PC geniuses come in here

[Montu]

^
wow welcome to the times! I haven't used a floppy in ages..I also currently don't even have a DVD drive in my current machine..its all usb 3.0 flash drives for me (try a windows install if you haven't its so much faster then dvds)

[the86d]

^
wow welcome to the times! I haven't used a floppy in ages..I also currently don't even have a DVD drive in my current machine..its all usb 3.0 flash drives for me (try a windows install if you haven't its so much faster then dvds)

I used to boot to Win98 CD, fdisk (drop a part.), format, then drop off all install files on the drive, then start an install from the \win98\ files folder for 98, but how do you do so for a Win7 install if you don't boot from the DVD? (I have not done this since 98 as the Win2k boot-to-install was a bit different, so I stopped caring with faster CD/DVD drives.)

[Montu]

I used to boot to Win98 CD, fdisk (drop a part.), format, then drop off all install files on the drive, then start an install from the \win98\ files folder for 98, but how do you do so for a Win7 install if you don't boot from the DVD? (I have not done this since 98 as the Win2k boot-to-install was a bit different, so I stopped caring with faster CD/DVD drives.)

I haven't used this method but looks like Microsoft has a tool

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool

I used disk part to setup the usb drive to be bootable and then just copied the files from a dvd

[Brandon04GT]

Alright guys,

So I managed to get dban to work and had the tech come over today to replace the stuff. I installed the Windows OS using the oem Dell windows CD and then also installed all the basic drivers.

Everything seemed to go well until now. I can barely go to any website on internet explorer without the stupid *** "Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close" window poping up. I can click send error report or close, either way it closes my internet explorer. I cannot even download a newer version of the default IE (version 6) without this sign poping up again. I can't even download Chrome from google.com because then I get another popup saying IE cannot open the website or something.

I called Dell technical support and spoke to someone in India for over an hour. He basically told me at first some of the IE source files didn't install correctly but he fixed it for me via remote access. He told me the problem still comes up now because I didn't have an anti-virus software installed. He said once I do, everything should be fine.

I was skeptical at first cause I've reformatted my PC before and never ran into this problem. Usually I can use IE right away to download all the basic stuff I use like Chrome and etc. I just managed to download AVGfree and now my computer recogizes an up-to-date anti-virus. However, the problem is still here.

Seems like calguns.net is one of the only websites I can sucessfully browse. Anyone have any ideas? should I just reformat again??? I already wasted the entire half day doing this and I reallly need to get my computer working again so I can start some class work.


Thanks,
Brandon

[Montu]

^ wow they didn't re install the OS for you?

honestly you can spend time trying to figure out your IE problem but if you haven't re-installed too much ..it may be more time effective to just Re-install windows again..some times you just get a not so great install.

what version of windows are you running?

here try clicking this link to get chrome..maybe you'll get lucky

http://dl.google.com/chrome/install/154.48/chrome_installer.exe

[whatpain]

yeah i you could try chrome. its wierd its not letting you access some sites but it will let you access others.

coded-dude unetbootin is awesome. itll let you do linux distros and windows too. i used it to put vista on a customers machine when i ran out of dvd-r's

[Brandon04GT]

Thanks a lot Montu for that link....it is exactly what I needed. I managed to install Chrome using that and so far it seems to be working okay. I am using XP Pro.

I am also doing all this Windows update stuff and it is currently installing XP service pack 3 but it's taking a while. Do you guys think that could be what was holding me back?

We'll see in a few moments. Let me go out and get some Thai food.

[the86d]

Hit the cli by running cmd

ftp ftp.mozilla.org
<User:> anonymous
<password:> some.e-mailaddy@fake.org
cd /pub/firefox/releases/13.0.1/win32/en-US
bin
mget *.exe
<y>

start %userprofile%

Double-click Firefox Setup 13.0.1.exe

Edit: SP3 install can take <FOREVER> minutes!

[Montu]

^
aw man the86d

Man yea that's the OG way to get your downloading done.

Thanks for reminding me that I can still use the CMD for more then ping, nslookup, ipconfig and netsh commands

Brandon-
no matter how far behind you are on updates that shouldn't be happening.

the updates can fix your problem though. gl

[the86d]

If updates fail then drop your Automaticupdates/WindowsUpdate SVC, and blow out everything inside your \%windir%\SoftwareDistribution\ folder then start the service up again.

[Brandon04GT]

^^ What do you mean by start the service up again?

Alright so I managed to get all the current updates in and IE seems to still be acting the same way. Chrome on the other hand seems to be working flawlessly. I pretty much like to only use Chrome anyway. It appears that all the problems are related only to IE.

I managed to use Chrome to download IE 8 and i'm installing that now....lets see if that's the fix?

Either way since Chrome is working I will be using my comp like this at least till this weekend cause I really need to start some school work. Man I can't tell you guys how nice it is to be able to restart your computer in less than 35 freakin' minutes lol. It feels like a clearing a blocked nose that has been blocked for years...

[the86d]

If your browser is toast, circumvent the issue, adapt and overcome.

I'd probably do a "chkdsk /f" at the cli then say yes, and then you can run it in real mode when you reboot (so it can have full access to the drive without any Windows files locking) to make sure you don't have any corrupt Win. files, as after all updates to bring you current there is usually something whack (bad MFT references or something that gets cleared up, I can't remember what it was) on WinXP volumes.

Just for giggles: when is the last time you did a RAM test? I have seen applications (even IE) be goofy due to bad RAM (even after a complete Windows install that completed flawlessly..).

[Coded-Dude]

IE sucks, but occasionally you find a site that requires it....so stupid. Although Chrome does have an IE plugin/extension for that.

http://www.chromeextensions.org/utilities/ie-tab/

I would actually install the extension and see if you get the same behavior in chrome(since I am pretty sure it requires IE to be installed for it to function).

[Montu]

^^ What do you mean by start the service up again?

Alright so I managed to get all the current updates in and IE seems to still be acting the same way. Chrome on the other hand seems to be working flawlessly. I pretty much like to only use Chrome anyway. It appears that all the problems are related only to IE.

I managed to use Chrome to download IE 8 and i'm installing that now....lets see if that's the fix?

Either way since Chrome is working I will be using my comp like this at least till this weekend cause I really need to start some school work. Man I can't tell you guys how nice it is to be able to restart your computer in less than 35 freakin' minutes lol. It feels like a clearing a blocked nose that has been blocked for years...

yea if that doesn't work do what 86d is saying

go to start>run>type in "cmd" > hit enter >type "chkdsk /r" (/r implies /f) > hit enter > it should say that it can't run and will run on restart...>close and restart the pc

btw during the windows install even if its a new drive I always recommend picking the full (not quick) format since it will mark errors on the drive as it goes.

[Brandon04GT]

I see. I was going to run the full format when I was installing Windows but decided to just do the quick one. Anyway I just updated my IE to version 8 and I am happy to say that it seems to be working perfectly fine now. I tried to download the Chrome installer and it downloaded just fine.

Everything seems to be good for now and I hope it stays that way. I like how they replaced my 120gb HDD with a slightly bigger 160gb one....not that this is at all impressive by today's standards lol.

RAM test? wazzat???