Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with windows and WinXP

ThinkPad T42 wireless connection problem

mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:40:00 -0800

Windows XP Home network connection issues. My son's girlfriend has an IBM ThinkPad T42. In the last couple of days its network connectivity has gone haywire. It has an Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG adapter and an Intel Pro/1000MT wired connection, and the laptop is running XP Home, Service Pack 3. Here's what it does:

As soon as I enable the wireless adapter and connect to a network (either secured or unsecured) the connection bounces from disconnected to connected and back again, over and over ad infinitum.

I can't enable the wired adapter at all (it just stays disabled while the "Local Area Connection - Enabling" message shows, after which it disappears with the connection still disabled), which is what makes me think this is a software problem rather than a hardware problem. I have tried all of the following (not necessarily in this order):

1) reset the TCP/IP stack ("netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt")

2) Uninstalled and reinstalled TCP/IP

3) removed and reinstalled the network adapter drivers

4) system restore to earlier restore point

5) installed a PCMCIA wireless card (same result - connected/disconnected over and over)

6) run Malwarebytes (no malware detected)

At this point I am ready to throw in the towel and reinstall Windows unless someone has any better ideas. I don't really mind doing this, but it always irritates me to resort to a reinstall when it seems like there really should be a simpler fix.

Any ideas?

Where's the XP Installer's Undo?

kristi — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:17:38 -0800

A Windows 2000 hard disk got clobbered by the XP installer and is "unallocated". What are my next steps? I have an old PC running Windows 2000 (SP 4). There are 3 internal drives:

D: 40 GB (Win2K system disk)
C: 200 GB
F: 500 GB

Recently, I tried to install WinXP on the C drive so I could dual-boot Win2K and XP. I ran the XP installer (new install, not upgrade); it successfully completed but I could never boot from C; it was giving me various errors about missing hal.dll and stuff. I've basically given up on the dual boot on this machine; I don't need it badly enough to spend more time on it.

After my first attempt to install XP, I discovered Win2K no longer mounts the F drive. It still shows up in the BIOS, but not in Windows Explorer; only the C and D drives show up in the Explorer address bar now.

When I go into Computer Management, I can see the missing drive in the Disk List and Graphical View, but not in the Volume List. In the Graphical View, it shows up as

(left side)
Disc 0
Basic
465 GB
Online

(right side)
[no letter drive here]
465 GB
Unallocated

As far as I can tell from Googling around, the F drive apparently had EZ-Drive on it (I tried Partition Magic 6, and it gave me an error saying "EZ-Drive has been detected on drive 0, but EZ-Drive is corrupt. Run the EZ-Drive setup diskette to correct this problem."), and apparently XP hates EZ-Drive.

I've tried running

fixmbr \Device\Harddisk0\Partition0

(that's the device that shows up using Recovery Console's map command) from the Recovery Console, but it didn't change anything.

The Add/Remove Hardware Wizard can see the drive, too (it says the device is working properly).

I ran Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostics on the drive - did the Quick Test - and got

Test completed successfully

The drive shows up in the Physical Drive list in WD Diagnostics, but not the Logical Drive list.

I'd like to just undo whatever the XP installer did to the drive and get it back to where I can read and use it again. If I have to partition it, I can do that, but I'm wondering whether EZ-Drive will remain on the disk (it sounded like that would happen, based on some of the reading I've done) and what effect that would have on anything else I need to do in the future.

I only use this machine for a couple of pieces of software and I'd like to spend as little time as I can getting it working again. If at all possible, I'd love to avoid reformatting/repartitioning the drive. It just seems like there should be SOME way to undo whatever the XP installer did.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Where to find updated info on (graphic design) hardware?

filthy light thief — Tue, 05 May 2009 11:57:10 -0800

How should I keep up-to-date on hardware for graphic design? I'm not a graphic designer by trade, but I would like my personal (WinXP) computer to be suitable for hobby-work graphics. More details and criteria inside. I have a WinXP system I cobbled together a few years back. My flat-screen monitor is a bit odd (pink dots are noticeable from time to time), and my printer/scanner combo is pretty much a POS for both functions. I make do with all of it, but I keep thinking I should start looking into upgrading elements. Primarily I'd like a new monitor and scanner, but a good printer would be nice, and I keep lusting after tablets, even though I don't do that much drawing by hand any more.

