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XP SP3 going haywire


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#1
Splott

Splott

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After installing Pinnacle dvd Recorder for copying from video to DVD, my pc's registry, system files and drivers seem to have becoming severally corrupted. This has happened in the past while installing an old webcam i hadn't used for a while and i lost sound due to corrupt sound drivers (i came here for help on that matter as well.)

Both pieces of software were compatible with XP, so is this just something what can happen or is it something on my pc which causes such faults to occur? I had no problems with my webcam in the past but online reviews for the recorder are mostly negative and mention problems such as mine.

Anyway, my computer is now incredibly unstable, i get constant BSODs concerning different drives and errors, mostly 'page in nonpaged area' and general hardware failure errors. The files often listed in causing the problems end in '.sys' and include ATI which would be my video drivers as well as others. I also get random program closures as well such as with Steam, and the drivers which control my mouse will randomly crash and then start up again.

The most frustrating thing is the constant crashing of Firefox, this happens for no particular reason and can happen with general browsing, upon launch or when streaming video (which can produce a BSOD as well.)

I am currently running on a repair restore copy of XP due to the problems i had before and none of the above occurred before installing the stated software.

My presumption is that only a clean install will fix this problem, i have no system restore options set before the date which i installed the software and don't think it would fix the problem anyway.

Would yet another repair restore do the trick or will this cause more complications?

Edited by Splott, 23 May 2013 - 01:38 PM.

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#2
Ztruker

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If this was my computer, I would backup any data I wanted to save then do a Clean Install.

You can try a Repair Install but the probability is that it will still have problems and a Clean Install will be needed. Might as well cut out the middle part and go direct to the Clean Install.

If you decide to do that, a couple suggestions.

Download the offline version of SP3 and have it available.

The first thing after the Clean Install is done, install SP3. Do not enable Automatic Windows Updates yet.
Get the Network working and do ALL Windows Updates via Start, All Programs, Windows Updates.
Now load any needed device drivers.
Install AV software (Microsoft Security Essentialsis a good choice).
Now install software, restore data, etc.
Turn on Automatic Windows Updates.
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