Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Posts: 10178

can i start over!?!?

my computer is screwed. it completely freezes up every hour or so and i got exclamations all over my device manager. Ive reinstalled windows twice. i have programs that dont exist try to execute on startup and programs in my remove programs list that dont exist. I have 15 things running in my ctrl+alt+del menu that i have no fucking clue what they are. I have things running in my tray that i cant get rid of, and one of them i thought i uninstalled along time ago. ive run norton, mcaffee, scandisk, defrag, optout, bodetect and im just fed up and want to start over.

I have a Compaq with a pIII 450mhz and 128mb ram running Win98.
I have 2 hard drives, C: is 14gigs and this is where everything is, including windows. D: is 2gigs and i have never used this drive, although it has 1.5gigs of shit on it that i have no idea what it is, but there is a BOOTDISK dir that includes a program called recover.exe which im scared to execute. there is also a dir called CPQDRV which contains a whole bunch of numbered directories which contain a directory that contains a directory that contains a numbered zip file which contains many different things including cab files which contain... well, you get the picture. I assume this is all data needed by restore.exe to restore my system, but im just guessing. Also theres a CPQS dir that contains more crap, and a DATA dir containing files titled FACTORY.002 through FACTORY.022, and each one is 30.72MB, except FACTORY.022 which is 1.7MB. Ill guess that this is more restore data.

Let me just say im a hardware idiot. I have a quick restore disk & i have the win98 disk, will that be enough to reset this bitch? The win98 disk will not install on computers that dont already have win98 installed (i tried it on my win95 computer). If i format the disk does that mean i cant reinstall windows? Do i need software for all my hardware? I dont think i have disks for all my hardware.

Whats the procedure for this? is this something i shouldnt even attempt? Whats all this crap on my D drive and should i try restore.exe? Wtf should i do (btw warranty ran out on this thing last month, go figure)

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: b0ulder
Posts: 5126

There's a timer on your computer they set when you buy the warranty. Anyway, all you need is that restore CD. If you haven't changed any hardware in or out of your computer, you have nothing to worry about. All your programs and saved files will be lost, but your computer won't lock up on you any more. Just pop the cd in and nswer yes to most of it's questions. It should be pretty easy.

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Titleist

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
Posts: 7236

it will prolly have an option to 'reinitialise' the hard drive. Do this if it does.

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sp00ky
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Men who believe they give a woman an orgasm everytime are fools.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Erehwon
Posts: 7537

dingle... dont use those crappy discs... buy yourself a copy of winME and reformat the whole fucker... back anything you need up on a couple of cds

reformat the fucker and install the new os from scratch

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Bangor, ME
Posts: 10153

<font color=#p9b5d1>yes winME does rock, it takes my computer, which i have you all to thank for, about 10 seconds to boot and about 3 to shutdown

speedy too
and aminal if you could tell me someother features that would be kick ass

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ManHo Inc.®©

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Posts: 10178

aminal, i would but i dont have cash to throw around. also id run into that problem with no hardware software.

anyways, ive backed up everything i want to keep (i hope) and im about to try this restore thing. everyone cross your fingers for me.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Posts: 10178

well fuck me. the restore went ok but windows didnt detect or install my modem, video card or soundcard.

now what? these devices came from the factory, i dont have disks for them, and even if i did windows wont even acknowledge that they are there...

for instance, when i hit dial up networking it says 'you dont have a modem installed, windows will now search for a modem' and it results in 'windows could not locate a modem' or something like that. im stuck in 640x400 resolution and i have no internet access.

fuck fuck fuck fuck

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
Posts: 7236

Ok Dingle, no need to panic. First things first, do you have the original docs that came with the machine? If so what is the graphics card, and what is the modem. Is it an internal modem? It prolly is, that is why windows did not detect it, it prolly has to use an install prog to creat a virtual com port.

You are gonna need to borrow someone elses puter to download the dirvers but it should not be a problem. Post the specs and I will find the links for you dude.

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sp00ky
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Men who believe they give a woman an orgasm everytime are fools.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: b0ulder
Posts: 5126

Go to Device Manager and see if you have any yellow exclaimations. Look to see how many devices are in "Other Devices," this is where Windows puts the hardware that it can't recognize right off. You said modem, video, and sound, so there should be three in other devices.

If you have exclaimations in other places list them and their path, so we can figure out which is which.

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Titleist

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Posts: 10178

well i finally got it to detect the hardware. I found a disk for the sound card, so thats all good. In 'other devices' i have listed:

! PCI Communications Device <-- modem
! CABO II <-- i would assume this is the video card.

Neither have drivers installed, and both list manufacturer as 'unknown'.

im gonna call compaq and see if they can tell me what kind of hardware it is (and why they didnt send me software for the devices i purchased).

otherwise i guess ill have to open the case and look for stickers (unless theres an easier way to determine the manufacturers of these devices).

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Posts: 10178

well, i talked to compaq support and a nice man helped me restore the drivers, which were hidden quite well (about eight directories deep in a file that could only be accessed by a seemingly random string of numbers he told me to type in the start->run menu) god bless them for keeping it simple.

well, thanks all for the advice, but i have frozen up 3 times already tonight, so that didnt exactly solve my problems. I guess ive eliminated software problems, i have 128 MBs RAM, could that be the problem? A year ago 128megs was more than enough for just about anything, 3 years ago 32megs was top of the line.

I dont know, it seems no matter how much or little i have open i freeze up every so often. mirc, cuteftp, editpad, and 3 or 4 netscape windows should run just fine on 128megs, but doesnt. it will work fine for 1-2 hours then just *freeze* - no blue screen, just a frozen bitmap so i can sit and stare at all my unsaved work before i turn the power off and watch it all disappear.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
Posts: 7236

Ok I am betting that the modem will be in inetrnal rockwell modem. If the machine is like only a year old it will prolly be a Connexant Soft K56, like I said before this will prolly create a virtual com pport, so we will need to get the drivers from somewhere for it. Speak to Coompaq and find out

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sp00ky
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Men who believe they give a woman an orgasm everytime are fools.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
Posts: 7236

Does this only happen when you are online? If it does it could be the modem. IF its an internal software one it uses the CPU. So if you have loads of apps open it just hangs the machine.

If its not internal, then it could be dodgy RAM I guess.

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sp00ky
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Men who believe they give a woman an orgasm everytime are fools.

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