I've found what I think are good reviews, but I feel that if they're over 6 months old, I'm missing out on something. I don't need cutting edge, and it seems like there are probably some reliable resources for computer-based artists that I haven't found. So, hive-mind, what should I look for? Do you known handy sites? Thanks!

[WinXP] How can I create a separate user account that is completely separate from the main admin account?

Jimmeh — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:54:38 -0800

[WinXP] How can I create a separate user account that is completely separate from the main admin account? I.e. doesnt share the same programs, settings, etc I've tried this the normal way, but some programs that are installed show up in both accounts.

What I'm trying to achieve is to create an account that is completely free of distractions and only has the software I need for study. I'd also like to block certain websites etc.
I'd use the main admin account for leisure purposes.

Is this possible?

Who is 14F1? What is device 2720?

carsonb — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 01:26:51 -0800

My PCI Simple Communications Controller has bitten the dust. When I start up my crusty eMachines T2682 classic desktop computer these days I get the good ol' WinXP Found New Hardware Wizard prompting me to install drivers for my "PCI Simple Communications Controller". Sadly it cannot locate said drivers, and it turns out that "PCI Simple Communications Controller" is Device Manager-speak for "WTF is this?"

As this computer has failed bit by bit I've become more adept at reading tech forums, and as usual they've dealt me a cryptic clue to this puzzle. I learned that Device Manager deals out very little info about "PCI Simple Communications Controller", but what little it gives can be used to find drivers to reactivate the ? device. The Device Instance Id is
PCI\VEN_14F1&DEV_2720&SUBSYS_200014F1&REV_00\4&29817089&0&10F0
which, I believe, details the device vendor as "14F1" and the device itself as "2720".

Vendor 14F1 is listed as Conexant Systems Inc., a modem chipset manufacturer. However, for the life of me I cannot find their device 2720. None of the pci id lists that I've read match that device with vendor 14F1.

What am I missing? What is this mysterious device?

Maybe relevant: During video playback the audio snaps in and out, at random. I have not reinstalled Windows lately. I upgraded to SP3 a few weeks ago, then immediately reverted to a restore point. One of my RAM sockets has gone bad, the computer freezes occasionally, and I think the whole mobo might be dying. Is this some extension of that growing problem, or is there a local solution?

I ask this last because, while I know I need a new computer and will be purchasing one when the wallet is ripe, I'd like to use this opportunity to learn some about how computer guts work and what to do get them to work when they don't. Percussive maintenance only goes so far.

Why is the Archive command missing from Outlook's File menu?

VeniceGlass — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 04:50:38 -0800

Why is the Archive command missing from Outlook's File menu? It used to be there - I've used it! There are no group policies at my company affecting it (I've verified with IT).

I don't really feel like rating over 2000 mp3s all over again, so help me not have to do so!

Effigy2000 — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 15:52:32 -0800

I'm thinking of nuking my hard drive and reinstalling Windows XP. This means iTunes, which sits on my C Drive, will obviously be wiped and reinstalled. If I do this, will I lose all the star ratings and other individual settings I have for my mp3s (which are stored on another partition that I won't be wiping)? If so, is there some file in the iTunes directory or somwhere else that I could back up and add to my new iTunes installation so I don't have to individually rate every mp3 I have all over again?

New laptop with XP for under $500?

nzero — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 12:59:17 -0800

Is it possible to buy a new laptop for around $500 with Windows XP? I'm trying to purchase a laptop for my grandmother who lives across the country. She is absolutely insistent that she wants Windows XP instead of Vista. Since she lives so far away, I don't really have the option of buying a laptop and a separate copy of XP and installing it myself. I have searched all the usual places, and I simply cannot locate a new laptop with Windows XP on it. Do they exist anymore? Are there any places that would install Windows XP on a laptop before they ship it?

quick and easy centralized access control list?

jak68 — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 04:44:50 -0800

windowsXP logon restriction question: We have a small public computer room with about 15 computers where we only want certain people to be able to log into and use the computers. What is the easiest way to administer who has access to them? One obvious solution is to create a power user account, and hand out that password to the valid users of the computers.
We dont want to do that because its not very secure, tho we may have to do that in the end.

Wondering if there is a better way in WinXP to keep a list of valid users, without having to enter (and update and administer) that list individually on EACH computer.

