My same old berserk computer is at it again...

So, maybe a good idea for curioucity is to get a fresh, new warez copy of windows and see if it works better than his. There are ones with SP2 already integrated and registration disabled.

 

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Mmmm, possibly. Though that means someone PMing a discrete linky-poo's Curio's way, presuming of course, one has a linky-poo's to PM....

And perhaps whilst they're about it they can PM that delightful Mr Anonymous, he's British y'know, why he talks like a ponce (or so I presume), a discrete linky-poos to a clean, cracked copy of Corel Draw 10.

Very grateful Mr Anonymous would be. Very grateful indeed....Many machines on Ix. New machines....

 

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I don't think anyone can help curio in that, I think he has deactivated private messaging.
Though I have heard that one can find excellent open source software at http://www.torrentreactor.net/
Maybe Mr. Curio should look into that.

 

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So, you are suggesting that my installation CD is, somewhat, broke? While I know it could be (since often times lately the installation process just keeps halting without any good cause), I just can't believe if data in CDRs can deterioriate by itself after sometime, because about last year, I used the same CD to reinstall things when they're awry.....

Well, then, I decide that perhaps for the next few days I'll try coping with this first, since I thought perhaps there's some other thing going on. If I feel this is unbearable anymore, I guess either I'll fully wipe all my stuffs and strat anew.... or even buy a new PC *sigh*

Oh, and about activation (registration I presume), I always say skip whenever I reinstall.... what do you mean with getting around that?


PS: Okay, so here I am, trying connecting to network again...... good to know I have some PC magazines, and one of them suggested some things to help make XP runs better..... I'm trying some of them, including disabling as many service related to svchost as possible (though I don't get it how svchost, which is a networking program in nature, tampers with my PC audio drivers... I disabled one, and my PC went mute... restored now though).... let's see if the next hour brings the horror back...

PS#2: Here we go again......... so far I seem to have dealt with the svchost eating cpu usage problem....... so far........ but now a new problem comes.... I can't use MSN Messenger, and can't even play online games now....... AAARGH!!! Must I test every single thing for things to work fine for me?

PS#3: Playing around with the services again, mainly around RPC, the one that 'critical' svchost deals with..... *sigh* I wonder how things are going now....

 

When you install XP, actually quite a lot of software these days, the key that you use to install it with only unlocks a shareware version of the programme.

30 days after installation the system will remain viable, but impractical for use. You can create new documents, but you can't save anything. Key features disable.

Activation is required on line to verify the product key you have used, after which Microsoft sent a permanent activation Key Code which then allows your system to continue running as a full programme.

Otherwise XP just nags you to activate.

Running a crack patch may get you round the problem for a while, but eventually update files will register the fact that something doesn't add up.

There is, however, a fundamental flaw in the activation strategy: online activation is only required for single user licence PC installation versions of XP. A multi-user licence OEM installation of XP however doesn't require activation, being as how the programme is going to be installed on many machines all at the same time, individual activation just becomes impractical, so the necessity to activate in the first instance is superseded on installation via entering a multi-user licence key.

The difference between a Single user licence OEM installation disk and a Multi-user OEM installation disk is the registration key you enter on set up.

The software is exactly the same.

Thus, the possession of a valid multi-user licence key disables activation.



Now, as to your problem. You're copy may be corrupted, it may not. If you're over-writing the same installation files over and over again during set up and not starting fresh and clean, you're possibly causing the odd improper over-write to occur and that isn't going to help.

If XP is all that you are installing and it's setting up something that's eating your PC's resources whole for breakfast, somethings certainly off with the set up and if XP is the only thing you have installed that installation disk is the only possible source of data you're introducing to your machine.


Try going to Control Panel> Add/Remove Programmes> Windows Components and check what networking bits you have installed, check which bits you need and which you don't and uninstall what isn't necessary, see if that makes any difference.

 

Actually, there are versions of xp where you dont HAVE to activate, such as the version that came with my laptop... has a year install now and still working, no activation. Maybe he has a MSDN copy, or a hacked version.

 

Mmmm, perfectly correct. It all depends on the OEM version that gets distributed with your hardware. Microsoft licence out the rights to hardware vendors to produce specialised versions of the software where in certain features are either added or taken out, activation being one of them.

Most PC's and laptops come with an OEM distributed version of the operating system, pretty much pot luck one way or the other quite what you end up getting. Its only when you get the full or upgrade version from Microsoft direct out of the box when your getting the version God intended.

Problem in poor Curiosity's case of course is he's not had the thing up and running long enough to find out one way or the other yet...

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Long time no see people, with a bit of good news.

I haven't actually reformat/reinstalled my system again, but like I said previously, I played around with the services, disabling most of them which have svchost in its name. And surprise surprise, suddenly my system goes right, except for one thing:
Everytime now, when I cold-boot and try to get into my account, the first attempt always ends up with failure: server authenticating blah blah 0XC00000BB which stops me from logging in, and oddly enough, the problem disappears when I restart the system...... and when I check the Event Log (as suggested by that error message), I see "DCOM unable to start because a service is disabled"..... I'm not in the mood of trying one by one again (I'm tired...), so maybe you can help? I don't see any DCOM (the 'DCOM' acronym and any phrase which can make DCOM) in the service list, so....

Anyway, I build up my own PC, I don't buy Dell/Acer or sorts right away, so no CD for me from the start. And I dunno if the CD I'm using is that type or not...

