horsecharles

yeah, the permissions sounds real pertinent.... if still no go, i have repaired it in this manner in the past to fix problems with both Windows Explorer & IE: Use XPLITE to thoroughly remove IE/OE, and btw it's useful for other things: http://www.litepc.com/xplite.html I then run autopatcher xp(just got updated a day ago btw), it will reinstall IE/OE for you(accept if/when it asks that some components are already installed, do you still want to proceed): http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/System-...atcher-XP.shtml In the past, I've then had to then hit windows update-- since the autopatcher version was dated.... Here's hot to do it MS way, I'd scroll down to the bottom one: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=318378 good luck.....

edit: had already started this before last answer... Here's MS article, scroll to bottom solution: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=318378 As you install IE, you can select custom or manual, and you will then be able to select/install only OEXpress. It's overkill, but i would use XPLITE to thoroughly remove OE, and BECAUSE it's useful for other things: http://www.litepc.com/xplite.html AND for the same reasons, if you run the autopatcher, which just got released a day ago, it will reinstall IE/OE for you(accept when it asks that some components are already installed, do you still want to proceed): http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/System-...atcher-XP.shtml I have also repaired/reinstalled a buggy IE without doing anything else, simply by running an earlier release of autopatcher(allowing it to overinstall already-installed modules when it prompts), then hitting windows update-- or in this case, installing this latest autopatcher. Sometimes the particular OE problem is due to some damaged file dealing with windows Explorer or IE(maybe some real-time file protector or spam scanner altered something)... so that seemingly overkill procedure would take care of the problem. Just in case, have you tried these repair resources: http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/problems/performance.htm among these tools: http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/resources/tools.htm there is this one: http://www.oehelp.com/dbxtract/DBXtract.zip (there are more complex, paid versions too) where you can extract any messages you need to. Then, for peace of mind(you don't really need to) you could export your folders or use this tool: http://www.oehelp.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx and afterwards delete all these: INBOX OUTBOX SENT ITEMS DELETED ITEMS DRAFTS POP3UIDL FOLDERS located i believe in: C:Documents&Settings\WINDOWS\APPLICATION DATA\IDENTITIES\XXXXXXXXXXX\MICROSOFT\OUTLOOK EXPRESS\xxxxx.DBX, etc. Upon re-start OE will rebuild them. Good luck.

Thank you very much! I recommend to folks that they select Romanian Mirror 2, it's several times faster than the US one, which just crawls along.... thanks again DanyBoss & Gape!

In my case, it's proof that the less you know, the better off you are-- without reading the specs i innocently installed it in an older P3..... Yes, you CAN do those things. On mine & my customer's legal installs i've disabled all that--I do enough testing / swapping-- but that's not the point. What sane person would want that hanging over their head? Yes, it's not really dreaded for now(& likely will not come into play for most folks): call an 800 #, a courteous MS rep asks you a couple of questions, will not usually challenge your answers, you get a code and are on your way. But why would i want to waste my time that way? As long as MS gets their money & the OS does not get installed on more than one machine, who cares?Also, from a tweaking / consume less resource standpoint: between that, quality feedback for WMP & others, auto updaters, etc....... pretty soon.......... This probably also falls under the category of backing up-- the one day WILL come with a major, major problem.... we've likely all at least come across problems for others on different boards: that last days/weeks w/o a solution...... Some folks dread only because they just don't have the spare time in their hectic lives to solve a major problem--

yes, what DOES that file do-- is it hopefully the MEwer files that are to replace the olSEr ones? That'd be vvveerrryyyy useful.... EDIT: thasa text list of all/each files in win98se install disc...

cooler13, may i please know your exact sis model & whose other drivers if any you tried? I possibly have a couple of resources... or maybe not. And yes, i do know the obvious re sis & also that generally drivers for different makers are not interchangeable. Thanks.

sorry, my answer was about firefox, not opera.

Not with tabs, AFAIK.......

