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  1. Member Xylob the Destroyer's Avatar
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    I have had absolutely nothing but problems with this damned PC from day one...
    I built it the same time my buddy built his - except for the case, these PCs were identicle! Never had any problems with his...

    I on the other hand have had to reformat and re-install XP on an average of every 7 months!
    This time it wouldn't get past the light blue screen with the XP logo. Ever....
    Even is Safe Mode it couldn't get past it.

    So I called Micro$oft and spent 3 hours on the phone with them "fixiing" the problem via the Recovery Console.
    Now I have 2 new accounts/profiles on the HTPC, neither of which seem to recognize that SP1 & 2 have been installed.
    No network connectivity at all!
    Device Manager says everything is just peachy, but Windows is not recognizing that I have onboard 10/100 as well as on-board Gigabit LAN...
    Absolutely cannot access the old profile....



    *end of rant for now, I guess*

    AAAARRRGH!!!!
    "To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research." - Steven Wright
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  2. Member Xylob the Destroyer's Avatar
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    WOO-HOO!!!
    About 90% of my installed programs are completely inoperable!
    Windows won't recognize my Micro$oft keyboard, even with a re-install of the IntelliType software.
    the vast majority of the items in Cotrol Panel are gone or show as "Empty"...
    Gotta love tech support -- those guys really know what the **** they're doing!

    Thank Gawd I wasted my whole morning on the phone trying to decipher an unintelligble Indian accent.
    Once again, "I can't understand you." does NOT mean you need to speak louder!

    Lesson learned: **** the tech support, it's probably gonna be quicker and easier to remove the C drive, install it as a secondary on another PC, copy your files to another PC &/or burn to disc, re-install your now "old" C drive and wipe it & do a fresh install.
    "To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research." - Steven Wright
    "Megalomaniacal, and harder than the rest!"
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  3. Originally Posted by Xylob the Destroyer
    ...

    Thank Gawd I wasted my whole morning on the phone trying to decipher an unintelligble Indian accent.
    Once again, "I can't understand you." does NOT mean you need to speak louder!...
    Nor does it mean you should rephrase the sentence. Better to use the same words until I can get through the accent than to use different words that makes me have to start over with the decipher every time you speak. I spent close to an hour, one time, trying to get that through to the "support tech" on the other end of the phone.
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  4. Member Xylob the Destroyer's Avatar
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    damn straight...
    gotta love out-sourcing -- that's what makes things so affordable, right? Gasoline is the first thing that comes to mind!
    "To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research." - Steven Wright
    "Megalomaniacal, and harder than the rest!"
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  5. Mod Neophyte Super Moderator redwudz's Avatar
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    If you ever get it working again, I would seriously consider a program like True Image or Ghost and back it up for the next time.

    Otherwise, check: RAM, HDDs, power supply for problems to start with. It's fairly hard to trash a OS most times. Your symptoms seem to point to a ongoing hardware problem. And M$ doesn't do hardware.
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  6. Member Xylob the Destroyer's Avatar
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    Indeed, but I've checked all the RAM, the HDs, optical drives, PSU, video card....
    so frustrating!
    "To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research." - Steven Wright
    "Megalomaniacal, and harder than the rest!"
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  7. Member FulciLives's Avatar
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    How about trying Linux instead?

    Maybe something like one of the pre-compiled MythTV flavors of Linux would work well?

    Some examples (in no particular order):

    1.) Mythbuntu
    2.) MythDora
    3.) KnoppMyth
    4.) GeeXboX

    Just a thought

    - John "FulciLives" Coleman
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  8. Member Xylob the Destroyer's Avatar
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    Familiarity...
    This is really shitty timing. I will be incredibly busy for the next 3 months or so...
    When I actually will have some down time to "relax", I'll want to be able to just fire it up and go. I certainly won't be in the mood or want to **** around trying to learn the quirks of a new OS that doesn't support the applications I want to use and trying to find new applications to replace them (and then **** around with trying to learn how to use them as well!).

    I have considered Linux based OS in the past, but never really got around to trying any.
    The bottom line is, people always bitch that they can't run their cool apps in a Linux based environment. Sounds like a crap set-up to me...
    "To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research." - Steven Wright
    "Megalomaniacal, and harder than the rest!"
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  9. Member FulciLives's Avatar
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    Well I guess it all depends on what you use this HTPC for ... if you use it just to watch videos and listen to music and internet surfing then Linux is a good solution as the proper Distro will come with everything you need ... no ******* around.

    However if you want to use the HTPC to do encoding or re-encoding etc. then yeah you better stay away from Linux LOL

    However if you have another computer that is the one you do your encoding on and the HTPC is just the end result of that stuff then Linux will be easy and there will be no virus worries.

    Oh and capturing under Linux is tricky unless you have a Hauppauge WinTV PVR unit like the 250/350 models.

    - John "FulciLives" Coleman
    "The eyes are the first thing that you have to destroy ... because they have seen too many bad things" - Lucio Fulci
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  10. Member Xylob the Destroyer's Avatar
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    yeah, I watch movies on it and stream media, but also encode, create DVDs and burn with it.
    some gaming as well, mostly emulation.
    "To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research." - Steven Wright
    "Megalomaniacal, and harder than the rest!"
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  11. So, there is hardware existing on the mobo that Device Manager is not recognizing at all, even as an Unrecognized Device?

