Hilary

Use system restore to put the machine back to what it was before the MS update. This process is reversible, but will delete any other updates or programs that have been installed since the restore point.

A great plus on doing this, is that you shouldn't lose any new data files introduced since the restore point.

I've only had to use it twice myself but I do think System Restore is an excellent facility and a really useful feature.

Thanks, Opti.

I have installed other things since then, so it's a bit more tricky than it might otherwise be. I also looked at the Device Manager which suggests that it's properly installed using the Dell driver.

So why, if it thinks it's already properly installed. would it detect new hardware on boot????

Hilary

I suspect that one feature of the printer is not detected as working properly, so it keeps attempting the to reinstall.

I still think that system restore is your best option even if you have to reinstall a few programs but otherwise, you could try:-

Check in device manager and if there are any devices assocoated with the printer that are not working then dissable them.

and/or

Force a manual hardware check in device manager and see if it will give you the option to ignore that device in future.

and/or

Uninstall the MS and then the Dell drivers completely and then to reinstall.

Before you try any of the above, set a new system restore point.

Best of luck!

Thanks for that tip, Opti.

Device Manager shows it as appearing twice. Once as an imaging device with succussfully installed driver and once as a printer without driver installed.

I've disabled the printer now, so we'll see what happens on a re-boot.

Got a blue screen with atapi.sys apparently identified as the problem. (Whatever
that is.)

I cannot restart the PC in any mode without returning to the blue screen.

Can anyone help please?

Alan

Alan

I suspect that it issome form of hard disk fault.

How you fix it depends on how much risk you want to take with the disk.

The safest way is to mount the disk as a secondary disk in another machine, backup all your data and then run chkdsk /f . That will fix any errors although you may possibly have to repair the system using the install CD.

It is worth checking the connections to the disk and possible pluging it into a different socket.

The other way to recover it, is to boot from the install disk, let setup detect your windows system and then select the recovery option. This will open a command prompt where you can run chkdsk /r (and if you know what you are doing a lot more). This will fix any errors although you may possibly have to repair the system using the install CD if there are any corrupted files. Don't try this if you have a pre Win XP SP2 disk and your hard drive is larger than 120GB.

The other thing to check is that the CPU fan is OK.

Thanks Optimist.

All a bit technical for me..... It is a Dell laptop and I'm not confident about opening
it up.

I'll see if I can find a local engineer who speaks English. ;)

Alan

Alan

Most laptops have a panel at the side where the hard disk is. All you ave to do is undo one or two screws and slide it out. It's best to remove the battery first but you don't have to access any other part of the machine and you can't put it back the wrong way.

Got the disk out OK. All looks clean. Reseated it but still no joy.

On my Dell (Inspiron 9400) there is a Media Direct button which loads video
features etc., When I load that it allows me to access pics I have on my
hard disk to view OK but when I exit that it is back to the blue screen.

Alan

As I understand Media Direct, it loads a reduced OS that is inn this case not affected by the corrupt file. It still points to some sort of disk corruption, but clearly most of the disk is OK.

Simple question , one of the kids has an Acer Travelmate 2410 laptop and wants more memory added.

When I check on different sites what memory to buy I'm getting two different answers , some say DDR2 PC2 5300 and others say DDR2 PC2 4200.

Any idea which one I should get ?

Cheers

I think (but am not certain) that those two are interchangeable in which case you may as well go for the 5300.

Try going to www.crucial.com and run their memory checker. If it's the wrong sort then they should replace it.

They were one of the ones that said the 5300 .

I'll just go for it , cheers Optimist.

Dil: I get all my add-on memory from Crucial (at my age, you need all the help you can get).

Never had a problem with them, great outfit, quality product.

Cheers MM , had them saved as a favourite as someone mentioned them before.

Just a word about Crucial, they are a first class supplier but www.dabs.com (now changed to BT) can sometimes supply Crucial branded memory cheaper.

Now something easy (for you) I put spywear terminator on my computer, and try as i have, i cant get it off, i think it must be a hidden file or something the market not doing much. help me out please

Crucial,

Apart from the price I am attracted to the way they deal with the odd problem. For example I had a small batch of cards that failed in an early Ixus we had - and they replaced them immediately.

The question I'd ask is as to whether Dabs are as responsive. If not, then a small saving may not be worth the agro.

TP

TP

Of course you are right, the fact that Dabs are now part of BT tells you all you need to know about them.

I was just pointing out the option.