[phillpower2]

No worries Jackpine 

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Hi phillpower2, here is the current situation.

1. Booted into Puppy. Downloaded VLC from the link you provided in your post of April 8, 2014. I got message saying it was successful, but I can't find a VLC icon on the desktop. I also can't find anything in the menus that identifies VLC Player. (Keep in mind I am new to Puppy and how to navigate/use it.) I inserted a DVD and nothing happened, other than an icon appearing on the desktop. When I clicked it, a window showed up showing an Audio and Video folder. I also clicked on the Play icon that is part of the normal Puppy desktop and nothing happened there.

I should also mention that when I set up the initial internet connection, for some reason it said a modem couldn't be detected. In the end, I got it to connect, but I'm not sure if I messed things up, because... see item 2 below.

2. After not being able to auotplay a DVD, I booted back into Windows XP and soon discovered it was not behaving properly.

- I can't connect to the internet.
- the cursor freezes at random times, and I can't continue opening programs
- Ctrl-Alt-Del doesn't open up the window as it should.

What the heck happened? From bad to worse!

[Jackpine]

Hi phillpower2, here is the current situation.

1. Booted into Puppy. Downloaded VLC from the link you provided in your post of April 8, 2014. I got message saying it was successful, but I can't find a VLC icon on the desktop. I also can't find anything in the menus that identifies VLC Player. (Keep in mind I am new to Puppy and how to navigate/use it.) I inserted a DVD and nothing happened, other than an icon appearing on the desktop. When I clicked it, a window showed up showing an Audio and Video folder. I also clicked on the Play icon that is part of the normal Puppy desktop and nothing happened there.

I should also mention that when I set up the initial internet connection, for some reason it said a modem couldn't be detected. In the end, I got it to connect, but I'm not sure if I messed things up, because... see item 2 below.

2. After not being able to auotplay a DVD, I booted back into Windows XP and soon discovered it was not behaving properly.

- I can't connect to the internet.
- the cursor freezes at random times, and I can't continue opening programs
- Ctrl-Alt-Del doesn't open up the window as it should.

What the heck happened? From bad to worse!

[phillpower2]

Hello Jackpine,

 

2. After not being able to auotplay a DVD, I booted back into Windows XP and soon discovered it was not behaving properly.

- I can't connect to the internet.
- the cursor freezes at random times, and I can't continue opening programs
- Ctrl-Alt-Del doesn't open up the window as it should.

What the heck happened? From bad to worse! 

 

Puppy does not change your settings or interfere with your OS in any way, this because Puppy runs from your within your Ram and the only time it will access the HDD is if you prompt it to do so, also keep in mind that you would need to mount the HDD to be able to access it in the first place.

 

Have you tried Last Known Good Configuration or starting in Safe Mode.

[Jackpine]

Right. I didn't believe that Puppy would do anything. It worked properly before.

I will try starting from last known good configuration. If I start in safe mode, what then?

Do you want me to go in safe mode and then start from last known good configuration?

What about System Restore?

[phillpower2]

Last Known Good Configuration will start your computer using the same settings that were used for your last successful boot up and shut down, details here

 

​Safe Mode with Networking will start the computer using the least amount of resources and will allow you to check for any changes that may have been made or missing updates etc, details here

[Jackpine]

I started in Safe Mode, and everything works as it should.  I can connect to the internet, the cursor doesn't freeze, I can open Windows Task Manager, etc.  Just out of interest, I ran Malewarebytes and the machine was clean.  Is there anything else I need to do while in Safe Mode?

 

I will reboot into Last Known Good Configuration and see how it responds.  I will post the results. 

[phillpower2]

It may have been a driver issue so we must wait on the last known good configuration check.

[Jackpine]

Last know good configuration didn't solve the problem.  I tried System Restore from a few days ago and everything is back to normal!

 

So now we are back to the original problem of autoplay (or is the correct terminology autorun?)

[phillpower2]

Autoplay is correct for the said function 

 

Did we ever check if auto play would function correctly in Safe Mode.

 

It is possible that the update that enabled the auto play feature in XP has been moved or deleted, I mention this due to the lack of XP updates showing in Speccy and from your reply #80;

 noticed this last week as well when I went to the Micrsoft update website and checked my update installation history. It always showed the complete history, but now it only shows updates going back to March 2014

 

XP update here

 

 

Back up the registry first;

 

1. Click Start, click Run, type %SystemRoot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe, and then click OK.
2. On the Welcome to System Restore page, click Create a restore point, and then click Next.
3. On the Create a Restore Point page, type a name for the restore point and then click Create.
4. After the restore point is created, click Close.