    And you have "checked out" virtually every other part, EXCEPT the motherboard?

    And Windows has mangled itself, at least once and apparently more times, over a period of 7 to 14 months?

    Not enough hard evidence to go on, but sounds like a flaky main board to me.
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  12. Renegade gll99's Avatar
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    Is this the Athlon showing in your Computer Details? That could explain some differences with your friend's pc and point to some possible issues. Windows should not crap out all the time unless you have some major hardware problem like..... a borderline old hdd corrupting some critical files, a bad or underpowered ps for your build etc.... or even a pci card placement on a shared slot that conflicts with another device. Although drivers often cause problems it's not always software or the OS that's to blame.

    If that's not your current system what components do you have?

    btw) Just a thought, when trying to solve problems it's easy to forget something so just wondering if at some point you disabled the onboard lan in the bios and forgot to reactivate it.
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  13. Member Xylob the Destroyer's Avatar
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    I've wondered about the mobo myself in the past...
    Yeah, it's the PC in my details.

    THe PC will "crash" on a fairly regular basis and upon reboot it's always the same reason -- "A device driver.". Nothing like a vague message to help you out.
    I've checked all my device drivers and updated all of them what seems like 100 times. Every single driver I have is signed by MS! It would really be helpful if it would tell me WHICH device driver...
    "To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research." - Steven Wright
    "Megalomaniacal, and harder than the rest!"
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  14. Let's try for real numbers, rough estimates are OK.

    How Often does it crash? Once a week. month, day, hour? How many crashes, over how long a period?

    Are they Incresing in frequency?

    Seems pretty definite there is some sort of faulty hardware. Intermittant failures are some of the hardest to diagnose and repair, that is why the time intervals are so important. Basically you replace or remove a questionable component and see if it runs past the time wherein a failure would be expected. If it only fails once a month or so, this becomes difficult.

    Faulty hardware usually gradually increases in frequency of failure.

    Windows failing to recognize hardware present on the mobo is a pretty big red flag.
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  15. Member Xylob the Destroyer's Avatar
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    the 'crashes' are random.
    it will do it under heavy load, it will do it when idle...
    I was keeping a log of sorts for a while to see if there was a pattern of any sort. None to be identified.
    3 crashes in one day under relatively "normal" use (burning DVDs & web).
    No crashes two days later while encoding for extended periods of time.
    2 crashes the next day when basically idle the whole time.
    no crashes for 2 weeks with all variety of use
    then out of the blue it will crash again 2 minutes into an encoding session, but upon reboot will encode for 8 hours with no problems.
    Always the same error report, "A device driver.". WHICH ONE???

    There was nothing to indicate that any specific program was causing the crashes, there was no common hardware factor...

    None of the onboard devices had been disabled (BIOS or otherwise) at any time.
    This time it wouldn't get past the light blue screen with the XP logo. Ever....
    Even is Safe Mode it couldn't get past it.
    After going through the "repair" procedures in the Recovery Console with tech support, most programs would no longer execute and windows wouldn't recognize that I had onboard LAN, even though Device Manager shows no yellow "!" icons. Double-checked the BIOS and nothing has changed. Updated all the drivers via Device Manager and still no LAN.
    Click Start > Settings > Network Connections and it says "Empty", whereas it used to show 3 different network connections.
    No onboard audio anymore either.

    I'm just gonna wipe the C: drive and do a clean install, again. When I can find the time.
    "To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research." - Steven Wright
    "Megalomaniacal, and harder than the rest!"
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  16. Member FulciLives's Avatar
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    Sorry to hear about your troubles.

    Maybe you have a "lemon" ???

    My uncle bought a computer once for office work and inside of Excel ... when using the cursor keys around a spreadsheet ... BINGO ... the number "8" would get inserted into a cell (that was being scrolled by).

    Thinking it was a keyboard error I hooked what was my own known working keyboard up to it. Same thing.

    That computer did some other "odd" things. Never could figure it out other than to chock it up to being a lemon.

    - John "FulciLives" Coleman
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  17. Member Xylob the Destroyer's Avatar
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    Could very well be.
    I'd love to get a new video card, something that is more compatible with my HDTV.
    Since nobody really makes AGP cards anymore, I'd have to upgrade the mobo, RAM, and processor as well.
    Just a little pricey for me at this point though...
    "To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research." - Steven Wright
    "Megalomaniacal, and harder than the rest!"
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  18. Originally Posted by Xylob the Destroyer
    Since nobody really makes AGP cards anymore, I'd have to upgrade the mobo, RAM, and processor as well.
    Just a little pricey for me at this point though...
    Sell one of those cars
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    I use the FixEverythingThat'sWrongWithThisVideo() filter. Works perfectly every time.
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  19. Member Xylob the Destroyer's Avatar
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    Nah. Then I couldn't be a decadent capitalist pig, spoiled by all the riches I enjoy...
    Maybe I'll sell the wife's car instead.
    "To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research." - Steven Wright
    "Megalomaniacal, and harder than the rest!"
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