Program hangups and freezes on my Laptop

I'm sorry. Yes, it is step 3 you need to perform.

I can't get the PC restore to work! I hold down the buttons but it just proceeds to load normally. Right before this, I was going to restart so that the laptop would recognize the external hard drive and flash drive and there was an option to shut down and install updates. I decided to do that instead and then it got to like update 3 and I had a BSOD saying that there had been some sort of problem with faulty drivers or something (sorry I can't be more specific) and for me to restart my computer. I did so, and things were okay. I saw your reply and have restarted (via the option, not cold rebooting) 2 or 3 times trying to get the PC restore menu to come up. On this most recent restart, I got a message saying the system had recovered from a serious error. I sent the error report. What Next?

Well, the recovery partition would be great.. But, if it isn't accessible any more you can use the disks that you have.

Maybe when they worked on your laptop they reinstalled windows at that time and maybe deleted the recovery partition. Are you sure you are pressing Ctrl-F11 when the computer turns on. The timing has to be just right. Basically, a brief moment after you power the laptop on and you see the intial DELL screen come up, you should begin pressing Ctrl-F11. Hold CTRL down and keep tapping F11. I sure would like you to recovery this way rather than the manual way with the discs. Although, either gets you to the same place.

If you have to use the discs, you'll need to start by booting the XP Media Center disk and using it to reinstall your operating system. Then you'll have to install the drivers and utilities disk to reinstall your hardware drivers. You'll have to install the remainder of your software after that. I can't be more specific about what the XP Media Center disc is going to do because it is probably customized by Dell. It should be very straight forward. I recommend that you unplug ALL external devices such as printers, hard drives, and flash drives. These can mess up the drive letters during a reinstall and you can accidentally erase a backup drive if it is plugged in.

If the XP Media Center installation disc you have is like a standard XP installation disc then you will have to go through a few installation procedures. Please read HERE so that you can be prepared what to expect. If your installation disc is similiar to a standard installation disc then you will want to follow the directions at the link I provided.

Remember, most likely, after you reinstall your operating system from disc, you will have to install the drivers and utilities disc to get internet connectivity and other hardware drivers loaded.

Do you have another computer to get on-line with in case something goes wrong? I would like you to be able to get back to me if there is a problem. But, there is no turning back after you start.

If you have any problems during the reinstallation with BSOD, crashes, lockups, etc. then we are probably looking at hardware trouble on your laptop.

Okay! I read your link and printed out the instructions, and I'm fairly confident I'll know what I'm doing! BUT, just so we're absolutely 100% clear, after I reinstall my OS, THAT is when I'll reinstall my drivers and utilities disc and then my application disc, right? Is there a particular order I need to do those in? It's a little fuzzy since I didn't create a backup CD. How important is it that I actually reinstall the application disc since all it has on it, apparently, is CyberLink PowerDVD, and I don't use that program? After I do that, I reinstall my antivirus and anti-spyware, right? And I do have access to other computers to get online with, but not here at my apartment. My roommate's computer is currently having problems with some Infostealer malware/spyware but I'm just across the street from the campus library and can use their computers to get back here if I need to.

Hi…

Well, you really only need to install your OS, and drivers. The "Drivers and utilities" disk will have extra things you probably do not need to install. The problem is that I can't tell you exactly what to install and what you can not install because I don't know what it is going to provide for you. You will need the OS disc installed, and then all the hardware drivers. You will also need a few utilities.

I would use the application disc to install Cyberlink because this will give you your DVD player codecs so that you are able to play DVD's on the computer with any program.

I guess mainly I can tell you what you DONT need to install off those discs. Don't install their stupid Norton trial. Don't install outdated programs that have been long gone and replaced. Like old versions of Flashplayer or Java, or whatever else they may offer that you can get on-line. Don't install trials of anything. Its all bloat and junk.

It doesn't hurt if you DO install these things, and afterwards I can get you to run a PCPitStop report so I can assist you with uninstalling what doesn't need to be there.

So, the order goes like this: XP Media Center DVD -> Drivers and Utilities -> (Windows updates) -> Application disc -> your other software.

