Aaaaaack! I have a crisis:
I went over to a friend's house this morning to finish up some work on his XP machine. I tried to install Norton Anti-Virus, but it wouldn't install. I tried to install Spybot, and it wouldn't install either. He was also having problems with his scanner, new CD burner, and Windows Media Player.
Upon running McAfee's Stinger, I found two viruses: a W32/Bagle variant and a W32/Netsky.d@MM virus. Stinger found more than 300 infected files within Windows. After finishing the scan, I got a message saying something to the effect of (and this is paraphrasing), "Some Windows files have been altered. Please insert Windows XP CD to restore the files to their original condition. If you choose not to restore the files, Windows may become unstable." Then the box gives two options: Install the CD or "skip" it or whatever.
Well, you guessed it, my friend doesn't have the Windows CD. His wife had their computer built for her by a guy at the school district she used to work for. Presumably, he had a multi-use license and used that Windows CD on her computer (?). Anyway, she's certain they never got a CD with the machine. So, I had to choose the "skip it" option (or whatever it's called) 'cuz we don't have the CD to restore the files.
Now my problem is that the first time I rebooted, all heck broke loose. At startup, I get 3 error messages:
1) "Unserinit Logon Application has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." And, of course, I get two options: "Send Report" or "Don't Send." I can't use Send Report, 'cuz they have a dial-up connection and I can't even get to where the machine boots up far enough for me to get on the Internet. It won't even get to the point where the desktop icons appear.
2) When I click "Don't Send," it brings up another error box saying, "WMI has encountered a problem and needs to close."
3) When I click Don't Send on that one, I get yet another box saying, "Dr. Watson Postmortem Debugger has encountered a problem and needs to close." Well, when I click Don't Send on that one, it just brings the box back up. No matter how many times I click it, the same box just stays there. There's no way out -- even Ctrl+Alt+Delete gives me a "Windows Task Manager has encountered a problem and needs to close."
Aaaaaaargh! The only thing I could do was physically unplug the machine to get it to shutdown. I tried calling Microsoft tech support, but they adamantly refuse to help me without the Product I.D. # on the CD -- which we don't have! I tried Safe Mode, to no avail.
My friend's machine worked, sort of (he could at least get on the Web & use e-mail & stuff), before I came over today. Now the machine is completely down and I'm in a panic here. He's an acquaintance of the family, as opposed to just a 'regular' friend of mine, so I'm in a bit more of a bind here than I might otherwise be. Although he's too polite to say it, I'm sure he's thinking, "Geez. The machine worked before, now after Ken worked on it I can't use it at all." Good grief. Tried to help him and look where it got me.
I'm not an expert with WinXP, so I'd really appreciate any assistance any of you guys can offer.
Ken
PS: Vital stats: PC clone; P4; 256 MB of RAM; Win XP Pro without SP2, but does have most critical updates as of a few days ago; new Plextor CD burner and new Sony floppy drive. Very minimally equipped -- no 'cluttery' software or unusual stuff going on. Good ventilation.
I went over to a friend's house this morning to finish up some work on his XP machine. I tried to install Norton Anti-Virus, but it wouldn't install. I tried to install Spybot, and it wouldn't install either. He was also having problems with his scanner, new CD burner, and Windows Media Player.
Upon running McAfee's Stinger, I found two viruses: a W32/Bagle variant and a W32/Netsky.d@MM virus. Stinger found more than 300 infected files within Windows. After finishing the scan, I got a message saying something to the effect of (and this is paraphrasing), "Some Windows files have been altered. Please insert Windows XP CD to restore the files to their original condition. If you choose not to restore the files, Windows may become unstable." Then the box gives two options: Install the CD or "skip" it or whatever.
Well, you guessed it, my friend doesn't have the Windows CD. His wife had their computer built for her by a guy at the school district she used to work for. Presumably, he had a multi-use license and used that Windows CD on her computer (?). Anyway, she's certain they never got a CD with the machine. So, I had to choose the "skip it" option (or whatever it's called) 'cuz we don't have the CD to restore the files.
Now my problem is that the first time I rebooted, all heck broke loose. At startup, I get 3 error messages:
1) "Unserinit Logon Application has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." And, of course, I get two options: "Send Report" or "Don't Send." I can't use Send Report, 'cuz they have a dial-up connection and I can't even get to where the machine boots up far enough for me to get on the Internet. It won't even get to the point where the desktop icons appear.
2) When I click "Don't Send," it brings up another error box saying, "WMI has encountered a problem and needs to close."
3) When I click Don't Send on that one, I get yet another box saying, "Dr. Watson Postmortem Debugger has encountered a problem and needs to close." Well, when I click Don't Send on that one, it just brings the box back up. No matter how many times I click it, the same box just stays there. There's no way out -- even Ctrl+Alt+Delete gives me a "Windows Task Manager has encountered a problem and needs to close."
Aaaaaaargh! The only thing I could do was physically unplug the machine to get it to shutdown. I tried calling Microsoft tech support, but they adamantly refuse to help me without the Product I.D. # on the CD -- which we don't have! I tried Safe Mode, to no avail.
My friend's machine worked, sort of (he could at least get on the Web & use e-mail & stuff), before I came over today. Now the machine is completely down and I'm in a panic here. He's an acquaintance of the family, as opposed to just a 'regular' friend of mine, so I'm in a bit more of a bind here than I might otherwise be. Although he's too polite to say it, I'm sure he's thinking, "Geez. The machine worked before, now after Ken worked on it I can't use it at all." Good grief. Tried to help him and look where it got me.
I'm not an expert with WinXP, so I'd really appreciate any assistance any of you guys can offer.
Ken
PS: Vital stats: PC clone; P4; 256 MB of RAM; Win XP Pro without SP2, but does have most critical updates as of a few days ago; new Plextor CD burner and new Sony floppy drive. Very minimally equipped -- no 'cluttery' software or unusual stuff going on. Good ventilation.
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