Note If System Restore is turned off, you receive a message that asks whether you want to turn on System Restore now. Click Yes. Then, in the System Properties dialog box, click to clear the Turn off System Restore check box, click OK, and then repeat this step. For more information, see How to turn off and turn on System Restore in Windows XP.

 

And then try step 2 and if necessary step 3 here

[Jackpine]

I will try out what you suggested in your post #99 when I get home from work. I do have two questions however.

1. Will a media player (such as Windows Media Player or Media Player Classic) play a DVD in Safe Mode? You suggest that I try this. I thought only the minimal amount of drivers are loaded in Safe Mode.

2. Should I install the Windows update while I am in Safe Mode or regular mode?

[phillpower2]

1: Start the computer in Windows as you normally would.

2: Create a new restore point.

3: See if the update will install, if it does, restart the computer and test.

 

If the update does not install, restart in Safe Mode with Networking and try a retail disk in the drive to test.

 

If no joy try the XP Autoplay Repair Wizard

 

1. Will a media player (such as Windows Media Player or Media Player Classic) play a DVD in Safe Mode? You suggest that I try this. I thought only the minimal amount of drivers are loaded in Safe Mode.

 

Honest answer is I have never needed to try it, the minimal drivers that are used in Safe Mode are Windows own which avoids conflicts with third party drivers.

[Jackpine]

SUCCESS!!

After almost 2 1/2 months of painstaking troubleshooting, testing and analysis, the autoplay feature on both of my optical drives now works.

 

Following the instructions from your last post, I installed the Microsoft autoplay update while in Normal Mode.  I then tried to play a retail DVD, but no luck.  (I checked my Windows update history, and it didn't show that this update was installed.  It showed updates from last "update Tuesday, April 8).

 

I then went into Safe Mode and tried to play a DVD.  It wouldn't play, possibly because the media drivers don't get installed in Safe Mode.  However, a window did open showing the Audio_TS and Video_TS folders.

 

I then installed the Microsoft autoplay update again while in Safe Mode.  I tried a DVD, but it wouldn't play.

 

I then booted into Normal Mode and tried a DVD, and, lo and behold, it played perfectly.   It played in both drives, and in both modes: play immediately with Media Player Classic, and "ask me what I want to do" where I then manually select MPC.

 

Oddly, this update doesn't show in the history of updates, even though I got confirmation that it was installed.  I wonder if that is another issue that needs to be sorted out.  What do you think?

 

In any event, thank you very much phillpower2 and Crowbar for staying with me during this often frustrating journey.  I was certainly feeling discouraged many times, but you perservered, and I felt it was only fair for me to go along.  Thank you sincerely, again.

[phillpower2]

That is great news and a job well done on your behalf Jackpine 

 

This has been a difficult one to resolve for sure and tbh if I hadn't noticed the distinct lack of XP updates in the Speccy report I would not have thought of suggesting the Autoplay update be reinstalled 

 

Can I just confirm that you created a new restore point once the drives were both proven to be working.

 

Oddly, this update doesn't show in the history of updates, even though I got confirmation that it was installed.  I wonder if that is another issue that needs to be sorted out.  What do you think?

 

 

As MS are no longer releasing XP security updates to the general public it is recommended that computers using XP be disconnected from the internet or risk being infected by malware or the victims of hackers etc, with this in mind, if your computer is working well in every other aspect it may be best to leave it as it is.

[Jackpine]

Yes, I did create a new restore point as you indicated.

I'm just wondering if I could have a final scan for malware now that the DVD autoplay issue is sorted out? I would like to then create a new image of my C drive using Acronis so that I have a current, known malware-free image with everything that works, in case I need to resort to it at some time in the future. (At least for as long as I continue to use Windows XP.)

[phillpower2]

Yes, I did create a new restore point as you indicated.

I'm just wondering if I could have a final scan for malware now that the DVD autoplay issue is sorted out? I would like to then create a new image of my C drive using Acronis so that I have a current, known malware-free image with everything that works, in case I need to resort to it at some time in the future. (At least for as long as I continue to use Windows XP.)

 

Sorry if I appear pedantic but was a new restore point created before and after the issue was resolved.

 

Crowbar is best placed to advise on any malware scans and I can only reiterate the following;

 

As MS are no longer releasing XP security updates to the general public it is recommended that computers using XP be disconnected from the internet or risk being infected by malware or the victims of hackers etc, with this in mind, if your computer is working well in every other aspect it may be best to leave it as it is.