Is there a centralized way to do that? Where the administrator can keep a list of usernames (and initial passwords) in a central location, and the computers remotely check in on that list when a user logs on, before giving the user access?

The solution would be preferably free, or nothing too expensive (up to 50 bucks or so is okay).

Where's the rest of my task manager?

Verdandi — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 16:31:13 -0800

In the rare times I've needed to hit ctrl-alt-delete within the past few months, the task manager window pops up, but it lacks the little tabs at the top and the useful little X in the upper right that actually allows me to CLOSE the task manager. What happened? I haven't been able to pinpoint the problem, and I'm getting frustrated. I've scanned the drive for viruses, spyware and the like (I use Avast!, Spybot and Ad-Aware), but no luck. I haven't installed anything else weird. I'm running Windows XP. I've never had a problem with it before this.

I have a screeenshot, if a visual is necessary.

I'd really hate to format/reinstall since it's such a pain, so I thought I'd ask here before I did. TIA!

Please, no OS wars. I'm fully aware of Linux.

XP Reset Itself - Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

Irontom — Wed, 16 May 2007 07:29:14 -0800

I woke up last Saturday morning to find that my WinXP machine has reset itself to settings from a year ago. The background image is the old one, all the menus have reverted back, Warcraft was no longer updated properly, and most distressingly: Everything in the MyDocs folder is gone!

Is there any way to fix this?

Please help me rescue my data using a Live CD

sk381 — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 18:57:28 -0800

I was attempting to resize the partitions on my laptop when accidentally my laptop shut down and now I can't boot back into windows. I have a Dell Inspiron laptop with WinXP Pro SP2 installed and I was attempting to resize a partition on it using Partition Magic in order to install Linux when the power on my laptop ran out and it shut down without any warning mid-process. Now I cannot reboot into WinXP and keep getting an error message saying :

"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \system32\hal.dll"

I burned a Knoppix Live CD in the hope that I would be able to access my WinXP paritions and rescue my data before having to reinstall WinXP again. But it seems even that is not possible.

I can get Knoppix to load fine but when attempting to mount the windows partitions, I get the following message:

"
Could Not Mount Device

WARNING: Dirty volume mount was forced by the 'force' mount option. fusermount: mountpoint is not empty
fusermount: if you are sure this is safe, use the non empty mount option

Failed to create FUSE mount point: No such file or directory

Retry to create FUSE mount point
FATAL: Module fuse not found

fusermount: mountpoint is not empty
fusermount: if you are sure this is safe, use the non empty mount option

Failed to create FUSE mount point: No such file or directory

Unmounting /dev/sda2 ()

"
I spoke to a data recovery service and based on an explanation of the situation on the phone, they were of the opinion that the data on laptop was indeed recoverable but were quoting a price I cannot afford at the moment.

Is there any way I can attempt to do this on my own. I don't mind getting my hands dirty and doing whatever reading is required. But I have no idea where to start. All I want is to be able to get access to my emails and a few documents. I don't care about having to re-install the OS after that.

And failing that, any recommendations for a tech help service that could do this for around $100-$150 and is located in Chicago?

Dual-head remote desktop

event — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 17:37:06 -0800

How can I get to applications on a second monitor over Remote Desktop? I am connecting from a one-monitor WinXP machine to a two-monitor WinXP machine over Remote Desktop. There are several applications running on the remote machine, but they are located on the monitor 2, and I can only see the contents of monitor 1 in my remote desktop window. How can I get to the applications? Thanks!

32 or 64 bit windows on a 64 bit AMD platform? Why?

Grod — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 18:36:41 -0800

I bit the bullet and bought the hardware to create a cheap PC. Dual core and 64 bit with a decent upgrade path, but I digress. Now I need to know: WinXP SP2 or WinXP x64? I figure I'll "try" before I buy the latter, but to save headache and hassle I thought I might simply ask. It's basically 2007, here, folks. Should I run a 32bit OS on a 64bit platform? What are the ups and downs, the pros and cons, in your experience. Thanks!

Comprehensive XP -> Parallels migration

maniabug — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 10:12:27 -0800

What's the most efficient way to transfer an entire functioning Windows XP PC to my new Mac running Parallels? I'm looking to ship over the whole nine yards: files, settings, apps, and appropriate registry entries. The Windows File and Settings Transfer Wizard does not move the apps. I'm going to have to do this on a regular basis, and would prefer to do as little by hand as possible. Do you have a favorite software tool for this?

