David said:
Thank you both very much for the words of warning. I'll look at the
links and see if I can make sense of it all.
I still have 2 problems, both started after updating with SP2.
1. My DVD burners are not recognized as burners, only CD ROM's. The
drives are Memorex DVD+/- Dual X1 and Sony DVD RW DW022a
When I try to burn anything, CD or DVD, I get the same warning:
"K:\ (or J:\) is not accessible
Incorrect function."
The only option is OK. In Device Manager for both drives it says "This
device is working correctly."
2. I sometimes cannot install software, although this problem didn't
materialize until some later date than the DVD problem. In other words
I was able to install some software before this happened. None of the
software was anything less than "main stream," (Photoshop V7, Premier
6, Eudora 6, Forte Agent 2.0, MS Word & CA Antivirus & Adaware spyware
etc) Now when I try to install anything I get the first window as the
program "unpacks" itself (sorry for the terminology) then up comes,
Windows Installer "Preparing to Install" The system hangs for maybe 2
minutes then a Windows Installer warning:
"The Windows installer service could not be accessed. This can
occur if you are running Windows in Safe Mode, or if the Windows
Installer is not correctly installed. Contact your support personnel
for assistance"
This all started way back in January and at that time MS suppport said
it would be solved by getting an XP installation disk updated with SP2
which they said they would send. A couple of weeks later, before it
arrived, I left the country for 5 months. I don't know what happened
to the CD but have only just received a copy yesterday. MS support
said it would have been better if I had done a clean install of XP
before adding SP2. However this is exactly what I did so the next
suggestion was that probably I needed the BIOS update.
One other problem has manifested itself just recently, I get a warning
when I try to defrag drive E.
"Defragmentation of E: has been cancelled due to inconsistencies that
were detected in the file system. Please run CHKDSK on E: to repair
these inconsistencies then run Diskeeper again."
I have tried to run CHKDSK with and without switches, nothing happens.
I'd very much like to sort out the mess before re-installing
everything.
David
In your "main stream" list, you mention CA Antivirus & Adaware spyware.
Now, I'm a hardware guy, but my intuition says any program with the
word "antivirus" in it, meddles at low levels in the OS. Antivirus
software can intercept calls, screen certain activities, and
generally mess things up. To me, that would be one area to
explore (i.e. go to CA website, if they have a knowledgebase,
see if there are any entries with respect to XP SP2).
Another area of concern, is the tool sets people use with burners.
I've only owned a DVD burner for a week (it was a gift for a family
member, and I "tuned" it up, by buying and testing media, until
I found a brand that worked and had a low error rate at the media
level). That gave me an opportunity to see how invasive some of
the tools can be. Any time a burner package installs its own
drivers, there is a possibility they will interfere with the
OS. Here is a post extracted at random from Google.
http://groups.google.ca/group/micro...27d96/4221d6d49f9797be?q=atapi.sys+dvd+burner
Have a look in Device Manager, at your DVD drives. See what driver
files are listed against them. Look for anything that belongs to
the burner tools, as being a suspect. For a forum that deals
in burner issues, try here - I did extensive reading here about
the drive I bought, and about tool issues:
http://club.cdfreaks.com/
As for the motherboard, you can get a manual for your board here:
http://www.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socka/kt133a/a7v133/a7v133-105.pdf
The Aflash program, and a DOS boot floppy, is one method for
updating your BIOS. It is less risky than using Asus Update, as
there is less that can interfere with a successful flash.
(Especially, considering that currently your OS is compromised
somehow, using Asus Update might not be a wise idea.) On
my older motherboards, I like to use tools from the era of
the release of the motherboard, so a copy of Aflash from your
motherboard CD would be one source of the Aflash program.
If you no longer have the motherboard CD, this is the
currently listed Aflash version on the download page:
http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/flash/aflash221.zip
The A7Vtroubleshooting page has some advice at the bottom
of the BIOS page. You can use that to get some help with
preparing your DOS boot floppy plus flash tool and BIOS
file.
But, personally, I wouldn't reach for the BIOS upgrade
tools, unless I could somehow prove that the BIOS was responsible
for the problems. You potentially have enough intrusive
applications, for that to be the problem instead.
If you have a spare hard drive, you could try doing a test
install on there. Put your WinXP SP2 on there, install the
DVD support tools, then test and see what happens. If things
are working, have a careful look in Device Manager, see what
driver files, like atapi.sys, aspi.sys and the like, are being
used for storage devices. Perhaps by comparing a clean install
on a spare disk, to your current install, you'll see some
important differences.
While you could try a "repair install", using a WinXP SP2
version of installer disk, I don't know what happens when
driver files from intrusive tools meet with the files from
the installer. Presumably, nothing gets cleaned up, and
problems could persist. I don't know, cause I'm just a
hardware guy
Paul
