I called Dell and they did not have one in the USA. From what I understand one has to buy it from Korea itself. Thanks.

How can i restore my computer to factory standards?

TwilightKid — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 19:40:16 -0800

In a nutshell. I have a PC running Windows XP, personal edition. I want to restore the computer to factory standards (when i got it out of the box). No CD's or Discs came withthe computer. IS there a way to do this through XP? Its a HP 523n Desktop, and I have had the computer almost 3 years.... (more) The long of it is....At some point, I downloaded something bad which infested my computer with adware, spyware, and viruses. I went through Metafilter, reserached all the solutions; downloaded every single spyware and adware removal programs I could get my hands on, and cleaned my system as well as I can. I cleaned the registry. I went into safe mode, i did all sort of other suggestions as well......When running programs, they detect no viruses or spy/adware......

However, i still get uncontrollable pop ups....I use explorer, which I will switch over to Firefox when i get past this...

But, i cant live like this no more...If anyone has any ideas or solutions for me before i go ahead with the redotre, please let me know....

if not, if someone could guide me how to restore the system...I figured out how to restore it to an earlier date, but not all the way.

much thanks

Why does my Media Center CPU spike?

benjh — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 09:52:11 -0800

What upgrades do I need for my Media Center PC? I just recently purchased a new Windows Media Center PC. It has an Athlon 64 3500+ processor, 1 GB memory, 256MB Shared Video Memory (Radeon Xpress 200), and a 200GB HD. I added on a PVR-500 Hauppauge TV Tuner.

The CPU usage keeps spiking, and I can't identify what is actually causing it to spike. It will just shoot the CPU up to 100%. It seems completely random. For example, when recording TV shows last night, while playing Counterstrike on the same machine, it wasn't hitting too high. But this morning, when I pulled the machine up, it was at 100% and hasn't gone down.

When I go into task manager, I get the listing of SYSTEM as what is taking 99% of my system resources.

I was considering adding memory, or maybe a new video card to eliminate the usage of shared video memory, to resolve the issue. But I'm curious if you all think this will help, or can offer other suggestions to help remedy this situation.

Replacement desktop systems on XP?

twine42 — Fri, 16 Apr 2004 08:46:06 -0800

The current MeFi thread on Sphere reminded me... Does anyone use a replacement desktop system on XP? Which one and why did you choose to use it? This thread, btw. Why didn't AxMe allow urls in the question?

recover files after XP reboot?

calwatch — Sun, 04 Apr 2004 17:54:04 -0800

Windows XP rebooted, and chkdsk set many of my files to zero bytes. How do I get what was originally in those files back? And yes, I do have backups for some of them, but they are a couple of months old (mostly e-mail) and I would appreciate a solution for finding the files. I know that the data is there because I used Disk Investigator to search for key text. Unfortunately, the program has no way of recovering files except cluster by cluster, an extremely time consuming process.