I'm 5 days into a new XP Pro install and it's already looking like I'll have
to reformat and start over.
It only took me 36 hrs before I had it so it would lock up tight just after
logon. Wouldn't even boot into Safe Mode, hanging in same way. As I knew I
had just installed a sound card driver update, I booted using a 98SE startup
disk and manually went into system (or was it system32) and deleted a
specific file (20+ years and at least I can guess right once in awhile).
That got the system back with it detecting and re-installing it's "default"
sound card driver upon re-boot. Then had to manually clean up the mess, e.g.
registry, files, etc. I'll be damned if these hard disks are going to be
NTFS, they'll stay Fat32 just for that reason, e.g. I'd end up destroying
the pc if it was just "software" locking me out.
Note the 98SE floppy use was after I found out the Recovery Console command
prompt (or whatever it's called when booting from cd) wouldn't just let me
access anywhere I wanted to on the hard disk. That just reaffirmed and as
far as I'm concerned justified my decision to stay Fat32.
I then thought, leave well enough alone regarding DX stuff as I had already
updated to DX9.0b prior to the sound card update. I did continue installing
other required drivers (scanner, webcam, camera etc.) and started
installing various apps etc. I also got my internet connection back up,
in-house ethernet sharing printers etc., email and address book restored
from backup, etc etc. Things looked like they were going very smoothly and I
had good thoughts about it all.
UNTIL ... today I notice DirectX isn't running up to snuff, acting like it's
film consistently running at 15fps or so. Didn't notice it until the driving
game(s) and wheel game out
Updating the video card driver is the typical nightmare no-one at MS or the
video card vendors ever cautions about, instead always giving the advice
'update your drivers'. Well that more often than not seems to lead to a
completely hosed system. In my case, it hosed my video capture and came back
up with Direct3D Accel disabled in DXDiag!!! Back to standard VGA and insure
all remnants of previous drivers are completely eliminated and start over.
I'm back up with both video capture and 3D Accell working again but it's not
acting as "nice" as it was previously .... Not exactly a surprise to most
I'm sure.
Not even a week and I'm already removing hardware trying to solve problems
and I write this as I'm copying everything I want to a second pc to insure I
keep my email, address book, documents etc. etc. as it looks like it'll be a
fdisk and format. Figure I might as well download some older drivers
(interims between what I have on cd and what's on vendors website) as well.
In other words, I'm preparing/protecting myself for/from a total loss.
Oh and let's not forget the joy I'll have downloading all those critical
updates etc. again on a slow dialup connection.
On the plus side, I now know the MovieMakerII update/patch doesn't work and
also craps out the previous version. Don't you just love it that MS doesn't
provide uninstall routines for some of their products etc.
I also now know that setting up user accounts trying to limit what your kids
etc. can do is a waste of time. Geez, even the screen resolution is global
across every "group" rather than specific to individual users.
I think my vendor buddy was right when he said to me that 'XP has nothing in
it for you.'. This OS very much reminds me of what I hated about mini's and
mainframes and jumped to pc's 20 years ago.
Louise said:
Hi - I have XP upgrade from Windows 98. I just want to reformat and can't
figure that out! Now I worry I won't be able to get anything back on like
you are having problems doing. I'll watch and see if anyone helps you and
maybe I'll get a clue.
