[RKinner]

Sounds like either SP3 or one of the .net upgrades or it might just be there are a whole slew of updates that you are missing. We will just have to wait until it is done.

Once it finishes I would try the updates again because it seems like half the updates you get need updates.

Ron

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Update.
It's installing 74 updates - the huge update dump that I've been trying to do for 2 weeks. Finally! At the moment, only 3 more to go. It also suggested I install IE8. I clicked yes, and it started to install. While installing, I was away from the computer. When I came back, the install window was gone with no confirmation. I can't find IE8 anywhere, but it is showing IE8 in Add/Remove programs so it must have been successful. When it finishes, Ill reboot and update again and try to launch IE8. But that's all I can do for the next several hrs. Will get back to this after awhile. Thanks again for all your help today. It seems that we're making good progress.

Eric

[luminix]

Update.
It's installing 74 updates - the huge update dump that I've been trying to do for 2 weeks. Finally! At the moment, only 3 more to go. It also suggested I install IE8. I clicked yes, and it started to install. While installing, I was away from the computer. When I came back, the install window was gone with no confirmation. I can't find IE8 anywhere, but it is showing IE8 in Add/Remove programs so it must have been successful. When it finishes, Ill reboot and update again and try to launch IE8. But that's all I can do for the next several hrs. Will get back to this after awhile. Thanks again for all your help today. It seems that we're making good progress.

Eric

[luminix]

Update:
Good news. IE8 successfully installed and Internet Options is back in the control panel. The shut down time has improved dramatically as well.

I haven't checked for more updates due to lack of time.

So, the issues I have left are:
1) Install SP3
2) Get MS Office working (could be a hard one)
3) Install WMP
4) Temperature issue

I'll be leaving on my trip very shortly. I'll be back on Oct 1. I hope this thread will stay open. I'll let you know as soon as I'm back. I hope you can still help me. So far, whatever you've done, is working. I really appreciate all your time with this issue. Thanks again Ron.
Eric

[RKinner]

I don't close them but if the forum does then just PM me. We will be on vacation the week of 9/21 and we may be in San Francisco October 1 but Ill get back to you as soon as I can.

Ron

[luminix]

Ron,
I'm back. The trip was excellent and I hope yours was too. Nice coincidence we were both on a trip at the same time.
So, here's the first update. As to the remaining issues I have, I have successfully:
1) dl wmp11 (don't know how, but it installed fine even after giving me an error mesg)
2) dl real player (which also deinstalled after the crash)
3) dl java
4) dl flash

note: 2-4 were kind of minor issues.

I am now going to try to install SP3 following your instructions.

[RKinner]

I'm going on another trip today. Be gone for a week or so. Will check back in when I can.

Ron

[luminix]

Thanks Ron. I hope you're enjoying your 2nd trip.

So here's the FULL update.

1) I have successfully installed SP3 and the system has downloaded all updates. So, in essence, the computer is functioning normally again. For this, I send you many heartfelt thanks!!

The issues I still need help with are the following - the 1st being the most serious.

1) Nothing in MS Office is working still. Again, I repeat, I bought this computer in a store and it came with office preinstalled. I have never had any problems with it. Since the crash, it was the first time in the many years I've had this computer that I had a problem with it. Every time I click on the Word icon on my desktop (that always worked before), it doesn't open and instead gives me a message box saying "this action is only valid for products that are already installed". When I navigate into the programs folder/microsoft office/office 10 and I see another Word icon there, I click on it, Word actually opens but giving me the error message "Word has not been installed for the current user. Please run setup to install the application", I click "ok" and Word closes. The same happens for all Office products. How could the entire Office suite "uninstall" because of a computer crash? How can I get it back? I do not have the original CD that came with the computer, however HP keeps giving me this message at startup x1/week saying I can make some recovery CDs if I want. I haven't done that yet. Not sure it'll help.

2) I cannot install Realplayer. Every time I do, it seemingly installs correctly, but then when I open it, I get a message saying it cannot open because it doesn't have MSVCP90.dll. I have uninstalled and reinstalled Realplayer x4 (x2 before installing SP3 and x2 after), but I keep getting the same error message.