It would be a good idea to visit update.microsoft.com after you install your "drivers and utilities" and install all the critical updates to your Windows operating system. When that is finished you can continue to install your application disc and other software. If you choose to do a "Custom" scan during the windows update process, DO NOT install any hardware/driver updates that Microsoft may offer you. Only install Critical, and optional updates if you want them.

EDIT: I guess it is important to point out, in my experience, when you put in the Drivers and utilities and application disc, you will be given a menu of different things you can install. I don't remember if there is an "automatic" installation, or if you have to go through and install each item that you want. So, you may have to experiment a little to get the drivers installed. It should be pretty straight forward. If yuo don't want to install their junk you may have to manually install each item rather than choosing an automated install.

Oh my god so I don't know whether to laugh or cry so I'm doing a bit of both right now. I attempted to reformat, and after missing the prompt the first time and not even getting a prompt the next four or five times I cheated and pushed F12 and booted from the CD-ROM and things seemed to be okay, until step six and seven. I didn't get the option to partition using the NTFS file system, instead it just went right to 8. Then when I went to do the language and currency setup it didn't ask me for my product key, didn't ask me to activate or register windows, and instead starting reinstalling everything. Then things started going downhill….apparently NONE of my DLs and a lot of .ex files were able to copy over or something? They couldn't be gound. I have a list of maybe 1/3 of them, but after that I decided it was probably a waste of time to write them all down. I told the computer to just continue with out them, and there were SO MANY, I was afraid nothing was going to work right. Then it rebooted on its own after "finishing" everything, and when the windows XP load screen started up it froze. I waited a while, then, did a cold reboot and tried starting from the recovery console, but there wasn't a version of windows to choose (there wasn't anything), and when I exited that, it took me back to the little menu to choose either the recover console or window XP media center and so I tried XP again and…everything loaded fine?? It's like NOTHING EVER HAPPENED; my account is still here, with everything still on it. I think I traumatized my laptop enough that it blocked the whole thing out? I am so confused right now. It hilarious in a sad sort of way….I was pretty sure I had messed it up beyond a shadow of a doubt and I'd have to actually take it somewhere and explain that I was cocky and thought I could reformat my drive by myself. Anyway it's definitely not fixed (it's running really slow and the cursor is having trouble keeping up with my typing), but, at least I could get right back on here to tell you what happened. WHAT NEXT?!

Ok.. I think I know what happened.

First of all, your computer probably needed you to push F12 to get the disc to boot. So, you did right on that.

But, what happened, and what is not shown in those instructions is what screen will popup if Windows is already on the computer. I better contact the author and get him to edit it if possible.

You are going to use F12 to select your CD-rom as a boot device and then "Press any key to boot from CD…" when that prompt comes up. Now, go through steps 1-5. After you press F8 to accept the license agreement in step 5, this is where the instructions go astray a little bit. Because you already have an operating system installed, Windows setup will give you the option to "Repair" the current installation. It will not go to the window seen in step 6. First, you have to press ESC to install a fresh copy of Windows. Then the window in Step 6 will come up and you can finish out from there.

Make sure you use the 'D' button to delete existing partitions that are listed during step 6. You want your screen to look just like it does in the Step 6 screenshot in the tutorial. At first it will list one or more partitions and they will have to be deleted until you end up with one single line of "Unpartitioned space" as seen in the photo. NOTE: If you have any flash drives or USB hard drives plugged in STOP, unplug them, and start over from STEP 1! This stage will erase those drives and this could mean your backup drive!

Because this is a customized DELL disc, you will not see any prompts for entering the product key or activating window. You can safely ignore those steps.

All you actually managed to do was perform a "repair" install of Windows. It didn't actually erase anything. You basically just reinstalled WIndows over what was already there.

Try again with the new information provided.

I probably should have mentioned that the reason it couldn't find any of the dl's is because it kept asking for the CD labeled Service Pack 2 and I don't have that CD. Do I need to get a copy of this from somewhere, or should that fix it when I do these new steps?

Hi Crazydiamond…

I'm not real sure on that one. With Windows XP Media Center there are two discs usually. When Windows asks you to put in the "Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 disc" is is asking for the first disc again. But, you said you have a Windows XP Media Center DVD by Dell. I'm assuming that this DVD is the 2 discs combined. I'm fairly confident that is the case.