I considered imaging the hard drive, but I believe Parallels uses a proprietary image format.

Good riddance?

furtive — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 18:59:59 -0800

Help me make my choice from one of the three options below: 1) Fix Windows so that it boots without messing up my Ubuntu. 2) Remove Windows completely. I don't need it anyways. 3) Shrink Windows to the bare minimum and reclaim the space with Ubuntu. I made the switch to Ubuntu a short while ago and have no inclination on returning to Windows. Recently when I tried to boot into Windows (XP Pro) I got a BSOD with the following error:
UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME
My boot.ini looks good. I did some research and noticed that if I do an fdisk that I get the same error for all my partitions:



furtive@furtive-laptop:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Password:

Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40007761920 bytes

16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 77520 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System

/dev/hda1   *           1       50565    25484728+   7  HPFS/NTFS

Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.

/dev/hda2           50570       76357    12996585   83  Linux

Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.

/dev/hda3           76357       77520      586372+   5  Extended

Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.

/dev/hda5           76357       77520      586341   82  Linux swap / Solaris

furtive@furtive-laptop:~$

It seems that these "does not end on cylinder boundary" messages are common when the partitions are made using megabytes instead of cylinders. I honestly don't feel like reloading my notebook again (no CD drive) and so I think it's come down to three choices:

1) Fix Windows so that it works without messing up my Ubuntu. I haven't seen any solutions to this yet, but I'm all ears. My ntfs drive is mounted with ntfs 3-g in Ubuntu if that helps.

2) Remove Windows completely. I don't need it anyways. I'd love to be able to reclaim that space for my Ubuntu.

3) Shrink Windows to the bare minimum and reclaim the space with Ubuntu. I know it was possible to do this during the install, but I don't see how to do it now.

I'll be up all night and quick to respond to any questions.

Browser times out but ping, nslookup, and tracert work (WinXP). Why?

Songdog — Mon, 29 May 2006 07:37:48 -0800

On my WinXP Pro laptop I can ping, nslookup, and tracert to whatever address I like, but no browser can load any pages, even by IP address. I get connection timeouts 100% of the time. Why, and how can I fix it? I have broadband access, shared in my home network via a router. Other machines are working as normal via this router. I'm running Kerio Personal Firewall but it makes no difference if I disable it. I've tried disabling and re-enabling the network adapter, I've tried flushing the DNS cache, I've tried releasing and renewing, I've tried "repairing" the connection. No dice. I have a perfectly good IP address assigned from my router (which I've tried rebooting). As stated above I can run "nslookup metafilter.com" and get an IP address, and I can tracert and ping by domain name or IP address, but when I try to browse to either a name or IP address I get a connection timeout. I've tried Firefox (my usual browser) and IE, both of which worked before.

Grudging admission #1, which will make some of you dismiss this as a wireless networking, issue: everything works fine when I try a wired connection. However, I'm sure it's not an issue with WiFi per se, because I can see the net, just not in a browser.

Grudging admission #2: Everything worked fine until I used the same machine to connect to a shared connection via Bluetooth the other day. The notebook has a built-in Bluetooth adapter, which I normally disable unless I'm using my Bluetooth mouse. I recently used a USB dongle to share an internet connection from another machine when I had no other way to get my notebook online. That worked just fine, and I didn't have to change any settings outside of those specific to the Bluetooth adapter and connection. I suspect, however, that as a side effect and to spite me for messing with an otherwise stable configuration, something has gone awry with the WiFi network connection/adapter in somewhere in Windows, even though I didn't directly change this adapter. How can I change it back?

Since it seems like the solution might be the same, I'm going to ask about a second problem: a friend of mine just asked for my help fixing her network, which is similarly afflicted: she also has broadband and WinXP, though she has one machine and no router. She can ping, nslookup, and tracert as well. But Firefox can't load any pages. IE can load some pages but bombs out on others (notably all secure HTTP connections). She can run her AOL client and access email. I'm hoping that fixing one of our problems will illuminate the solution to the other.

