Sampson

Ok. When this message displays, it also creates a log file. DrWatson (choose Start-Run and type - drwtsn32) will allow you to see where a program croaks. In other words, the message displayed in the box may be the same, but Watson may find a different culprit for each failure. On the other hand, it may find that the same procedure is responsible for each failure. Watson can only trace the compiled version of the program against the hardware/software calls on your system so we may or may not be able to find out what the failure is from Watson, but it will allow you to find out if it is the same call for each program that "generates" errors.

Is the error message the same or different for each application?

Perplexing. Mine is set to 95 (149) but that is probably a function of the menu items so yours is probably correct. There has to be something simple that we are overlooking.

The other possibility is that your path to Windows Explorer is not set correctly. Right Click on Explorer Icon the Target should read something like: %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe and Start In should read something like: %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%. I am still going through the registry. Look under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Policies\Explorer and see what values are given on your machine.

Do you have TweakUI installed on your machine? It has been known to turn off the Start Button right click properties - Open the Tweak UI control panel. Click the My Computer tab. Every disk drive letter you see listed in that window should have a check mark beside it. Scroll through and place a check mark in every empty box and then click the OK button. Reboot your computer, and when you right-click your Start button, you should find the Open and Explore menu items fully functional.

I am not exactly certain what you are saying. Generally, the procedure is - right click on the Start Button. This brings up a menu from which you then choose Explore (if you want to view your own profile) or Explore All Users if you want to view how all other users. After choosing one or the other, Explorer presents you with its typical dual panel and you maneuver by clicking on the (+) in the left panel or double clicking on the folders in the right panel. Perhaps, if you clarify the steps you are taking, I can replicate on my machine the glitch you are speaking of.

SP1 or SP2?

I use it. I ran their free version for months. Then, I bought the pro edition. I've never had a problem. It has intercepted numerous email virus'; infected diskettes, and one that was on a CD installation. I like it because it is just that, an anti-virus. Many people like McAfee. I don't. It buries itself throughout your registry. It conflicts with certain programs. In other words - too intrusive. It is the devil to uninstall. Norton's has gotten better, but like its System Works, it overreaches. It too seems to intrude itself and there was a time when it was a real memory hog. Just my opinion.

See if this from Microsoft will help: http://support.microsoft.com/search/preview.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q304541

How do you have your CD-Rom and DVD drives configured in BIOS. Are they on the secondary IDE channel? From your Device Manager, look under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. If they are on the Secondary channel bringing up properties, then Advanced will tell you if they are seen and what support they have (DMA or PIO) You can also look under resources to see if there is a conflict. The info from the device manager should be coming from your Bios configuration.

According to Microsoft this is how you would go about finding out what your error message read: http://support.microsoft.com/search/preview.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q314084 The win32k.sys error generally means that there was some hardware device that failed. It can even happen if you had sent an exceptional large print job out and then cancelled it, but it really didn't cancel. I have never tried to re-install XP over itself, but I have read that others have. Perhaps, someone will come along shortly who has.

I believe that XP is supposed to have its own implementation of the VIA drivers. If you install the VIA drivers first, I believe in setting up XP you are to select Standard PC to allow the system BIOS to handle the IRQ's otherwise XP will handle them through ACPI. Anyways, make sure that his CD writer has DMA support. Also, you might remove the NIC, run the machine and see if it runs fine. Frequently, AMD machines seems to have a problem between the kind of NIC you are using and the video. Finally, depending on when the SB 5.1 drivers were put in, SB has not always been happily compliant with Microsoft specifications. There are supposed to be available drivers for the 5.1 that have now been certified as Microsoft compliant.

As ewaite said you may have the cards plugged in an order different than W2K "remembers". You might do this for a start. The Ga-7VTXE+ 's most recent bios is dated Mar. 21, 2002. It is designated F4. If the Bios designation is a lesser number, Go here http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/home/a_bios.htm and download this utility. After downloading it, double click on it while still connected to the net. It will flash your bios over the net. Sometimes with a new bios upgrade, the order in which W2K recognizes the cards reorders their IRQ designation. On AMD machines there is frequently conflicts between the NIC and the video card. On other thought, make sure that your CD writer has DMA support. For whatever reason, sometimes this gets changed to PIO.

I'm not sure this is exactly what you want to get rid of but this is a registry hack (Microsoft approved) to rid you of some messages: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced Right-click the right pane, create a new DWORD value, and then name it EnableBalloonTips Double-click this new entry, and then give it a hexadecimal value of 0 Quit Registry Editor. Log off Windows, and then log back on.

Use the Run command and type the following: drwtsn32 . It will bring up an interface whether you have errors or not because it will allow you to browse in any of several profiles where error logs can be generated. It will NEVER bring up a message that says "no errors detected". Apparently, you are having a problem with Watson as well as Open Office.

Apparently, Microsoft blames Roxio for this one in this article: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q311806 The other thing to check is that you have Power Management enabled in Bios and then in XP double-click the Power Options icon in Control Panel, select the APM tab, and turn on the Enable Advanced Power Management support option. If these are not the problem, let us know.

It's the typical box that simply says "Open Office has generated errors" and there is an OK button.

If your hard disk is large enough, perhaps you could install W2K on a separate partition and dual boot. Upgrading leaves you open to too many driver conflicts.

I believe that we have been down this road with you before - with your heat problem and with your disk/mp3 problem. Third time should be a charm.

Which seems to indicate quite clearly that the problem is that Windows will not post with the video drivers and your new card. I believe you said that the old video card allows you to get into Windows. If that is correct - your problem would be in installing the new video card and its drivers properly. The sequence you are speaking of does not require that your video drivers even be present - but the minute Windows begins its graphical interface is when you get the lines - hence - you have a driver problem. Either Windows is using the old drivers for your new card, or it is using a mixture of drivers that your card can't decipher.

For any given physical drive you can have a primary partition and an extended partition within which you can have multiple logical drives. The Master Drive's primary partition would be named C:\. The logical drives within the extended partition would become D:\; E:\.... . However, if you added a Second Physical drive as a Slave it too could be sectored into a Primary partition and an extended partition. Under MS-Dos, however, this second or slave drive's primary partition would then become D:\ . The logical drives on the Master would then start not with D:\ (as before) but with E:\. In any case, if your are dual booting one OS should be on the Primary Partition. Any others should be put on their own drives and it is irrelevent if it is logical ones or primary ones.

My mistake. I had misread and thought that you were using USB 2.0. You say that your PC recognizes it, have you looked in your device manager to see how it is seen?

There is just no way of knowing what is causing the problem from a message like this. You would need a software engineer from Open Office running a debugger on the program through your machine over the net to find out. You can run DrWatson and it will bring up the error log, but again it really won't tell you a lot. I had a problem like this and it turned out to be some fonts that the program couldn't tolerate, but from the message from DrWatson, you would never have suspected it.

Just exactly what were you up to when this happened? Are you using a third party Desktop substitute?

Give this a try: Open a Command Prompt window and leave it open. Close all open programs._ Click Start, Run and enter TASKMGR.EXE__ Go to the Processes tab and End Process on Explorer.exe.__Leave Task Manager_open._Go back to the Command Prompt window and change to the directory the undeletable file is located in._ At the command prompt type DEL <filename>_ where <filename> is the file you wish to delete.__ Go back to Task Manager, click File, New Task and enter EXPLORER.EXE to restart the GUI shell._ Close Task Manager.