Let's see-- depends on one's overall philosphy(btw i have every single MS software product-- os, business app, data / programming app, etc. & i install these on others' systems--I've multibooted a slew of OS, and i don't find XP to be more stable or faster than 98. And as for work i think win2k, win2k3 pro / server is better suited. ): 1. Usually takes 2 years before an MS OS becomes a somewhat stable version-- winxp is still having major problems with various buggy patches to this day. 2. Depending on the base programming language / coding of one's programs-- i;m talking of business apps, not games-- they may not run faster, sometimes even slower on the nt platform. 3. Why overtax an older system with a resource hog.... drivers, etc. may not be totally compatible with all equipment.... I'm not a fan of having the very latest system in order that it's capable of handling multimedia while simultaneously working on the latest version Office or Photoshop-- i'll play games, tv, music in their appropriate components. So now that i don't need that, getting winxp & a high end system seems like overkill-- there's nothing(work wise), no program i can't perform equally as well on win98 when i bring my work home. Office 2003 & adobe suites run fine on it. For private networks, vpn's, lan/wan,etc. again, i think the other nt counterparts are better than XP. And as for those doing some specialized work: high end multimedia, graphics, cad, etc. ? For them, better is Apple or workstation/supercomputers.... So what is so special about XP? Therefore, i have no reason right now to want xp, ditto lcd screens(I can get several 22" crt's for the price of one lcd). Now, if browsing was faster, programs ran faster, screens rendered quicker--- i'd gladly pay extra. But if I now decide to get winxp, i'll be paying less(street price) than when it first came out, won't have endured its initial bugs, etc. The same will likely apply to Longhorn during the first couple of years-- what will one be able to do considerably faster with it, than with win2k/xp? Ditto say, an Athlon XP system-- I'd rather buy 2-3 systems with that same money. I have no love lost for the Wintel duopoly-- all we've been doing for them is being guniea pigs while paying thru the nose for the privilege of being the first to beta test their initial releases. To boot, they've held the industry back-- not just by squashing most entities with original products / ideas, but for one big reason: Remember over 10 years ago, before the Pentium: IBM, Apple, Motorola-- as a consortium attempted to port superstation-class Risc processors to the desktop pc market, & MS initially agreed to compile windows for it? They later reneged, and the rest is history. JMHO....Good Question.

yes, speeddisk was very good, ditto norton(except for that severely limited memory utility that was inadequate even back then), macafee almost up there too..... up to 16 bit days they fluorished-- they did not succeed as well with the 32 bit / ntfs times.... Norton bugs can last for years-- some you can see posted in the support area year after year.... makes you wonder what they're thinking(or not)-- in that case, then at least yank the dang feature / app-- it looks so embarassing.......

Welcome, SS!! Get to "file types"-- depending on OS, thru: Start/settings/folder options or Exploder/View/Folder options or double-click MyComputa... scroll down & highlight 'Applicacation', click 'Edit', check 'cofirm open after download', apply/ok/. Optionally, you could also look at each file type and do the same for anything else you download un-archived & which you don't want to auto-open: just in case, check these: batch cabinet setup and as well scroll down to the name of your Archiving program(s) and check that-- if they're auto-associated with archive file types / auto-enabled in IE. Otherwise you may have to look for those file types individually. Depending on your archiving app & download manager-- you could maybe do all this from within their settings... Good luck......

Opera 8 Beta...... no crash baby....... It did crash once when i opened it with 10 IE windows already going...... I did catch Quicktime default sound out as windows wave, instead of sound codec.. btw i do not seem to be able to test all browsers like before: besides IE, my isp installed Netscape 6.2, which i updated to 7.1. But after i added Firefox, netscape will not start. Got Opera going too. Maxthon i like, but if it's the same IE engine, then i don't see the point.

That extension advantage can come back to bite one: I've just spent oodles of time finding a buggy one---two actually-- that prevented the browser from starting. They or individuals should release versions with all or most extensions already-included..... It's very nice, though-- that the browser can be started in safe mode...... The one area where IE beats the pants off is in real-estate space: i've got several toolbars & all other icons all scrunched on two thin rows to cut down on scrolling........

This reminds me how over 10 years ago, MS reneged on porting Windows to the PowerPC chip from the consortium of Apple/IBM/Motorola. Imagine how different things'd be, if we'd all had the equivalent of workstation power since way back then-- instead of the comparably-childlike Intel 486/586 platforms... I agree that article's not worth one's time reading.....

Just in case-- xp's native firewall should be disabled to preclude any conflicts-- though i've heard of folks running three firewalls simultaneously without a hitch As well any real-time file protection, mail scanning, protected recycle bin.... Disable file indexing while you're at it-- system will run much faster. Disabling a firewall does not produce the same effect as uninstalling it-- in other words, it does/may not totally disable. Often it's possible(though not in your case, i presume) to keep the same firewall by uninstalling it, re-installing affected program / connection, adjusting settings, then re-installing offending firewall. That being said, i have free Norton but took all out-- thier own programs conflict even with each other-- they've become the most inept company...... and admitted issues in their products continue year after year.... Some of their background-running apps / settings(those i can remember off-hand) which cause issues with different Win versions, Explorer, other programs: the Doctors, real-time file protection, email scanner, protected recycle bin, speeddisk...... speakin'a palindrome-type names: diskkeeper too btw..... I'm happy with the last free version of Kerio(same engine as Tiny, a bit more updated). Trend Micro PC-cillin's bundled free on the Asus mobo driver cd....

