Help reinstalling XP

[lxskllr]

The music is resident on the computer. It has a .m4p extension if I remember right. The DRM is embedded in the tune, so backing up the songs should be ok.

 

[tcsenter]

Use the library backup feature, then you can restore it the same way. It only allows back up to recordable CD, which is teh suck. Then all they need to do is sign-in to their iTunes account and their DRM keys or whatever will automatically be downloaded/restored.

Also, when you install iTunes again, I recommend going into the program preferences/options, find the rip settings, then set the encoding bitrate to something higher than 128Kbps (default). I usually select 192Kbps at a minimum, 256Kbps preferred. This will give the files better protection from transcoding/conversion losses than 128Kbps and higher quality rips in general. Do the same for Windows Media Player as well; change the default encoder from WMA to MP3 and bitrate from 128K to at least 192Kbps. This will not affect the bitrate for protected content purchased from iTunes or other music service, nor for existing content, only for content they rip in the future.

I always do one of those forehead slaps when I'm working on a computer and find many many GB of music files ripped @ 128Kbps (or even less).

On edit: if they have different user accounts, make sure to check this kind of user data when logged into each account; both the Windows user account and the application user account. Some programs have a centralized data store, some programs will only let you work with data for the current user.

 

[Muse]

Her computer has 3 users:

Administrator (AFAIK that's the one she always uses)
All Users
Default User

I figure I'll set her up in the new install with her own account. It will be administrator status because although it's not good for preventing nasty intrusions in her system, she won't want to go through the hoops involved if her user account doesn't have administrator status.

I've got most things backed up right now and will probably wipe the HD tonight or tomorrow morning and start building the system. She has a passwords application that I have to backup (Roboform) and I need her to enter a master password (I think) in order to backup her passwords.

I believe the library backup of iTunes was successful. It burned 2 CDs. Yeah, that sucks that you can't backup on a device or HD.

 

[Muse]

Things went reasonably smoothly until I tried to connect to the Internet. I already had Antivir downloaded and installed. In Device Manager I see that the Ethernet Controller isn't installed. I can't install it from the Dell drivers CD, have no idea why. It's a Dell Dimension 4550. The driver seems to be on the CD, but XP reports that it can't find a driver. I looked on the back of the mid-tower and it appears to be built into the mobo, not a PCI card. Ideas?

 

[lxskllr]

See if this page helps.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
See if this page helps.

Thanks. I was already there, clicked network and downloaded and installed the first two utilities, the first being the BroadCom network driver and the 2nd being the diagnostic utility. Didn't help, as far as I can tell.

 

[Blazer]

dell drivers can be a pain, create a folder in C: and call it drivers, most likely they are compressed and without an installer, extract the network drivers there, have windows look there for the drivers.

 

[Blazer]

is the network enabled in the bios.

 

[Muse]

I ran the Broadcom driver utility from support.dell.com, which is an EXE and it installed an uncompressed driver, but it wouldn't install.

Got a workaround: I thought to install a PCI network card, remembering that I have a few myself, but didn't bring any. Thought to go shopping for one today and then remembered that I installed a new Dell Vista system here in June and we put my brother's old Win2000 system in the garage. I just checked that and it had a PCI network card. Installed that in the problem system and Windows immediately saw and installed the card and supplied the driver. I'd downloaded the driver but didn't even have to install it. Internet connection is up. Don't know how good the card is (if it's as fast as the built in internet), but it's working. Device Manager still shows a not-working Ethernet connection. I guess I can uninstall it, don't know if it matters. The card I installed is a 3COM 3c905c-txm.

 

[lxskllr]

Maybe try uninstalling the built in NIC, and letting Windows redetect it. I don't know why that would work, but it's something to try.

 

[tcsenter]

Its probably an integrated Intel CSA ethernet MAC. Did you install the Intel Chipset INF Software?

For Intel 848 and later (e.g. 865/875/910/915):
http://downloadmirror.intel.co.../a08/infinst_autol.exe

Intel 845 and older:
http://downloadmirror.intel.co...78/eng/infinst_enu.exe

Intel PROSet LAN Drivers:
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/8659/eng/PRO2KXP.exe

If that doesn't work, we can identify the device from the PCI ID shown in device properties.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: tcsenter
Its probably an integrated Intel CSA ethernet MAC. Did you install the Intel Chipset INF Software?

For Intel 848 and later (e.g. 865/875/910/915):
http://downloadmirror.intel.co.../a08/infinst_autol.exe

Intel 845 and older:
http://downloadmirror.intel.co...78/eng/infinst_enu.exe

Intel PROSet LAN Drivers:
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/8659/eng/PRO2KXP.exe

If that doesn't work, we can identify the device from the PCI ID shown in device properties.

Yes, it's integrated ethernet on the mobo and I figure the mobo for Intel. The CPU is a Pentium 4 2.53 GHz. As said, I worked around the problem by installing the PCI 3Com NIC that was in the Windows 2000 system that was swapped out for a new Dell Vista machine in June. This morning as I was getting out of the shower it occurred to me that I hadn't installed the chipset drivers! I'd directed XP Pro to look for the driver on the disk (it said drivers, etc.) but never ran setup off that disk.

So, having 20 minutes or so left before I had to leave to catch my flight, I ran setup on the disk and Windows reported finding new hardware (I'd uninstalled the ethernet controller, since I couldn't find a driver for it), but Windows still failed to find a driver. I tried again to install the driver directly and that failed too.

Well, that was more to satisfy my curiousity than anything. There was another issue I couldn't resolve. I'd backed up the Roboform data and after installing XP Pro (tcsenter: that Dell version of XP Pro installed OK, thank!) I installed Roboform and restored the data. The computer user tried to go to some of the Roboform sites but got messages like this for several:
- - - -

Error 404--Not Found
From RFC 2068 Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1:
10.4.5 404 Not Found
The server has not found anything matching the Request-URI. No indication is
given of whether the condition is temporary or permanent.

If the server does not wish to make this information available to the
client, the status code 403 (Forbidden) can be used instead. The 410 (Gone)
status code SHOULD be used if the server knows, through some internally
configurable mechanism, that an old resource is permanently unavailable and
has no forwarding address.

- - - -

I figured it must be involved with IE's security settings. After installing XP Pro, I installed Antivir, connected to the Internet and updated Antivir, and did Windows Update, which installed IE 7. After finding out about the Roboform errors I did some google searching but couldn't find a solution. Again, I didn't have much time.

The other issue not yet resolved involves her Outlook data. I saved it all in a PST file but it turns out that the Office XP disk she has isn't an install disk but a disk containing Office XP Service Pack 1. They have an installation set for Office 2000 Small Business. I installed it but couldn't import the .pst file containing all her Outlook folders. So, they will either have to live without the restore or get Office XP, hopefully a version that can import that backup.pst.