wierd problems in XP..

Okay so specs first of all:

Processor: AMD Athlon64 Processor 3400+, 2.4GHz
Memory: 512MB RAM
Hard Drive: 250 GB
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9550

Yes AV/Anti spware installed and ran


Okay so heres the problem, on my brothers PC for some reason nothing that i think seems to be windows related loads.. Its really annoying especially trying to fix it. So it started by a MSN related thing or something on a download that he thought was a virus pretending to be MSN, so he fully uninstalled MSN. I then went to his PC and was cleaning it up by removing all the programs that he never uses, via add/remove and then went to the c:/ to delete the folders that were left over after uninstall (only in programme files) Im 98% sure i didnt delete anything that i shouldnt have..

But then when i re-downloaded MSN live, the uninstaller would just run the unpacker, and then do absolutely nothing after. i then didnt bother trying to sort it out. So later on in the day we went and bought a webcam (MSlifecam VX-1000) which works fine on my PC, but the installer CD wouldnt Auto play, and double clicking the .exe in the root folder of the CD does nothing at all either. So i went to the MS website to D/L the files instead of off a CD but they were exactly the same.

I wondered why this was happening and then though i may aswell go and do a system restore to a earlier point to see if it sorts it out, but clicking on the system restore does nothing. I thought this is getting strange so I tried the other stuff in Start>allprogrames>accesories>systemtools such as system info and same, nothing..

well everything else seems to be running fine, X-fire, Steam, CSS have all ran fine not to forget IE, Skype also was downloaded, installed, and ran perfectly. I cant get the installer of lifecam, system restore, system properties or even windows update to open!

Anyone know whats going on and why these things wont run?

I dont really know whats going on TBH and im not sure when this issue may have started as its his PC that i havnt used for about 6 months.

two possibilities spring to mind.
1. Windows is very untidy in what it installs and uninstalls. (and too much change just leaves it unmaintainable)
2. you have collected a virus (MSN is very good at this).

I find system restore is improving over the years but still rather hit & miss.

from experience, I suspect the quickest thing to do is a complete reinstall.
(Mind you a fair amount of software gets installed and uninstalled on my PCs, so maybe I deserve the trouble I cause)
I tend to regard a weekly reboot and annual spring clean (rebuild) pretty much the price for keeping Bill in beer money...

You would want to plan this carefully first
- do you have all the installation disks and registration codes?
- can you organise two backups? or are you planning and hardware upgrades - I quite often get a new - inevitably larger hard disk?

make a copy of all your user files and and emails (Internet bookmarks etc)/ account settings to another disk. - Check this copy against another machine - you are sure is clean with uptodate AV software.
do 1 complete image copy (or just take out the old disk out and keep it)

1. reload windows (install security products - AV / anti spyware / zonealarm etc)
2. take all the security updates
3. re-install required software
4. re-install user files (it's worth considering partitioning disk to separate user files from program files, to simplify later installs)

FWIW I'd consider more memory for XP (but this has no bearing on the current problem)

yeah, i know was planning on increasing the memory capacity, But i dont think its any virus infection, as i have run spyware and anti virus scans after i noticed it and both were completely clean apart from a few tracing cookies.

Is a complete Re-install absolutely necessary? if it came down to that surely just a repair install would be a wiser option?..

Isnt there something you can do within windows that scans for any missing files? maybe it could repair itself while in windows?

No problems doing the re-install, its just a bit of hassle re-installing everything tbh

If you think you've deleted something you shouldn't & are sure there's nothing malicious installed, a repair install might help, but are you really certain there's no virus?

Well i ran a full scan over HDD, Emails, Notes, and Registry and it came up with nothing.

I don't think its an Virus problem, i just dont really know why there not opening..

As for deleting, i dont know how that possible at all as i never went near the windows files, just the programme files, and then deleted the folders that were left after using add/remove to uninstall junk such as games and that.

By the sounds of it, its having trouble running some EXEs. Try repairing the registry using the repair option with the windows CD.
That would be my first guess anyway:D

MSI's have a habit of doing this if they thing there's a previous installation still pendind, no idea how to sort it out but it can be very frustrating.

I think i may as well just do a reformat, its going to do it a bit of good anyhow so why not, save all the time and frustration too.

quick Fix job, but I'm too busy to care tbh! :)

it's trying to guess the odds - with organisation - I reckon I can re-install in about an hour.

the various windows repair options - always seem to take longer / don't always work.

just can't be bothered...

It's annoying there's no error as to what's stuffed or missing, otherwise you could have checked for dependencies & missing files. I've got a tool somewhere that examines exes & dlls, stepping through the code & spitting out all dependencies, but I can't remember the name or which box it's on.

If it's an MSI problem then there should be a log file detailing the error, you just have to find it. Do a search for files ending with .log by date order and see if you can find it.