 

DCOM explainations ahoy....

 

Oookay.... thankies....... though they don't provide good enough answer to my problem, but whatever...

Anyway, I just had a problem ( a serious one), though I just fixed it.... and I'm curious about somethings:
The problem is this: First, my PC failed to cold boot (totally refuse), then when I restarted, my display suddenly degraded into 4-bit (no kidding). I uninstalled my VGA card driver, and suddenly it goes right again. But before that, there was a BSOD (not again...), this time saying that ACPI.sys gets an error, unfortunately I forgot the problem...... does ACPI (maybe I'm wrong) relate to graphics whatsoever? If yes, then I see that XP's warning about my Driver being an odd (and unrecommended) stuff is late in telling me the problem (my current VGA card lasts for a good year or so), but otherwise.... anyway, my VGA card is broke, but that definitely is not the DCOM prob.....

*sigh* Sucks to be digitally cursed...

 

Yes, that can be nothing else than some demonic curse.

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ACPI.sys stands for Advanced Configuration and Power Interface - a lot of very fundamental hardware settings these days can be configured via the operating system, rather than having to access the BIOS direct.

Failure to read that ACPI.sys file correctly meant XP couldn't configure your hardware set-up, hence your graphically challenged monitor display I should image...

Indeed, as Avatar says, you are of the Cursed. In a past life you must have seriously honked off somebody else who, in this life is now a senior systems developer for Microsoft and MIGHTY is their vengeful wrath.

Appease them with sacrifices of aromatic herbs and the eyeballs of your first born, and you should do fine, perfectly fine.

Whens the last time you checked your drive for errors and bad sectors?

 

*sigh*

Anyway, my last drive checking (including Adaware and McAfee scanning) is about a week ago......

Anyway again....... speaking of being cursed...... new problem comes:
For the last 2 days, my system always fails to cold boot, saying that ntfs.sys is corrupted (never EVER happened before..... go figure), but everytime I repair (aka, recopying files from my CD), it goes fine again.... What the... I'm curerntly going offline and run my scanners for wrong stuffs, if detectable........

DAMMIT!!!!!!!!

 

3 possibilities:

1. go and hang yourself
2. throw your computer in a river and become a hermit
3. buy an entirely new computer and make it safe from the beginning

p.s. Have you considered an exorcist?

 

Sorry, but darn, even I don't have that many problems....

 

I'd save up for a new harddrive as I think that is what is ailing it. Harddrives are pretty cheap nowadays, just make sure you get something thats relatively new and preferably with a 7200 RPM or higher. As for your old drive, use it as a second or third slave drive, although I would suggest formatting it back to FAT32 for just storage since it's a bit more forgiving with damaged sectors.

 

... Yup. Kindda was where I was going with that....

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Curiosity old chap, I've been saying for days now - wipe the drive, all partitions, re-format and re-install clean.

Don't bother with the secondary FAT32 partition on the main drive, NTFS the lot and get yourself a secondary drive for data storage.

Yesterday your system couldn't read ACPI.sys, today it's not reading the NTFS.sys file - that's telling you all you need to know.

Now, if your drives crapped it won't pass scandisk before you format, if it does give one final try on that same drive - 1 NTFS partition the lot.

If it wiggs out after that, then do what Stryder says and quit shutting svchosts down unless you know what the crap they're doing - I'm not suprized your systems become unstable.

Anyones would.

I'm sorry old man, but it sounds like your fretting the poor thing to death. Just re-do it, clean and leave it.

... Are you the sort that used to pick the scrabs off your knees as a kid before they were done healing?

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Well, after what just hapened last night, I think I'd get a new HD at least, or even a new PC........... unstartable Windows, unaccepted installation CDs, hanging KNoppix...... geez...... *sigh* I can't believe my PC can get as blockhead as me....

 

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.... Quite the contrary old man, they do and they can. All the bladdy time it's just that, contrary to popular belief, the home PC and a mastery of its intimate workings there of are not the human equivalent of the spawning instinct in salmon.

Hardware fails, software both contains and makes errors.

So about the only approach one can take is a process of elimination, trial and error and pot luck.

Perhaps a clue here is the fact that you've being getting BSOD's from the beginning - I've only experienced or heard of XP reacting that way through hardware failure. It could be the drive itself, it could be down to the boards ATAPI interface - that's two altogether separate problems all of its own, and the list could go on.

Try the hardware vendor you mentioned in your original post - there's nothing like a fresh pair of eyes to root out a problem, and basically anyone dealing with this needs to be there, physically observing what happens and when.

We could all continue chipping bits in left right and centre, but the bottom line is, when you get hang ups like these, you need to be actually there with the machine to really get a feel for what's going on.

So try the chap that helped you out the last time, or if impractical, cast around your local area for a reputable no-fix-no-fee computer repair joint. One thing's for certain though, not going to get anywhere without having a poke about under the hood.

One last option I would suggest though, have a good gander at your current BIOS settings and check that they're correctly set up and configured for your motherboards configuration...

If y'don't have the mainboard book, just jot down its make and serial number and dig the manufacturer up on the net, you'll be able to download the board specs and perhaps the latest firmware updates relevant to your case.

Don't recommend the firmware option until you have absolutely nothing left to loose, but check that its XP compatible, what its optimum settings are, that sort of business.

Y'never know, you might find your problem there...

 

ummm... what if it's really an angry demon?
you know.. eternal damnation, curse for nine generations and all?

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