So, unless you are having trouble with your CD-Rom drive, the fresh install should resolve any issues you might be having like that.

I'm sorry I can't give you anything more definitive.

The reformatting went much better this time. I think everything is fixed, with the exception of a few odd little things. First, I can't adjust my screen resolution past 1024x768 (the optimal size is 1240xsomething or other; whatever the "next size up" is), and second, I seem to have disabled my wireless card and I don't know how to re-enable it so I can get back on the internet. So far those seem to be the only bumps. I'm thinking maybe not all of my drivers/utilities got installed properly. When I inserted the drivers and utilities CD nothing was actually installed, I was just shown what was on the CD and what those things could do. Do I need to boot from CD for that too, or…?

Great job reinstalling Windows. Yes, your drivers need to be installed now. Those drivers will be on the drivers and utilities disc. Are you saying that when you put the disc in something comes up listing what is on the disc with a description? Does it then give you the option to choose and install those items? That is usually the way it is done. You probably need to just install everything from that disc and we can remove anything later that might not have needed to be installed. You don't boot with the disc.

Here I am back on the Internet with my drivers and utlities installed and everything! Hooray! After closer inspection of the CD, it turns out you have to extract all the programs yourself. I just didn't pay enough attention the first time I looked at it. My keyboard is laggy, but that's the only thing I've had problems with so far.

That sounds great.

Can you revisit your original post and tell me if those problems you mentioned are resolved? Such as problems with USB, and sound?

Let's post a PCPitStop test and your SYSTEM and APPLICATION event logs so I can check up on the health of your computer presently and tell you where to go from here:

How to run PCPitStop's Overdrive tests:

• Please click here to go to the PCPitStop Overdrive sign-up page: Signup at PCPitStop (You need to use Internet Explorer with this test so that an ActiveX control can be installed.)
• Click "Create a free account"
• Enter in your relevant information on the sign-up page. You must sign-up in order to have your results recorded so that we can take a look at them here.
• After signing up you'll see the "Registration Complete" page, and you can click "Test Your System Now" to return to the test page.
• Login with your newly created e-mail address and password on the left hand side.
• Follow the directions to "Scan this system now." An activeX control will need to be installed. It is safe, and you should allow it to be installed.
• Once the tests have been run, you will see an "Almost there" page requesting further information about your computer and your experience with PCPitStop, just scroll down to the bottom and click "GO."
• A test results page will display, and I need the link to that page.
• Look in the address bar of your browser. It will look like 'http://www.pcpitstop.com/betapit/…' Please copy and paste that here to the forum.
  
  Note: PCPitStop may recommend that you use certain utilities to fix problems on your computer. At WhatTheTech, the help we provide is free. We do not endorse or recommend the use of any products PCPitStop may suggest. Instead, we prefer to help you with each issue manually without using possible pay to use programs.

How to capture an event log and upload it to the forum:

• First, open Event Viewer by clicking Start -> Run -> type eventvwr.msc and press ENTER.
• In the Event Viewer please right click the requested event log (i.e. Application, system, etc…) and click Save Log File As.
• Please save the logfile to your desktop and give it a recognizable name.
• Do this for each log that has been requested.
• When you are finished saving the necessary logs, close Event Viewer.
• On your desktop find the saved log files. Hold the CTRL key and click to select each event log.
• When all event logs are selected, right-click one of them, click Send to -> Compressed Zip Folder.
• A new .ZIP file will have been created on your desktop. Please attach that file to this forum in your next reply.

All my problems seem to be remedied. It takes a little bit for the usb drives to be recognized, but not nearly as long , and I don' t have to plug them before powering up. I have my screensaver back, and that's a little strange since it's been so long since I've had one…the first time it actually came on I freaked out a little bit and thought something bad was happening. It took a little bit of tinkering to get everything enabled and updated again- I spent most of the day yesterday just letting the automatic updates catch up and getting my antivirus and anti malware up-to-date. The only thing I'm having issues with now is a laggy keyboard. The screen can't keep up with my typing. I'll run PCPitstop a little later, or perhaps tomorrow.

http://pcpitstop.com/betapit/sec.asp?conid=22403206 Um I had my flash drive and external hard drive plugged in during the test, I don't know if that affects the results.

and here are the logs: