Sinluan

Something has hijacked my internet start page to About: Blank. I have an XP OS and the most recent iterration of IE but using my internet options to set the page is not working properly as it continues to reset itself to about: blank. I searched my registry and there are three keys that control my start page but i was unable to change two of them for lack of permission. Where do I go to fix this and lock it once I have done so? Thank you for the assistance.

Fortunately this is not happening to my OS but to my roommate who is using the XP OS. The last several times she has turned her computer off the automatic update service wants to load five updates. It has done this approximately ten times now and always five updates so something is definitely out of kilter. How would you suggest correcting this endless loop of updates?

After using it with no problems for months, all of a sudden I get this error message each time I try to do anything with OE: Access to that account was denied. Verify that your user name and password are correct. The username & password on my hotmail account haven't changed in years and I have no trouble reading and sending mail there. Tried my best to verify as suggested but couldn't find anything in the Tools option to fix the thing. Any idea how to correct this problem? I'm using XP and just installed IE8 hoping that that might solve this but no such luck.

The only way I know of running Longbow Gold is on Win98 so you need to install that OS and play the game there. It is not possible to run the game in XP sad to say.

Does anyone know what causes all of one's FAVORITES to suddenly disappear from their XP driven systems? Fortunately this has not happened to me and the only advice I knew to give was to make a backup of that folder periodically if one had System Restore turned off. Is there a method of restoring them if they mysteriously disappear?

I have XP Pro running and suddenly my dvd player does not appear in my system tree so, of course, I'm unable to use it to play dvd's. It does appear in the Device Manager without any warning flags (this device is working properly)and I have tried uninstalling it and rebooting. Then it re-installs it but it still doesn't appear in the system tree and is unusable. Please advise.

Running an XP Pro OS and all of a sudden my dvd-rom is not producing any video. Sound comes through just fine but no picture, nothing but a plain green then blue screen when asked to play a disc. Device Manager says everything's in order and player is still set for region 1. Since I had just recently upgraded my PS and had temporarily unplugged the optical cable, I opened the box and made certain that the connections were solid. I'm thinking that perhaps the unit, an ASUS DVD-E616P, has just gone belly-up.

I installed some new dvd software (Power DVD) with the same results as I had gotten from WinDVD & the Interactual Player. I called TS at ASUS and after inquiring about the chipset drivers - I had just installed the latest VIA 4-in-1 package - said it was RMA status, essentially that it was toast. Since I'd been using it for three years or more I suppose I'd gotten my money's worth, eh? Thanks for trying to help all the same. You guys are the greatest at accurately prescribing a fix for whatever ails a comp!

I forgot to mention that the drive still plays cd's flawlessly whether they are games, music or data.

Running XP Pro SP2 and all of a sudden my Temp Internet Files folder (Doc&Settings/MyName/LocalSettings/TempInternetFiles) has become seriously bloated - 676MB - but I literally cannot see any of it. Of course, in folder options I have everything set to full reveal but the folder is stark staring empty. Checking the folder's Properties I find that there are 383 files and 9 folders but they're as good as invisible and untouchable. Is this kosher? I'm a recent convert from Win2K and I never had any issues like this. Please advise me, if you would be so kind.

Recently installed XP Pro + SP2 and it keeps generating a "Fatal error in the main thread code" when I try to log my character in once I've logged into my account & the world server. EQ has no tech support on the weekends which is why I'm asking y'all for a clue to the solution if you can figure it out. Here's a section of data from the last part of the text file after a stack dump: fatal error in main thread Code = c0000005 ADDR=0x00fe1333 EAX=24924924 EBX=0573c74e ECX=6db6db6c EDX=0fb352a0 ESI=0012cea8 EDI=0012cf20 EBP=05a0c2d0 ESP=0012ce00 Process was trying to READ invalid data. Invalid access occurred at virtual address 0xc68ec054. Fatal error occurred in mainthread! (Release Client #630) Client Version: Jul 6 2005 17:48:42 Skin Directory: UIFiles\Default\ Graphics DLL Loaded: Graphics DLL Version 2.00.0214 Graphics Build Date: Jul 6 2005 17:45:42 Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5700, 6.14.10.7772

I don't know what the underlying cause was but for some reason, after I installed XP, the 'Search' function just didn't seem to be able to find its own arse with both hands. Now I notice that the 'Help & Support' gives no response when I click on it. Is there a method one can use to restore these aspects of XP? I've tried using the Recovery Console (chkdsk /r) but that was ineffective. If the cure involves reinstalling the OS, I believe I'll learn to live without them. Thanks for your time & expert advice, as always.

I just crashed out of EverQuest and after rebooting I ran DxDiag to check things out and before it brought the window up I got this: Error: could not get basic sound info., result code = 0x80070057 (Invalid arguement(s)). Thinking a driver update might do the trick, I proceeded to download the most recent set of Audigy2 drivers but the problem continues to plague me. Tried to find a fix at the MS Windows site but struck out. Suggesstions?

My XP SP2 cd came in today's mail and after the install, all those troubles just disappeared. Error messages are a bad memory and the DX Files are in good order as well. The only thing it didn't do was to replace the ten missing codec's but as long as the sound is healthy, and it is, I'm through wrestling with that alligator. Don't ye just love a happy ending? Thanks for the good advice just the same. Now if I can just keep this boat from springing any more leaks I think this is gonna be a real nice journey, hehe.