Take a gander at this review: K-Lite Mega Codec Pack at BetaNews Rating: 4.9 out of 5 (56 votes) !!! Two things to keep in mind: 1. May need to re-install quicktime(no biggie-- may need updating anyhow)... OR can just use K-Lite Correction / Compatibility Tool(shortcut also in its start/programs folder right underneath the link to its main executable) 2. It installs all the latest codecs for most major multimedia players-- you'll get them even if you have earlier / un-updated versions. In particular, it installed some recent Real Codecs, which were deleted(about 6 or 8 total) when i was forced to re-install Real Player same version(í use BBC version, which is 10 instead of 10.5-- it protects one's privacy, blocks ads & the out of control & resource-hogging auto-updater / control center components). Just re-install codec pack. Alternately, you can just custom-install individual components........

The problem i've seen w/ going the freeware pdf editing route is that it's just too cumbersome & slow for any meaningful workload-- assuming the finished product needs to look identical/just right: I receive an acrobat file which needs editing-- so i convert to another type, lose a ton of formatting.... just to edit a couple of things...., i may need to rework all margins, most lines / fonts / etc. I could have a template ready for an often-used document type, but still....... Then I gotta pray as the work is re-converted to pdf. Even when an edited product doesn't need to look too similar, the margins can look way off, different lines run together, bold mis-applied to text, etc..... I think the answer's to bite the bullet and just buy the CS Premium for @1G, which includes most of the major Adobe programs-- utilize it to sell FÃKkÊ 1d & recoup the cost

I just noticed AutoPatcherXP 5 was just released yesterday: this can save you AND be used in lieu of a format & reinstall(not always, of course, but works more often than not-- for more serious problems I actually prefer it much more than SFC & Repair) IF you allow it to replace ALL files: EVEN if the new ones are older(very important to allow this-- you'll catch all possible damaged, etc. files, even ones Windows may miss!)-- though this likely won't apply in your case, since you're getting the very latest, just out.... I would now use this as my first option, second would be SFC / chkdsk / Repair / etc., third reinstall XP and NOT go to SP2....

AutoPatcherXP was just released yesterday-- get them all in one shot right now!

Durex: aaahhh,,, is this the exact error message? 'Cannot gain exclusive access to disk' Google comes up w/ nothing, nada, zero, zip, zilch, tipota, niente..... Assuming that you don't want to format / re-install right away, & you were only on sp1 as you stated; that you are able to & have already thoroughly scanned for malware(very, very important in case of a boot sector virus)-- anyways do a Find for netut80.vxd and remove it if present. Are you auto-running SpeedDisk, DiskKeeper? Disable-- can cause conflicts w/ chkdsk, that endless reboot loop...... You may then be able to run Chkdsk /p & then /r... or you may first need to repair your MBR(after having thoroughly scanned it for viruses). If you had recently applied windows update, see these: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/s...in_04nov23.mspx AND download: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...&displaylang=en There is also in my mind, a possibility that MS is not being forthright about another possible real cause. Read about what's been happening similarly with mup.sys & win2k since over 3 years ago: For this issue http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q150807/ A solution was given by MS which caused this: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?id=824288 and http://support.novell.com/cgi-bin/search/s...i?/10084921.htm In such a case, maybe a solution could be to disable, maybe even uninstall temporarily most/all such clients before applying windows patches- or just not updating win2k to sp3 /4, winxp to sp2??? Pls do this irregardless of whether previous MS fix applied to you: Flash your bios-- if no update available, reflash w/ last version-- AND disable boot virus protection in Bios(you can always enable this in your AV): it has caused issues w/ MBR & possibly w/ mup.sys IF you needed to repair your MBR, all the more reason to disable that Bios setting. Note: as you're troubleshooting, disabling mup.sys may or may not allow Windows to start again & run normally for a bit-- but this will likely only be temporary. If none of this worked & you're reinstalling Windows, please do a full, not quick format. You could also maybe toggle ACPI, but i would wait to do this only if the windows reinstall returned same symptoms: you cannot toggle ACPI back w/o damaging the current windows install(in case you developed peripheral / irq issues, thus necessitating toggling the setting back). There are plenty of fixes all over the web re changing / re-seating psu, usb, pci slots, ram, hard disks-- often in combo w/ some of these other fixes-- i don't believe those are the answer: often the problem has returned in many instances. I believe it's one of the following: 1. Bios boot AV conflict w/ some NTFS feature. 2. Bios corruption or non-compatibility w/ some win2k/XP function. 3. A win2k/xp patch. 4. Boot Sector Virus Good Luck, keep us appraised......

