[Samm]

Hi

I doubt a scratched CD will be the problem. If a CD is scratched, then the system will have problems reading the disc during the installation. If it really can't read it, it will report an error.

I am assuming this IS a legitamite copy of windows!

If I didn't know better, I'd suggest that installing SP2 may solve the issue but as you've already done this, I'd be wrong! It is possible that an update of a slightly different type may be required though. You said you had this problem originally but it went away. This suggests that it's probably not a hardware issue then but it could be a driver issue.
i.e the thing that caused the problem to stop last time may have been a driver update. As you have just done a fresh installation of windows, then you won't have updated any drivers yet. It could also be a windows update (other than SP2 obviously) that's needed.

Did you have Automatic Updates enabled last time? If so, then it could be down to a windows update that you may not even have realised had been installed last time.
Did you update any other drivers? I know you said you updated the video card driver. Did the problem with the mouse stop after you updated the video card driver by any chance?

Edited by Samm, 23 August 2007 - 03:29 PM.

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i havent installed any drivers at all yet. havent had any problems at all yet with crashing or not clicking the active window since the first 2 times. computer is running totally fine at the moment.

what drivers should i install now after the clean install?

i think it may have been after the video card update that the problems stopped the last time but ill need to look at the thread in the other forum to see when it stopped. i have the old nvidia card in the pc at the moment as opposed to the ati one that the problems were with the last time

[kingtaz]

i havent installed any drivers at all yet. havent had any problems at all yet with crashing or not clicking the active window since the first 2 times. computer is running totally fine at the moment.

what drivers should i install now after the clean install?

i think it may have been after the video card update that the problems stopped the last time but ill need to look at the thread in the other forum to see when it stopped. i have the old nvidia card in the pc at the moment as opposed to the ati one that the problems were with the last time

[Samm]

Ok, firstly just determine which devices actually need drivers.
To do this, go to Start -> Run.. then type devmgmt.msc to open device manager.
Look for any devices that have a yellow exclaimation mark next to them & jot down what they are. Also make a note if there are any 'unknown' devices listed.

Check the video card entry in device manager. If it's an old Nvidia card then the chances are, XP has already installed a driver for it. If however it's listed as a standard VGA display card or if it has a yellow exclamation mark next to it, then you need a driver.

In general, the order for installing drivers is :
chipset (motherboard drivers - chipset/agp bus/IDE controllers, etc)
Video card
Any Other PCI devices, USB v2 etc

As you have an older motherboard, XP will already have installed the chipset & agp bus drivers, so first one to install (if necessary) is the video. After that, the order isn't particulary important

[kingtaz]

thanks samm. the only thing with a yellow exclamation mark is 'multimedia audio dcontroller' in the 'other devices' tab. i think this is my sound card. i clicked update driver and it has now installed my sound card driver so thats fine now.

all in all though, everything appears to be fine with the pc at the moment. looking at the event manager there is always one error of Dhcp where it mentions the ip address lease for the network card has been denied by the DHCP server. is this anything to worry about or is it not going to cause any problems?

thanks

kingtaz

[Samm]

Don't worry about the DHCP error if you only get it once after boot up - this is quite normal. Or at least, I've come across it a number of times & it hasn't seemed to cause any problems.
When Windows loads, it will request an IP address from the DHCP server (normally a router). This error is related to that but as your Internet connection is working, and hence your system IS being assigned an IP address correctly, then there's probably nothing to worry about.

[kingtaz]

hi samm. had no problems whatsoever with the pc so far and thats been over a week since i reinstalled xp. all is running smoothly and it looks like the problems have gone. thanks for your help over the last while in helping me get the problems ironed out.

thanks

kingtaz

[Troy]

Great news!

[Samm]

Yeah great news kingtaz. Let's hope it stays that way!

(Apologies for the delay in replying but have been ill the last few days).

[kingtaz]

i hope so too!!

thanks again

[kingtaz]

hi again. bad news as the the pc crashed today when i started it up and the clicking active window problem happened the once as well. checked the evnt viewer and theres no error log there at all.

What do you think is the problem then now that ive reinstalled windows and the problems have came back again?

Just when i thought things were fine as well!!

kingtaz

[Samm]

Hi again

Can you tell me exactly what happened when it crashed on startup? i.e did you get a blue screen error or did the system just lock up?

Have you installed any additional software or updated any drivers in the 24 hours preceeding the crash?

Also, just remind me - did you ever get round to removing the memory sticks in turn? In other words, remove one stick & see if the problem remains, if so, then replace it & remove the other stick & see if the problem remains.

Edited by Samm, 06 September 2007 - 04:19 PM.

[kingtaz]

hi

the system just froze again with no blue screen or anything. just the same as before.

not sure if i installed any additional software before it to be honest. how could i check?

i di get round to the changing the RAm sticks and at the moment i have only one in. i out this one in before the clean install of xp and have ran it with only this one in up till now.

one thing i di notice tho, i had a message on my screen saying to install win anti virus pro. i obviously never as im pretty sure its a virus or something but u any idea why that message came up?

there are also no errors in the event log to explain the crashes.

thanks

kingtaz

[Troy]

Oh oh! Are you running an up-to-date firewall, anti-virus, and anti-spyware?

I think you need to run through the malware forum instructions again if you're getting popups...