I hate my compy.

**Sockhatguy** · March 8th, 2005, 03:19 PM

I hate my compy, nothing but trouble.

Everyone has helped me with bits and pieces of my problems, and it just seems to get worse and worse.

Well, now I'm having a problem with my active desktop. when I boot up and login, windows gives me an error about my security settings and active-x controls. ...except that I haven't changed anything. the link to restore my active desktop doesn't do squat, and my windows picture and fax viewer is nowhere to be found, so I can't put a regular picture on there (it doesn't show up in the preview screen.)

Anywho, and yes, my windows picture and fax viewer is missing...I have no clue what happened. When I open My Pictures, I can see the thumbnails inside the folder icon, but when I open the folder, I get the generic "picture" image instead of the thumbnail of the image. when I double-click a photo, it says that it's "not a valid win32 application".

GRRRR! I want to do a clean install, but silly me didn't make sure that I got the software disks when I bought it off Ebay. I have my CDKey, but no XP Pro CD. GRRR!!!

**Ya_know** · March 8th, 2005, 03:38 PM

Which version of xp, home or pro, OEM or retail...

**iceman** · March 8th, 2005, 03:49 PM

. I have my CDKey, but no XP Pro CD. GRRR!!!

Dude get your eyes checked. There are some things that lead to blindness that you can control!

**Ya_know** · March 8th, 2005, 04:04 PM

Originally Posted by iceman

. I have my CDKey, but no XP Pro CD. GRRR!!!

Dude get your eyes checked. There are some things that lead to blindness that you can control!

Great, now that that is cleared up, is this retail or OEM...

**iceman** · March 8th, 2005, 04:58 PM

Or being that it came off of Ebay - Corporate?

**Ya_know** · March 8th, 2005, 09:05 PM

My point is, If you need either an OEM disk, or retail, borrow it from someone. As long as you have a valid Product key, you should do just fine with another disk. Hell, contact Microsoft, I bet they'd send you a disk for less than $20 shipped...

**TripleRLtd** · March 8th, 2005, 09:15 PM

True that.
Anything to offer as far as help goes Iceman? If ya wanna play, keep it in the lounge thank you.

**Sockhatguy** · March 8th, 2005, 10:38 PM

hey everyone, thanks for the replies...

I do believe that it is retail, my compy has a "built for windows 2000" sticker on the front that looks OEM...

Anywho, I do know someone that has an XP Pro CD with language support for a middle-eastern language, does it matter? I have a CD key for my version, would it matter if it has english and another language supported?

Also, I have aftermarket sound and video cards, will it prompt me for when to install each, or should I do them in a certain order?

do I insert the disk and let it autorun for a complete frag & install, or should I insert the disk then reboot? or should I wipe everything (or move it to a removeable drive) and then attempt an install?

I know, I flood a lot of questions at once.

...darn win32.sys BSOD's... MS Error reporting doesn't do jack.

Anywho, the sooner the reply about the language support, the better, I can only get the disk for a few more days. thanks again!

**Duke of Rezin** · March 8th, 2005, 11:48 PM

If it has a floppy drive you can download the setup disk for floppy boot install, Pro/Home http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/r...DisplayLang=en Takes about 6 formatted disks but just boot from the first one and run them all when prompted. There you can use the recovery console do do a chkdsk /r/f . That's all I'ved ever used them for but I think you may be able to go on and do a complete reinstall, at least that option is listed. Basically its pretty much like using the install cd. Since you have the OS key, just enter that when prompted.

**Sockhatguy** · March 9th, 2005, 12:04 AM

Duke - That download contains XP Pro? or just the essential drivers to get to the CD rom, so that the XP Pro CD can be used to finish the installation?

Sounds too good to me...

**Gabriel** · March 9th, 2005, 03:53 AM

Originally Posted by Sockhatguy

....
Anywho, I do know someone that has an XP Pro CD with language support for a middle-eastern language, does it matter? I have a CD key for my version, would it matter if it has english and another language supported?...

In short - it won't matter a bit.

Every (original) XP CD contains Middle east language support file - in the setup program you have to select the "install files for complex script and right to left" check box under the "supplement language support".

Cheers,
Gabriel

**Duke of Rezin** · March 9th, 2005, 10:24 AM

There are separate downloads for Pro and for Home. Again, I'm not sure if you can actually do a full install or not but the option is there. It loads Windows exactly as if you had the actual installation cd.

**Sockhatguy** · March 14th, 2005, 10:31 PM

thanks Duke of Rezin for the tips, but I'm personally a bit iffy about those downloads...I'm pretty sure that those just install just enough to run the CD-ROM so you can insert the full install CD. So I'm gonna hit up my friend with the XP Pro CD with the extra language support. Thanks Gabriel for the info. I was just unsure about if my CD Key would work on an XP Pro CD with a different language support version. I'm still a bit nervous about it, but I think that its mainly becasue I have a lot of junk to move onto my extra HD. that's a lot of work to do between crashes. if it doesn't work, I'll be sure to submit a link to the ultimate destruction video of my tower. = D

Thanks again for the help, I'll post again in a couple days about the progress. Thanks everyone that has helped, for this thread and in the past, it is very much appreciated!

Sockhatguy