Re: I'm going crazy-please HELP!

voiced his/her/it's humble opinion in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support on Sat 14 Oct 2006 12:36:31a:

After getting that damn blue unmountable boot drive screen YET AGAIN
after the PC locked up and I had to turn it off by holding the power
button rather than shutting it down properly through the start menu
(even though I haven't had that screen come up in over a year, it's
happened quite a few times), I had to wipe the hard drive clean. I've
been told that's all I could do if I couldn't start windows or start
the PC in safe mode. So I was pretty pretty upset, but I whipped out
the Compaq Quick Restore CD that I've always used to revert the PC back
to factory condition. I was REALLY amused to pop it and see an error
message telling me to contact Compaq. I clean the disc-nope, nothing.
Wonderful. So I take out the Compaq Recovery discs (there three of
them numbered), not really knowing the difference between those and the
Quick Restore CD. It took forever but it seemingly got the job done.
Or so I thought. Before with the Quick Restore disc, I wiped
everything clean, started up, and everything was installed, including
Windows. This time I turn it on and it has to go through the Windows
installation (?)! And then there was a message on the desktop that
acted like I was just testing the computer or something. It had some
options but the only one that got the message to go away was to
"reseal" and restart the PC. Whatever the heck that does. So the
message's gone and I thought everything was normal., but I've got
problems up the you-know-what. For one, I can't play DVDs. Windows
Media Player says I don't have something installed to allow DVDs to
play. So I look it up online to see if I can download some simple
thing, and apparently I have to PAY for it (?!) I don't think so! I
want what CAME with the computer! Also, I don't have a URL bar, even
though my mom's user account has one (?). I go to view-toolbars-adress
bar, and turn it on and off but it doesn't work. Okay then. And
another big thing is the size of everything. The font, incons, text,
and even the type of font is screwy. Now this happened every time I
wiped the harddrive clean and every other time I changed the appearance
settings in the control panel and got everything right back the way it
was with a simple click or two, but this time I can't get it back to
normal, no way no how. Not for anything. I move the video resolution
up and everything's too small. It's either that or way too big. And
like I said, the font looks different (the message I'm typing right now
for instance looks nothing like it did before). And as an added bonus,
Microsoft Works (where I used Microsoft Word) is gone. God only knows
what else is supposed to be installed and isn't, or what's changed.
Argh! I'm on my knees begging for help here, guys! I'm ready to throw
the stupid thing RIGHT out the window. Also, you could tell me how to
avoid getting the blue screen again if I have to shut the PC off the
"wrong" way again if it freezes or the power goes off and shuts it off
itself. Thanks in advance!



Do what I did a couple of years ago. I bought a CompaQ from FutureShop
for my 12 y.o. step daughter and wiped the drive so I could install
Win98SE instead. Very bad news! Their version of XP was installed with
the NTFS file system. Once it has been installed your stuck with the
version of XP that's on there unless you have official upgrades.

I phoned their tech support and raised much bad ju-ju. Two days later
I had an eight disk set of restore CDs, Including a jewel disk of XP-
Home. It only worked with the CompaQ as I found out when I tried to scam
an install on my rig. :0) Can't blame a guy for trying eh?

IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO CHANGE YOUR FILE SYSTEM FROM A DOS/WIN98 FAT OR
FAT32 THINK AGAIN!

This isn't paranoid thinking my friend. Once you've allowed XP to b*tt
f**k your system with NTFS, you are locked in. Especially using a piece
of crap like CompaqQ or any system that cost less than $1500 and doesn't
come equipped with a fresh-off-the-press original Windoze CD.

This isn't urban myth, it's first-hand experience. Not to mention the
built in video sucks up a lot of RAM. A $500 comp WILL NOT play any
decent game of recent vintage. eg: Doom or Quake 3. I'm using an nVidia
FX 5500 OC 256Meg AGP card and it runs those nicely but will surely choke
when I get ahold of a copy of Flight Simulator X Deluxe Edition. I
bought a basic motherboard and cpu to boost my old AMD Duron 1000 system.

I now have a 64bit Sempron 2800+. Picked up the MB, CPU and 512MDDR400
ram for under $200Can. Added another 256M 266 from the old system for
768M that works in 98SE and Xp_Pro. Mini format MB but you can't tell
looking in the side panel. MB will take an Athlon XP64 3700+ but the
boost is appreciated for now. I'll grab the 3700+ off EBay in a few
months when it's cheap as coal!

I hope my ramblings have helped in some way.

PS: Have you seen that Uma Thurman movie:, KILL BILL? :0)


Later......

LabRat...... |:^{)




.