Hello, a few problems thought resolved are back

Hi Doug, I'm glad to hear from you-I will follow instructions immediately and let you know as soon as done. I found some updated drivers from Nvidia today, specifically for what is on my computer, okay, talk to you soon.

Okay, I did exactly what you said, opened Everest, to computer, to motherboard, to chipset and there was absolutely nothing there. No scroll bar either. So I right clicked on chipset, selected run quick report, and saved it in html form. I'm going to send as an attachment, I know it's not what you asked for, but I swear there was nothing there in any window when I clicked on chipset. I will proceed to the next steps until I hear back from you. Thank you Doug.

Here is the StartUps file.

Hello again. I have been searching for these IDE controller drivers, but have a question. Do I look for the motherboard brand, which is Asustek, the CPU, which is AMD, or the video/ethernet company which is Nvidia? The HP site has nothing, I found some on the Nvidia site, but who would be the brand for the IDE controllers? In addition, the unknown category has changed since I found the nvidia drivers. Now it still has the sub category of unknown, but when I open the list by clicking on the + sign, here is what is listed now: unknown nvidia nForce 430/410 Serial ATA Controller nvidia nForce 430/410 Serial ATA Controller Primary IDE Channel Secondary IDE Channel Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller At your convenience, will you please tell me where else besides HP I might be able to find these chipset drivers? Thank you very much, I'll keep looking on my own as well. Cindy

So far I am not having any luck with finding drivers, unless I want to pay for a service. Is this what I should do? If so, which driver update service do you recommend? I just want to get this fixed. The only drivers I have found are the NVIDIA ones, and they are saved on my desktop. Whenever someone has a second, if you would be so kind as to tell me where to get these drivers, I will do it. I ran a driver detective scan which told me I had some missing drivers-4 to be exact, and for 29.95 they will either tell me where to get them, or get them for me-I'm not sure. Thank you very much for your time. Kind regards, Cindy

Hello. Are there any other reports, or anything else I can send that will help me figure out and fix whatever the problem is? I took the advice from PCPitStop, and did another defrag last night while we were sleeping, to make sure that no other programs were running that would interfere with the defrag, and I disconnected from the internet first. I will stay online tonight in case anyone has the time to help. I am very patient, and I can wait. Thank you. Kind regards, Cindy

Hi CindyM, I apologize for not being around these past several of days. Looks like you've been working hard. _________________________________ I tend to be "quite skeptical" of "driver update services" in general. On the other hand, I have used the driver detective "website" but not the tool, to find drivers occasionally. I've also used the PCPitstop utility and like it "better", but still have reservations. "Driver Update Service" utility services will almost always identify a driver or two that "needs" updating. ………….Bah! Most often, if your devices are functioning the way you want them it is an unnecessary annoyance to update. Additionally, there are plenty of situations in which the current (functioning) driver is more desirable than the recommended update. I only recommend updates when an "updated feature" will likely improve performance for a user… and/or if the Device is presently not functioning properly. Since one or more features of your machine have been throwing up alerts/warnings to you during the boot sequence it is "highly" likely that an update of "some" driver(s) or simply an uninstall-reinstall of "some" driver(s) will help resolve your present situation. _________________________________ In the meantime, from your PCPitstop Full Tests, it appears that you have a fine machine that will serve you well. No wonder you want to work out the glitches and get that machine humming again, the way it's supposed to. _________________________________ OK. Back to what needs to be done. I believe that you've indicated that the frequency or severity of the appearance of the problem during boot sequence has already somewhat resolved itself, but continues less frequently or less severely. Please correct me if I am mis-understanding this. ___________ Please describe again what error or panel you are seeing during boot (as it is happening at the present time) With this update we can take another run at it. ___________ I don't want to make this a long post of instructions. I do have several ideas that are safe and will surely help improve the overall performance of your machine. I do have some lines of investigation to pursue with regard to your specific "drivers" situation. But first I hope for a reply from you, to make sure I'm still on the right track. Please keep us posted with your progress. Best Regards

Hi Doug, No need to apologize, I know everyone has their "real" life, and I wouldn't have so much time, except I'm recovering from foot/ankle reconstruction surgery done last November and cannot drive, or walk well yet. I have installed some updated nVidia drivers for networking, deleted all but 300 fonts, lowered the size of my system restore cache-can't go lower than 1% because the next number down is 200 MB, and I think I read it needs that amount to run. I also lowered the cache for IE to 75, and followed PCPitstop's guide for changing the registry (after backing up) to benefit broadband, instead of the pc being set for dial-up, and I noticed a difference. I closed all programs and ran defrag overnight to lower those values, and I have repeated tests on Pitstop to check against the baseline test I had. For one day the thing was running great, now for the last couple days I'm having the same problem with not being able to upload photos for things I want to sell on eBay. The white box on boot-up is back, and here is the best description I can give-it's 4 inches square, solid white except there is an active window bar at the top that has a small box in the upper left hand corner with 2 to 3 small "machine language" rectangles, then moving to the top right is a close box with an X in it that does not close the window. Right underneath the active window bar in the upper left are three small thick black lines enclosed in a box-looks like machine language again to me, and that is all except for at the bottom of the window is a small rectangular box with "OK" in it. It hangs for quite awhile, and I noticed if I don't click OK sometimes it continues boot up, and sometimes it waits until I click OK. I know you are not software directed, but I did add the things LDTate suggested to what I all ready had, which was Zone Alarm Internet Security, Ad Aware Pro, and Spybot S&D 1.5-these I all ready had on the pc. I added IE-spyad, WinPatrol, Spyware Blaster and one other he recommended that I can't name right now. (Oh, and I have AVG's free anti-rootkit and registry mechanic- PC Tools). Just a little while ago I got an alert from ZA saying it had found a virus called 'not-a-virus:AdWare.Win32.DealHelper.ak' in 2 files: C:\Program Files\BillP Studios\WinPatrol\Setup.exe and C:\Program Files\wpsetup.exe. They would not repair, so I quarantined to investigate further, and left a post in malware classroom. That's it, that's where I'm at, and I still have the IDE controllers in the unknown spot of the device manager, only 2 now have an nforce name instead of the generic names that are there. They must need something, because when I open the show all networks window, I can highlight the connections, but I cannot view properties, status, disable, repair, etc. In other words I have no control other than pulling the FIOS cable. Now I am leaving because between my husband snoring last night, and our large moose type dog nesting in the carpet all most non-stop last night, I had very little sleep. Flash, the moose, has a 6 inch memory foam bed that is 8 feet by 5 feet in our room, when he's not on the bed with us, and it sounded like he was trying to scratch his way through the floor all night. So take your time, I'll be back tomorrow, and thank you. Cindy