I followed the directions carefully in the link you provided but they did not solve the problem. In fact, after attempting to reload the codecs, what happened was that I then had a 2nd Audio Codecs entry in the Device Manager except when you opened it instead of having a "Properties" tab behind "General" tab there was a "Driver" tab. Mildly frustrating to be sure. Okay, so now in order to put that right I boot into SAFE mode and uninstall the entry. While I'm at it, I figure if I remove the listed codecs that I can then subsequently reload them through the Hardware Wizard. It allows me to remove all but one and, of course, when I attempt to reload them what I get is not a fresh batch of codec's but the entry with the driver again. Adding to my frustration is the fact that on the DirectX Files page I see that three of the dll's are marked with a yellow exclamation point and a note at the bottom recommending that I reinstall DirectX since ddraw, d3d8, and d3dim700.dll's are old versions and likely to cause problems. At least there's SOMETHING I can fix so I proceed to reinstall 9.0c not just once but twice - rebooting after each attempt - and, naturally it has no effect whatsoever on the Three Musketeers who stubbornly refuse to capitulate. Interestingly enough though, when I run the TestDirectSound test, I can clearly hear each and every one of the test sounds but no note appears in the space below attesting to the successful test run. Is there a way to fix this or am I gonna have to fdisk the partition and start from scratch? I do believe that I'm as frustrated as I've ever let myself become over this dilemma. Oh, and yes, I still get that error message, once when I first open the diagnostic and then twice more at the Sound page.

I changed the Help and Support setting from manual to automatic. Then in the registry where you suggested to modify the key, it didn't exist so I created it and gave it the appropriate value and rebooted. Clicking Help and Support still gets no response. Is there anything else I could try?

I'm not sure what happened but all of a sudden my OS (XP Pro) can't seem to find either my DVD player or the CD burner. Yellow exclamation marks next to each in the Device Mangler with the explanation, "Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing (Code 39)." I've tried uninstalling them and then scanning for hardware changes but no dice. When I click the Troubleshooter I get no response. If I uninstall them and then reboot, they come back exactly as they were with the yellow markers. If I try to update them it says it can't find a better match and when I attempt to do it manually I get the 'can't load device driver for this hardware' line and I'm back to square one. How do I correct this problem?

Worked like a charm and everything's as right as rain again. Thank you very much.

I just installed XP Pro into a 5GB partition and in practically no time at all, Windows is telling me that the space is virtually filled up. The funny thing is that when I take the sum total of all the folders in my C drive, it barely reaches 3GB. I have the folder options set to show everything and I'm really puzzled as to where the other 2GB of data is hiding out? Any idea where that might be?

Mystery solved! When I applied the Service Pack it decided that I needed another Page File and since I have a couple sticks of 512 memory, the space it set aside was a pretty big chunk. I have discovered the truth of needing to set a larger partition for OS purposes than I was used to the last three years running Win2K. There is one thing about XP that I find irritating and can't seem to set straight that being the detail view on the right side of the window. Seems like I am ALWAYS having to change from the tile view XP prefers to the icon setting I prefer. Is there a way to set that for all drive paths on a permanent basis?

Not sure what brought this on but of a sudden I cannot get the device drivers loaded for my cd burner & my dvd player. My OS is Win2K and each time the system boots up the two devices are found but when I attempt to load the drivers I consistently get a Device installer error message that reads: Windows could not load the installer for CDROM. Contact your hardware vendor for assistance. The only thing I can find at the ASUS website are firmware updates but they of course are not the answer to my problem. How do I go about solving this minor, niggling little thorn in my heel?

Followibg your advice I booted into SAFE mode and attempted to uninstall my cd burner & dvd player but without success. I kept getting the same message I described in posting the problem. At that point I went to plan B and was successful uninstalling the primary IDE Controller but it was strictly no-go on the secondary. When I booted back into windows the system attempted to reinstall the primary IDE Controller and I thought it had done so but after a restart it detected the primary IDE Controller as uninstalled and went through the install routine again. In essence, I'm in the same position as I first described except that now I cannot seem to reinstall my Primary IDE Controller. What now?

I recently did a fresh install of my Win2K OS and now that I've got things pretty well dialed-in with regard to drivers and such I attempted to do a System State Backup and save the data to a folder on my other drive. Each time I tried I would get an error message within a few seconds of start of the process that reads as follows: The device reported an error on a request to write data to media. Error reported: Write protected media. I'm not sure how to go about making the necessary adjustments that will allow me to successfully complete a SS backup and would appreciate a pointer or two to get me going in the right direction. Thank you for shedding some light on this problem.

I have a friend who's using XP Home which won't allow her to install and play one of her fav games, Cyber Tarot by Multicom Publishing. Is there any sleight-of-hand trick that will cause the game to think it's in a Win9x environment and allow the game to be played? As a user of Win2K I can do this most effectively4 by using the APCOMPAT.exe file from the install disc and pull the wool over a particular application's eyes making it think it's being run on 98 or any of several NT4.0+__SP. She'd rather avoid the hassle of creating a partition for a dual boot scenario if that is at all feasible. When she asked me about this, I said that I knew right where to go for the best possible advice on the matter - the uber OS mavens at NTC! Thanks once again for sharing your wisdom, fella's!

I recently upgraded my system to Win2K, Athalon 1800+ XP with an ECS K7S5A mobo (SiS735chipset) and a single stick of 512Mb Mushkin PC133 RAM. Still using my old GeForce2 MMX400 and SB Live! cards along with an Intel 8255 NIC card for my cable modem. I had no trouble installing the OS and, of course, I have the latest drivers for everything installed along with DirectX8.1b. My problem is: the sound, video & NIC cards - along with a couple PCI to USB controllers - are all jammed into IRQ11 and no matter which PCI slot I move them to, the OS refuses to separate them! I have IRQ's 2, 5, 7 & 10 available but the OS won't utilize them unless I go into Safe mode. Since I'm an avid Everquest gamer, this presents a serious problem as it requires the sound & video to be located on separate IRQ's. I do manage to log on but it doesn't take long before everything locks up and I get booted back to the server screen or the desktop. Please help!