I need some help to get my computer running right by tomorrow. I had fixed a problem but a friend who claimed to know alot about computers screwed up my registry by running some registry cleaner. The regular computer guy I use is away until tuesday and I can't wait that long. I have to do a clean install myself. The computer is a 2003 dell 4600i sp2. I am trying to use everest but the comp freezes. The disc I have are the reinstallation cd sp1, application cd for reinstalling dell tools system software, application for sonic recordnow 6.5 software, application for cyberlink powerdvd, dell e172fp color monitor documentation cd and a drivers and utilities cd labeled dell dinension recource cd. Thats all I have and I don't even know if I need all of it other than the reinstallation cd. As long as I can activate XP without a problem and get onto the internet after install I'm sure everything else could be downloaded that I might need. There are a couple things I'm not clear on. I have started to put all my files on disc but everytime I write to disc I get "Confirm Stream Loss" error. I still write the info but I'm worried it won't be readable after install. Second is the internet connection. I was told xp will recognize my modem and no drivers are needed. Not sure about that. Two other things are the drivers and my firewall/anti-virus software. I don't even know where to start with that stuff. I just need to be clear on these things and I should be fine. Thanks
xp clean install
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TRDCorolla1
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Registry cleaner are bogus. There's no such thing as a good registry cleaner. Better to leave it alone unless you know how to find the files to delete. That's my point on that...
Did the modem come preinstalled with you Dell PC? If so, the recovery CDs will have drivers for it. Looks like you have everything you need for the clean reinstall. Those CDs that you have are application CDs and appear to all be useful for reinstalling all your software and the OS itself. As for Norton, it probably came with the PC too--perhaps preinstalled with the OS. Everything may be on that recovery disc, unless it wsa something you purchased as an add-on. In that case, you will need to find the Norton installation CDs. I would pop in one of the Dell CD and browse for the Norton folder.
The error you're getting while backing up your data, confirm the read after you burn it. Pop the CD back into the system and see if you can open up the files. If not, then it's corrupt. Try reinstalling your CD burning software, whatever you may be using (Roxio, Nero).
Did the modem come preinstalled with you Dell PC? If so, the recovery CDs will have drivers for it. Looks like you have everything you need for the clean reinstall. Those CDs that you have are application CDs and appear to all be useful for reinstalling all your software and the OS itself. As for Norton, it probably came with the PC too--perhaps preinstalled with the OS. Everything may be on that recovery disc, unless it wsa something you purchased as an add-on. In that case, you will need to find the Norton installation CDs. I would pop in one of the Dell CD and browse for the Norton folder.
The error you're getting while backing up your data, confirm the read after you burn it. Pop the CD back into the system and see if you can open up the files. If not, then it's corrupt. Try reinstalling your CD burning software, whatever you may be using (Roxio, Nero).
Thanks. I tried the cds I burned and they are readable. The cable modem I have is a Terayon that comcast provided and my firewall/antivirus is Computer Associates internet suite 2007 that I downloaded so I don't have a disc for it. Could I save that program and others to CD?
TRDCorolla1
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Yes, you can. Do you remember where you downloaded the antivirus/firewall suite to? Try finding the .exe file for Computer Associates Internet Suite 2007. Once you find it, you can double click on it to see if it is the actual installation file needed to run the program. Then copy that over to your CD. Or, simply download it again once the PC gets reformatted.
As for the cable modem, no drivers are necessary for that. It's literally plug and play.
As for the cable modem, no drivers are necessary for that. It's literally plug and play.
TRDCorolla1
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I'm sure the reinstall will go very smooth. Just as long as you have all your driver CDs, Dell recovery discs and so on. As for backups, it's a pain backing up files to disc--especially if you have large quantities of them to transfer. I would suggest getting an external USB hard drive. I have a 250GB (which I highly doubt I will ever fill up) that I use to store all my personal files on. Good thing I did because after a few weeks since I've been using the new external drive, my desktop caught a virus and crashed on me repeatedly.
I didn't worry because all my sensitive files were already stores on the external USB drive, whew!!!!! It was a pain in the butt to get everything all reinstalled though because it took what seems like forever. After the OS install, driver install, firewall, etc., and then all the painful Microsoft Updates, it was finally ready for me to install my own programs.
I didn't worry because all my sensitive files were already stores on the external USB drive, whew!!!!! It was a pain in the butt to get everything all reinstalled though because it took what seems like forever. After the OS install, driver install, firewall, etc., and then all the painful Microsoft Updates, it was finally ready for me to install my own programs.
I just got done with the clean install and obviously back online. It went pretty smooth except for two things that are driving me crazy. First off my monitor looks like crap. The colors blend into one another and everything is big even with the font setting on normal. Second is the cpu usage is up and down. Up to 100% and back down to 0. System Idle Process seems to be the culprit. It's been doing this since I updated from MS. That could be the cause. I'll have to keep an eye on it but the monitor is what I need to get taken care of. thanks
TRDCorolla1
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System Idle is always high when you're not doing anything so that's normal. As for the monitor, an easy fix is to download the latest driver from Nvidia or ATi. What kind of video card do you have? If you don't know, you can always right click on My Computer and go down to Properties. Then select the Hardware tab and go into the Device Manager. Look for the Display icon and double click on it. It will tell you if it's an ATi chipset or an Nvidia chipset you're running. Whatever it is, go to www.nvidia.com or www.ati.com to get the latest drivers for it. Download it and install it.
Then go back to the display properties to change the screen resolution that is bigger than 800x600. I have mine set to 1280x768 which is the maximum for my laptop.
Then go back to the display properties to change the screen resolution that is bigger than 800x600. I have mine set to 1280x768 which is the maximum for my laptop.
thanks. The cpu usage was updates. No problem there but the display is bad. I installed the latest driver from nvidia and no help. In fact I think it's worse. If I increase the resolution just a little bit to say 960 by 600 I can't read anything and if it put it higher than that it looks like a big blur.
I am trying to figure out my display issue and found some info about bios problems on dells. Not sure if that has anything to do with it. My bios version is A07 and was instructed to flash the A12 update into my system but I'm not sure if that's a good idea. There is something definitely not right though. last nite if i cranked up the resolution, the screen became blurry but today if I raise the resolution to 1280 by 800 everything becomes microscopic. I have never seen the size of everything change from raising resolution.
