Re: General instructions to re-install Windows XP
- From: tcarp <tcarp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 07:27:01 -0700
Anna
If I correctly understand your post, you're indicating that your friend's
replacement scanner is properly functioning although you're still puzzled as
to the cause & remedy of the problem she was experiencing with her original
non-defective scanner. It's nearly impossible for me to diagnose what caused
the precise problem she was having let alone the specific solution to that
problem. It's possible a Repair install of the XP OS might have corrected
the problem or possibly other approaches such as the chkdsk and sfc/scannow
commands could have been tried to good effect - the preceding assuming, of
course, that the problem involved some corrupted system files that caused
the problem and not a driver issue.
Although I didn't come here to get input on my friend's scanner problem, let
me go over it briefly since, as it turns out, she may have a good backup of
her total system and there may still be some residual problems. I'm not
asking you to diagnose but more to understand if there are some things she
should do and to learn how to make sure there are good backups available the
next time.
Let me go over the sequence of events. She has a laptop that, when at home,
she plugs into a monitor, an HP All-in-One (scanner, printer, fax, copier),
and a bluetooth keyboard. She also plugs into an external HD when she does
backups.
Periodically she disconnects and uses the laptop standalone (travel, etc.)
One day a few weeks ago she had disconnected for 3-4 hours during which time
she checked email (trusted sources) and did some work on one of her data
files. When she reconnected the scanner didn't work (meaning it gave an
error message when she tried to use it - I don't have that message handy).
She checked around and noticed that printer and fax didn't seem to be
"defined" in Windows also.
Attempting to fix the problem herself she told Windows to add the printer.
Whatever happened next got lost in a very long multi-day dialog with HP.
From what I can gather they used remote console to check things out up toactually uninstalling the software and reinstalling it again.
I got a call when she was in a panic because all her email and browser
settings appeared to have been lost. It turns out HP had left her default
log on to another admin account and she wasn't getting her account files
loaded. I had here log on to her normal account which cleared up the browser
and email file issue.
Her scanner however still didn't work. We started some basic tests and
found that she could still print and copy which told me the USB connection
and the hardware itself were working. My suspect was the driver but
apparantly a full install had been done. The error we were getting indicated
that the scanner was either showing in use or couldn't be detected (depending
on whether she was trying to scan or run a diagnostic utility).
Wanting to see it with my own eyes I suggested that we uninstall the HP
programs and do another reinstall from her original CDs. It seemed strange
to me that the scanner would just stop being recognized by the system and yet
she could print and the device copy which told me we weren't looking at a
hardware problem. But there was nothing in what she told me that indicated
some external force (other than the disconnect/reconnect) that would explain
things. I found that the time between successful scans wasn't just the time
when she had disconnected the laptop from her home configuration. The last
time she had used the scanner was a few days earlier. She's pretty cautious
about what she does with her PC and has active virus protection software
running (and does routine scans) so I didn't suspect anything getting into
her system (although it can't be ruled out).
What I did suspect was a corruption somewhere.
When we did the software reinstall it failed with an 126 error message that
pointed to a corrupt srvsvc.dll file. We were working our way toward
restoring that file (although I would have needed so dialog like this to have
had the confidence) but I decided to run the registry cleaner first. On the
next re-install of the device it ran to normal finish but the scanner problem
didn't go away.
The next step I was suggesting was for me to install the all-in-one on my
laptop to see if the problem followed the device.
Before we could get there her husband went to a local Office Depot asking
questions. Although they had purchased the HP device directly from HP the OD
manager offered to give them a demo loan of exactly the same device for
testing. They got it, plugged it in, but no scanner. This, of course, led
us to believe that the problem was in her pc.
Her husband kept talking to the Office Depot manager and was lead to believe
that this particular scanner+ had problems so he offered to sell them a
previous version at a considerably reduced price.
We installed the new device from scratch and during the install got a
message that there was a corrupted system file (wasn't the same file name but
very close and another .dll). I decided to let run the install again
(actually, HPs install utility was smart enough to recognize the failed
attempt so it did an uninstall and restarted the install). This time it ran
right to the end.
The scanner works.
Let's assume for just a second that one or more corrupt Windows files
are/were out there (I realize it could be a driver problem but I figured the
reinstall would have taken care of that).
I looked at the srvsvc.dll file and found that it's create and modification
dates are way back there which tells me it doesn't get updated. That would
mean that any backup copy would be fine as long as it was before the problem
began. But "corrupt" files is too generic for me to understand. The
corruption would have to be on the hard drive wouldn't it? Unless the dll
file is getting loaded into a bad ROM spot doesn't the curruption have to
occur on the HD?
And when we first saw the 126 message (forget that it went away after a
registry clean) should we have gone ahead and figured out how to restore the
..dll file?
Keep in mind that she went through long hours with HP trying everything they
suggested including checking for running tasks. The only wierd thing was a
couple programs that couldn't be removed (add/remove programs) but HP claimed
they were for different devices than the scanner.
Anna, again, I'm not asking you to spend time diagnosing the scanner
problem. But I am interested in your thoughts in the context of the backup
and restore theme behind this thread.
I very much appreciate the time you're taking here. Good learning for me
and is very helpful figuring out not only are there some things we
should/could have done to solve the scanner problem but also in reviewing and
updating my/our backup strategies.
Tom
.
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