Referred To This Page From "ken"....help!

C\docum-1\loc\locals-1\temp\614a_appcompat.txt

Notice that it is now a different User Account.

Doug, I am sooooooooooooo excited…..I re installed wmp version 11 and guess what…..IT WORKS!!!! Yipeeee. Thank you so so much, Liz How often do I do the cmd chkdsk thing? That really seemed to help my system completely. Liz

Excellent!
I can almost hear the music from here!

You can now do the "abbreviated" chkdsk, just prior to Defragging and System File Checking, on a routine basis once monthly.

Right-click on C:\ - Select - Properties - Select the Tools(tab) - Press the Error Checking- Check Now(button)

Follow that procedure with Defragging:

Right-click on C:\ - Select - Properties - Select the Tools(tab) - Press the Defragmentation Defragment Now (button)

Follow that procedure with:

Start - Run - (type)sfc /scannow - Enter <– notice the required space before the "/"

Follow that procedure with a Pit Test (for information and Tips only)
http://www.pcpitstop.com
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Liz,
You've had pleasant and not so pleasant surprises during this thread of hard work.
Presently, it looks like you may have corrected most or even all of the immediate problems.

WhooWhooaa!
"The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music", once again!

You may want to Print a copy of the above Monthly Maintenance instructions above, for future reference.
You should still do Weekly CleanUp! 4.52 and AntiVirus and AntiSpyware scans.

Now, I'm still "concerned" about the health/condition of that Hard Drive, but "all" hard drives have "bad-clusters", even when they are fresh from the factory. Windows Error Checking identifies bad-clusters and attempts to move any file information from a bad-cluster and save it to a known-good location on the disk, then it "tags" the bad-cluster so that the operating system avoids using the bad-cluster space again in the future.
"Sometimes", the discovery of a large number of bad-clusters is a signal predicting the near-future failing of a hard drive. Sometimes Not.

Let's be optimistic about the situation right now, but use the monthly maintenance as a gage to monitor machine functioning even at the same time that the maintenance is accomplishing minor repairs.
You can also use the Pit Test, to get a good overview of your machine, as often as you like, but how about planning to run a Pit Test once monthly for a while, just to monitor continued health of this machine.

Let's watch the situation for about a week of computer use.
If all is well, at the end of the week, we may close this thread.
Any future tweaks or changes can be handled in a fresh New Topic.

A couple more status reports from you this week would be appreciated to confirm that the machine is functioning well.
If all continues to be well after that time, you can Set a New Restore Point and name it with the date and something like "good fix" so you can roll the machine back to this condition if necessary in the future.

Best Regards,
Doug

Doug, I already printed that maintenance out and will hold it as a bible for this machine. I appreciate that you will keep my thread open because I too feel like anything can happen at anytime….but. I am an optimist so for now we can enjoy this "sound of music". Thank you so much for all your help and I can say I have learned so much from this experience…..I will be in touch this week, hopefully with all "good news"! Liz

Doug, Thought you might like to see this for now….liz

http://www.pcpitstop.com/techexpress.asp?id=XA1UHWRNNZVSCMXV

Over 100% in all catagories !!
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Hi Doug, just thought I would check in with you….so far so good….everything running great and tech express from pit stop, still the same report…..liz

That's great Liz, thanks for the update.

Hi Doug. just one question. would it be a problem, do you think, for me to download Adobe Acrobat Reader 8.0? I am finding some things I search for use a pdf file and cannot load these in. But, if it is going to make things bad for me again, I will not use it….thanks for the advice, Liz

Consider the free version of Foxit PDF Reader.
It does a great job with PDF's and has a much smaller footprint (load on CPU/RAM) than Adobe.
I've used it extensively on several machines.
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php

Hi Doug. just thought I would check in….did dowload foxit and it is great…soooooooo fast…love it….Everything seems to still be working great. ran all the tests as you suggested with still all the good results. I do have one question though…don't laugh now…. I love to play solitaire on the computer and wanted to know if you recommend any good dowloads for this type of game. nothing fancy just plain old simple solitaire and sometimes free cell….if it is going to bad for the computer then I won't do it but thought I would ask your opinion. Thanks, Liz

…don't laugh now….

Ooops! To late!

XP comes with a small assortment of games including solitaire and free cell.
They can sometimes be found in Start - All Programs - Games
Sometimes they are buries a little deeper in Start - All Programs - Accessories - Games

If they do not appear in either of the above, you can Add them via Contol Panel - Add/Remove - Add Windows Components

In the Windows Component Wizard - double-click on - Accessories, then place a checkmark/tick in front of the item - Games

The Wizard will then open a panel and display progress as Windows configures for adding Games.

That should be all you need to do, but the Wizard "may" ask for your XP installation CD if the Games component was not installed during the initial installation.
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Congrats on your smooth running machine!
Whew! You sure worked had to get things sorted.

Best Regards,
Doug