3) I once got this message but never got it again. It was something about "Sl21.tmp common language runtime debugging service" failed to load - or something like that. Sounds to me like a virus, but we've done virus checks already. 2 pieces of info: 1- I only got this message once. 2-Upon returning from my trip, I used 3 flash drives to transfer pics from my laptop to my desktop, but I was 99% sure that they were all clean because I had recently reformatted 2 flash drives and never used them in another computer, and recently virus checked the 3rd one (which has been in other computers) with 2 or 3 virus programs, included Kapersky on my laptop and it didn't find anything.

4) The temperature on the motherboard is still registering upwards of 61-63 degrees. Once I can get this computer up and running 100%, I plan to check into the fan issue you mentioned. I also plan to get a new computer within the next 1-2yrs.

Thanks again for all your help. I know your traveling and I understand you'll respond when you get time. Hope the trip is nice. Thanks once more for all the help (successful help) you've given. Eric

[luminix]

One more problem has cropped up since my last post. The computer now will not shut down. It will restart only and the "hibernate" or "stand by" option is not highlighted when the shut down/restart/stand by menu pops up. I've read that this happens sometimes when installing SP3. I'm going to do some research online and try to fix it. I'll post back. Thanks.

Eric

[RKinner]

Still on trip but might be able to help with two of the 4.

2. Microsoft Visual C++ 2008
http://www.microsoft...aylang=en&id=29
May help your Real Player problem.

4. Get Speedfan: http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php
Save and run it then check the box that says something like Configure Automatic Fan. I used it this week on my daughter's overheating laptop and it turned the fan on high and the temps dropped from the 80s to the 50s.

[RKinner]

I'm back from my trip. Sorry for the delay.

For your office problem try:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/898512

For the shutdown problem: Start, Run, cmd, OK then type:

shutdown -s

and hit Enter. Does it shutdown or does it give you and error message?

Ron

[luminix]

Thanks for getting back with me. Hope the trip was nice.

As for the MS office issue, I followed the instructions as pasted below:
Under Hidden files and folders, click Show hidden files and folders.
Click to clear the Hide extensions for known file types check box, and then click OK.
Open the following folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Office\Data\
If you are running Office 2003, right-click Opa11.dat, and then click Properties. If you are running Office XP, right-click Data.dat, and then click Properties.
Click the Security tab.

When I nav to that folder, there is no data.dat file. I only have a data.bak file. I did a search on C: for data.dat and it came up empty. (finding only a data.dat file for "windows genuine advantage". Any ideas?

As for the shut down issue, I'm going to try it as soon as I log off, and will report back.

Thanks for the other fixes previously mentioned. I'll post on those later as well.

Thanks again for getting back with me. Eric

[RKinner]

Perhaps the data.bak file can be copied and the copy renamed to data.dat?

[luminix]

1) I copied and renamed the data.bak file to Data.dat, but after clicking properties, there is no securities tab. I tried to start Word (without reboot) and I got the same error message.

2) The shutdown at cmd caused the same action as regular shut down - the computer shuts down only to restart again immediately. I've read this can happen after SP3 installs, but haven't been able to find anything on the web that will fix the problem, nor am I sure it's related. But it would be a weird coincidence that this happened only a day or two after successfully installing SP3. Btw, I did follow your instructions and dl the file you told me to dl (regarding AMD chips) before dl SP3.

[RKinner]

I see if I can find anything on your problems. As a work around for the Office problem, download and install the free Open Office. http://www.openoffice.org/

It will let you work with your Office files.

Ron

[RKinner]

Microsoft suggests it is crashing on shutdown which causes it to restart so let's make sure that is off:

Click the Start button, right-click My Computer, click Properties, click the Advanced tab, and then click Settings under Startup and Recovery.
Under System Failure, view the Automatically restart check box. If the Automatically restart check box is selected, Windows automatically restarts if the computer stops unexpectedly. Uncheck it.

Ron