Scussy, no IT man, might find someone to put it together thou, not sure if they know how to overcock it ;)

Thought I could get the PC off the self, which will the cheaper do you think, build it or off the self?

you can get one off the shelf from http://www.overclockers.co.uk
you dont want it in SLI mode as the two graphics go to one screen,its only a software change so cannot be hard for them,
best bet is to ring them at OC's and tell them what you want,after added more mem (4gig) the case you want and windows that you want its about 1,000
i have bought parts to build 2 overclocked pcs from them in the past,when i get a new PC next i will go this way as my IT friend just said he prob could not get the parts that cheap,

i like this one

Just loaded SP3 to my XP Pro.

Apart from the fact it failed yesterday, having done it without a hitch today, I am sure my laptop is running faster.

The download and installation seemed to take a couple of hours, but appears to be worth it - and a good excuse to pop out to the boozer.

TP

Tried the SP3 download but ended up with error message 0x80072F78. Can't understand the Microsoft explanations so I'll try again tomorrow.

ok - am I screwed?

my pc won't run any executable files whatsoever so I can't get into etrade or outlook or even worse system restore.

Can't even run the cd burning software. However i have managed to get my files off to a memory stick

I would just restore xp but I'd quite like to get my outlook emails before I do that.
Tried sticking in the ms office cd to repair things but of course it's an exe file and won't run. aarrgghh.

any clues anyone ?

edit : i know if I create an outlook backup file it is *.pst. what does it call the live file?

I am looking for a PC with this spec or better and cheaper

CC, is your virius software stopping exe files from running. Try turning it off

well i'm getting as a typical example : "choose the program you want to use to open the file rundll32.exe
most annoying one is the "choose the program you want to use to open the file rstrui.exe" which is the system restore option.


No virus software on my pc.

Just done a windows reload on the repair option but it hasn't worked so going for the install another one next.

CC

Assuming that you are using Outlook and not Outlook Express, then everything should be in a *.pst file which you can copy using Windows Explorer or even from a safe mode command prompt.

What caused it to stop working? Are you sure that it is not virus related?

Whatever caused it, using system restore in safe mode should get you going again, but if it was caused by a virus then it will still be there.

It could just be a coincidence but it happenned straight after I tried to load sp2 for xp.

CC

Do you mean SP2 or SP3?

sorry SP3.

I've loaded a second version of xp now. It advised me to be partion the disk to do so then refused to let me. ahh windows - don't you just love it.

PC working fine now but I can't find a recent *.pst file. Going to worry about it later. Trying to set my computer up enough now to do some trading

CC

That makes sense, I've been running an early RC version of SP3 since December and allthough generally I'm pleased with it, I have had some issues with some programs not running under some user accounts.

I haven't reasearched it yet, but I'm beginning to think that SP3 causes problems with some permissions.

Huffed and puffed and finally loaded SP3. Not easy and now I'm not sure of the benefits, if any.

I've never had any trouble loading a MS service pack, but I allways download the full file, which is normally 100's of MB, and run it from the hard disk.

I wonder if the people who are having problems are using the small download file which fetches the remainder of the SP once you start the installation. IMO this method is far more likely to create problems.

Totally agree Optimist, here's a direct link to all 316.5 megs -

http://download.microsoft.com/download/d/3/0/d30e32d8-418a-469d-b600-f32ce3edf42d/WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe

well i finally managed to get outlook back.

It appears that if you do a search for *.pst using the search tool in explorer it just won't find it no matter whether hidden or system files are turned on or not.

good old msdos prompt did the job though. don't you just love windows ?

CC, looks like you're not the only one having problems with SP3. I think I'll leave updating mine until later...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/09/windows_xp_sp3_reboots_crashes/

my laptop got SP3 all done in 45 mins with no probs,

richgit, sometimes the cheaper parts are not allways the best way to go,
i am not saying that MESH systems are no good,i did supply 3 family members with mesh duel core 3800 biy they only look at web,MSN and emails,all still going strong and no problems,
if you want a good gamiming rig and a pc for heavy programs running at same time and want 3ghz,
the OC's i would go for,

Interesing scussy cos I think my problem started before sp3 update but only became serious when it ran. before the update task manager was running about 10 processes called winupdate and it was in my start up menu.

It was killing the performance of my pc so I removed it from my start up menu and then ran went and got sp3.

hmm