Here is the link for your HP Pavilion Media Center a1430n Desktop PC Software & Driver downloads
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwar…42&lang=en#

The original specifications for that machine indicate a Samsung SATA Hard Drive
You appear to have a Seagate SATA Hard Drive.

Have you replaced your Hard Drive with a Seagate product?
Probably won't matter.

What you need is the Original Chipset Drivers located, here:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwar…228&lang=en

Follow the instructions on that page.

Please keep us posted with your progress and questions.

Our next step will be to have a look at the various applications and processes that are loading when you first boot your machine.

Please complete the above installation of Original Chipset Drivers. and post back with your progress.

Doug

Hi Doug, I have not replaced my hard drive, however, I do have a Seagate external hard drive for backup purposes. I have all ready been to HP's site for the original drivers, although I appreciate you being kind enough to take a look there. Does it make a difference about which hard drive I have? If it says I have a Seagate, and they are not referring to my external drive, then HP made it with a Seagate. The only thing I have done inside the box is add memory and dust it out. The white box/screen still appears before complete boot-up, but overall the computer boots up about 1000% faster, all most instantly. So maybe I should just not care about the box. I will mess with this for awhile, and see if the old drivers help with being able to open the connections, etc, and I will update here tonight. Thank you! Cindy

I still am having the same issues, cannot control any network connections, or even view their status, and I still have the unknown category listed in device manager, with the same items as before under "unknown". None of this is currently preventing me from using the pc, so I am content to wait and try whatever you suggest when you have time.

CindyM,


You have reported that you do not have any "warnings" in Device manager, (except for the "unknown" catagory)
You also report that the machine is functioning much better at this time.

These are good developments, of course.
But they are not related to anything recommended in this thread up to this point.

You still have the annoying "white box" (that probably is related to a driver issue, as yet undiscovered by us)
So we have yet to "fix" anything.
___________________-

Today your state:

I have all ready been to HP's site for the original drivers, although I appreciate you being kind enough to take a look there.

As I recall, you earlier stated that you had only been able to find Chipset Drivers appropriate to Vista
When I visited the HP site for your machine, I noticed that it lists Drivers for two versions of Vista, and then listed to the right-hand side it offers XP drivers

The link that I provided above, is based on the XP Drivers for your machine.

If in your quote, you are referring to drivers that you previously found for your machine (but provided for Vista), then you must delete that download and get the drivers as linked from my post above.

You can go ahead and install those XP drivers.

Please let us know if/when your have been able to complete that task.

Next:
Please run Windows File Protection System File Checker

Start - Run - (type)sfc /scannow <– please notice that there is a required space between "c" and "/"
SFC may ask you to insert your Windows XP installation CD in the course of its scan.
Please let us know if that was required. It's OK, and you should go ahead with the instructions to insert the XP CD and let SFC complete its scan.
But let us know if the XP CD was required.

We will follow these procedures with making some adjustments in the StartUp processes, but must accomplish the above first.

Best Regards

Hi Doug, You have really been great at hanging in there with me. I'm sorry, I wasn't very clear about the drivers. When I said I could only find Vista, I meant as far as the date went, the XP drivers were the same as what was originally installed, and that's what I downloaded and reinstalled. I did that last week, and right now I will start the scan. Thank goodness I made recovery XP discs like HP advised when I got the computer. I will let you know if it asks for the CD. Thank you again. Kind regards, Cindy

Okay, the system asked for the XP CD, but it will not accept either DVD that put in. These are the only DVD's I have of the original system, the recovery discs they say to make before you do anything else after you plug the machine in. I put the entire thing on 2 DVD-R's, so now I need a suggestion, since I don't know what to do about the files. The message from the scan was "Files that are needed for Windows to run must be copied fro the DLL cache". I will wait to hear from you.

The message from the scan was "Files that are needed for Windows to run must be copied fro the DLL cache".

Hey Cindy M

Try locate the folder i386 (this is actually a copy / image of windows) in the root of c.\ in the windows system folder. There can be several of them, but the one you want is the one with all the exe. files, winnt.exe and winnt32.exe , the folder should contain approximately around 7000 files.

Write down the path so you'll remember it.

Start the scan, and when it ask for the CD, press ok. This will allow a fail to locate the CD, and you will be prompted to type the location of the CD. Now you just type in the full path of the i386 folder….done.

In the future, if you want a CD with an burnt image of your windows, take a look at this article
Its fully legal, as it is just like an backup CD.

Kind regards Abydos