My take: careful what you clean.....I don't let any such apps auto-fix problems, nor even accept all their cleaning suggestions. I backup registry just before using them, in addition to enabling their Undo functions & logs-- double-safety if you will. I like Regcleaner-- it's actually included in jv16--get them here: http://www.321download.com/ also there is Registry1stAid. Easy Cleaner is good: http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm, and for hacking around in the registry, this app automatically 'backsup/histories' your every edit-- undo is just a click away: http://www.vsft.com/regexp/ Long, long, long ago i gave up on Norton & Mcafee, esp. when mixed w/ windows 2k & xp-- they can't even seem to avoid conflicts between their own programs. Norton in particular i dislike, as they've had myriad unfixed issues, some listed in their suport area-- year after year... they blame MS & MS blames them-- but XP problems nonwithstanding, i side with MS-- they have nothing to do with Norton's conflicts with other Norton products & third-party programs. YMMV-- as with WinME: some folks've had nothing but problems with it, some have never had to reboot even once since they bought it CrapCleaner is good, i custom-add wutemp, quarantine, & other folders. good luck......

and after xplite, BigFix will get you all your windows / office patches-- downloads faster than from MS server too(works similarly: scanning your system for missing updates).

Hi, welcome to the forum! Could be a million things--- what exactly have you tried so far, what's the other model & software accompaying it? (btw try the bottom tips first-- they're the quickest & maybe the most likely) have you tried the obvious: alternating slave/master, updated firmware / software, etc. (Sony updates have been regularly & recently released) I tried looking up info re the model at the sony site-- unfortunately it's gotta be the worst site for looking up anything-- i defy anyone to disprove that-- & a site search returns a 'no info about such a model message'. I suspect this is because some other Jap/Chin co manufactured it(liteon, mats***a, etc.) & just stamped a sony label on. By chance, did you spell out the model name fully? I found this variation: CRX320E here: http://www.techtree.com/techtree/jsp/shows...p?storyid=52986 By chance i saw this link mentioned in an article: http://www.vaio-link.com/Downloads/downloads.asp?l=en But one's required to enter computer serial # before accessing software. What a piece of **** company. I tried ftp as a last resort & got lucky. Here's 12/04 firmware update: ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/PUB/CDRW/Firmware/crx320a_nyk5.zip (Careful when flashing) cyberlink5 patch: http://www.gocyberlink.com/multi/download/...odId=1〈=ENU pick your nero version here: http://www.nero.com/us/Downloads.html Which gets us to the most likely causes: You don't mention your other cd model-- i'm thinking it's an older model whose UDF & other software may clash with your present Sony's, or it may need updating(if so, Adaptec got bought by Roxio, who got bought by MySonic... in case you need to go looking for patches), it may be a case where competing DLA(drive letter assignment) software from both is clashing-- for troubleshooting purposes: try disabling one or the other in startup(msconfig/startup) AND as well disable both auto-detect & auto-play for both data and music(TweakUI). Pls do a Find for this file: ext2.vxd... If you have used partioning software, say Paragon's, this installed file clashes with some DLA software versions and prevents Windows from starting and/or totally freezes the computer when you attempt to use your cd/dvd-- or a cd can be read ok, but when trying to burn windows locks up. You can rename this file & just remember you did that when you wish to partition again. And the #1 Letterman most likely reason: Close all these / disable from starting up / auto-running, reboot and then re/over-install all the software that came with your Sony: firewall, antivir, immunizers, spy blockers, any other real-time file protectors-- also, protected recycle bin, Norton Doctors may conflict for other reasons. One particular reason is: as you're installing your udf/dla, a SpywareGuard or other such software may pop up right during the install with a warning about a possible bad object being installed--& do you wish to accept or block. Well, even if you select accept, it can be too late: something gets messed up in the install, which seemingly proceeds without a hitch-- however, this will cause the same symptoms as with that ext2.vxd file. btw I've seen instances with both Zone Alarm & Norton where it hasn't been enough to just close them-- they need to be uninstalled, the other software then installs properly... further, i have verified this as occurring randomly vs the same exact program(say you intall it once, everything ok-- for some reason you need to reinstall it, you get a conflict)... whooda thunk it? Good luck-- pls keep us posted..

I like Tatra Beer Polish 7.2 % alcohol I know Miller sucks-- i've just got the ditty stuck in my head-- won't leave... it's driving me bananas: http://www.geocities.com/foodedge/sounds/miller.ram I'll have to try Tatra-- I have many Polish friends: i'm gonna razz them for not having recommended it already.

I agree about Firefox better security, no comparison actually: for a business, IE is toast, & that compatibility issue is disappearing by leaps and bounds. I predict that one year from now, browser use stats will be reversed: Mozilla will have more than half the market. There are lots of porn & warez sites that don't hijack-- if you wanted to do that research: you could provide a list of recommended 'safe sites'. Leviathany2k: stay safe in Guatemala-- i lived there once.