I have been all over in Google looking for answers to this sort of problem but I'm apparently not clever enough to find such answers, though they must exist somewhere. When I learn the solution to this myself I'll shout it from the rooftops!

iPod newbie on Windows XP needs help...

Al_Truist — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 13:49:44 -0800

iPod newbie on Windows XP needs help... I'm on Windows XP. My hard dive died. Dead. I've lost all my music.
Thankfully, it's all on my iPod, which I got for Christmas. I'm getting a new drive... how do I get the music off the iPod and onto the computer? I don't mind buying an app to do this if it makes it easier and is relatively cheap. In addition, since I'm new to the iPod in general, are there any apps for XP I should also check out?

What theme is this?

Third — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 06:56:33 -0800

Can anyone tell me what Windows XP theme this is and where I can get it? I have two examples of what I am talking about: here and here.

This theme looks similar to the standard Windows XP theme, but more Aquafied and generally much better. I'm not really sure how to search for themes without the name, so I was hoping one of you knew what this is called and where I can get it.

Why can't I burn a Knoppix DVD ISO on a WinXP laptop?

rwhe — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 04:29:54 -0800

I'm trying to burn the Knoppix 4.0 DVD ISO on my wife's second-hand Averatec Windows XP laptop. I have tried almost a dozen DVD burning programs without success. Most of them can't see there's a blank DVD in the drive. What's up? It seems to be at least partly an ASPI thing, but I went to Adaptec, got the drivers, installed them, and now their utility says the laptop is up to date. (ASPI was completely missing before.) I've tried both DVD+R and DVD-R with identical results. Even Microsoft's own dvdburn.exe command-line utility can't see the drive. FWIW, we have burned CDs with no problem, and DVD burning software came with the machine, so it's capable in theory.

I'm really lost here. I hate Windows. I'd burn the DVD on my latest Linux box, except that the DVD drive is currently occupied by a Knoppix CD, which can't be removed while the computer is running. The plan is to burn the Knoppix DVD somewhere else, so I can boot from that instead of the CD, and install it forevermore. Your assistance in this enterprise would be appreciated.

BBEdit equivalency?

mwhybark — Wed, 16 Mar 2005 21:11:56 -0800

On the Mac, if I need to munge text in extremis, I prefer to use BBEdit. Recently, on the PC, I am finding myself in need of a text editor which is similar to BBEdit. I will use it both for coding and for text-cleaning. I prefer freeware and shareware but that's by no means the deciding factor. Which programs should I check out? Which should I avoid? For purposes of this query, I am on XP. The majority of this coding is directed toward MS database apps, so MS-SQL and VB would be the most important syntax coloring doohickeys, although PHP, Perl, and HTML would be jim dandy too.

Shutting Down...

terrier319 — Fri, 11 Feb 2005 08:40:58 -0800

Since installing XP professional in November, I have experienced a spontaneous shutdown and restart of my desktop. When it returns, it tells me the system has recovered from a fatal error that is caused by an unspecified device driver. I have uninstalled both software and hardware one by one over the last several weeks in hopes of identifying the problem. Nothing. Even system restore does not solve it. Is is time to reinstall XP, even with the risk that it will likely happen again?

Hard drive diagnostic / repair?

Daddio — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 14:45:17 -0800

My WinXP system won't boot. Knoppix comes up fine, and complains that it can't read the partition table. I've got The Ultimate Boot CD; does anyone have a methodology for making things right, or at least recovering whatever I can from the hard drive?

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

How can I print from my Mac to a Windows network printer?

skylar — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 05:10:01 -0800

Can you advise on printing to a Windows PC printer from a Mac OSX machine, over a network? [more inside...] I have a Lexmark P707 printer, attached to a Windows XP computer by USB. It works fine. I have set it as shared on my local area network. I have also set up Print Services for Unix on the XP box just for good measure.

I have a pretty good feeling that another Windows machine would be able to see the shared printer. However, I am interested in printing to the Windows printer from my Apple Mac OS 10.3.5 machine.

When I try and add a printer, the Mac doesn't "see" the printer within the Windows Printing dialogue... nor can I seem to figure out the correct printer address to use in the UP Printing (LPD/LPR) area.

Lexmark won't help me on a networking issue, unfortunately. Google has some stuff on PC/Mac print networking but a lot of it is old and out of date. Has anyone figured this out? Is there some hack or workaround I could try? Many thanks for your help.