The Computer Hardware and Software Thread

[Warduke]

I'm having a problem with System Information. I can't get to it.



Using the old way, Start - All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - System Information.



Then I tried this way, Start - Run - type in 'msinfo32.exe'.



Both ways I get the same thing, Help and Support Center (not sure if this is a XP thing, or a Dell thing.)



The only things I have installed on my system lately are that big Windows Update for April and today I got a MS Multimedia Keyboard (installed IntelliType Pro 5.0)



I haven't used System Information in a while, so maybe it's been like this for a while now.



Anyone have any idea what happened to my System Information?

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Firefox: One Browser To Rule Them All.

[Grimlock72]

It's location is: "C Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft SharedMSInfomsinfo32.exe" , try exploring that directory and see if the program is still there. Then try starting it that way.



If that works, locate all copies of msinfo32.* , expect to find at least two (one in dllcache).



Help & Support is Windows-XP, sort of online help, I have it turned of by default. It could be that it's trying to fetch some error message which it couldn't find on your local system. (it tends to want to show you 'user-friendly' message, which I hate)



P.S. you can also use Start->Run: "winmsd" to get the same info, don't know what that functionality has two names.



Grimmy

--
"You hurt Tara," Willow said too calmly. "The last one who tried that was a god. I made her regret it." -- Unexpected Consequences by Lisa of Nine

[Warduke]

Grimmy,



I went to that folder, this is what's in there...



IEFILES5 - IEINFO5.OCX - MSINFO32 - MSIOFF10.MOF - MSIOFF.OCX - OFFPRV10 - OFFPRV10.DLL



So the program is there, and when I click on it, it brings up Help again.



I also tried Start - Run: "winmsd" and again, it brings up Help

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Firefox: One Browser To Rule Them All.

[skittles]

I did a search on my win2000 professional machine & found that file in a few places (both exe & dll):



c program filescommon filesmicrosoft sharedmsinfo

c winntservicepackfilesi386

c winnt$NtServicepackuninstall$



It looks as if I got one of my files thru a service pack install.



The help file seems to be msinfo32.chm & hlp ... at least those are the ones in my help folder/directory



There is also a msinfo32.msc file in the commonfilesmicrosoft shared folder



Good luck...

skittles



If you tell a joke in the forest and nobody laughs, was it a joke?

[Grimlock72]

Warduke,



That error seems to be caused either by a overly active registry cleaner (Tweak XP is rather notorious), manual removal of an idx file (some stupid cache cleaners do that) or just a corrupt install.



To check if the program still works, try:

Quote:

---

C:

cd C: Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft SharedMSInfo

msinfo32 /categories +all -loadedmodules

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Obviously not a nice permanent solution but it should work in most situations to get the info.



It could possibly be a registry-problem with default paths and the like. Fix file at: kellys-korner-xp.com (line 221). As with all stuff you download I recommend you save it as a file (with .reg extension) and read it first before executing it. It does assume windows itself was installed onto C: WINDOWS, which should cover 99.4556% of installs :)



If that fails to do the trick you can re-install msinfo:

Quote:

---

Reinstall msinfo32 using its INF file in WindowsINF. Right click on msinfo32.inf and select install. This process may prompt for a source/cd - if it does, direct it to the i386 folder on the WinXP CD.

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Good luck!



Grimmy

--
"You hurt Tara," Willow said too calmly. "The last one who tried that was a god. I made her regret it." -- Unexpected Consequences by Lisa of Nine

Edited by: Grimlock72 at: 4/23/04 6:12 pm

[Warduke]

I tried the 'msinfo32 /categories +all -loadedmodules' and yes, the program is still there.



I tried the registry fix, and it didn't do anything.



So I reinstalled it and it still goes to Help.

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Firefox: One Browser To Rule Them All.

[Grimlock72]

Did you run any registry cleaning tool recently ? Does Help & Support work, try a search in it. (if H&S also doesn't work try executing: " helpctr -regserver ")



You could do a repair install, but that is a bit overkill if you just want the info from msinfo . You're better of putting the commands from the previous post into a .bat file and run that for such cases.



Odd problem this. Most support people I've spoken to do know the problem but not the solution, only the work around mentioned above.



Grimmy

--
"You hurt Tara," Willow said too calmly. "The last one who tried that was a god. I made her regret it." -- Unexpected Consequences by Lisa of Nine

Edited by: Grimlock72 at: 4/24/04 2:38 am

[Warduke]

Nope, no registry cleaning I can think of, and yep, Help and Support works too.



Since the work around does work, I'll stick with that.



Thanks again.

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Firefox: One Browser To Rule Them All.

[Jennpurr]

Hey Kittens,



I need some help/advice and I'm hoping that maybe one of you can help me.



Up until the beginning of this week I was able to open Microsoft word without any problems. Now, whenever I try to open it, it freezes my computer and then tells me that my system is dangerously low in resources.



Does anyone have any idea why it might be doing this and how I might be able to fix this problem? I can't think of anything I DL'ed onto my computer that would have caused this problem. I've even deleted alot of programs/files on my computer to free up my HD space, thinking that might help, but it didn't.



Help? I'm at a loss here and it's really making me angry!



Thanks in advance,



Jen

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Phoebe: I hate cemetery's at day. (They hear a noise.) What was that?
Prue: Ah, probably a zombie or vampire.
Phoebe: Great, where's Buffy when you need her?

[justin]

I did a search of the Microsoft knowledge base for "low resources word" and found a document that seems to describe your symptoms here



The relevant part is

Quote:

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This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down.



If the problem persists, contact the program vendor.

When you click Details (on Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition, press ALT+D), you receive the following message:



WINWORD caused an invalid page fault in WINWORD.EXE at address.

NOTE: The actual memory address may vary. Followed by the following error message:

System is dangerously low on resources.

This behavior may occur under any of the following circumstances:



* You open Word.



* You try to print a document.



* Word appears to stop responding (hangs), and you press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to quit Winword.exe through the Task Manager.



CAUSE

This behavior can occur if the default Word template (Normal.dot) is damaged.

RESOLUTION

NOTE: Because there are several versions of Microsoft Windows, the following steps may be different on your computer. If they are, see your product documentation to complete these steps.



To resolve this problem, rename your global template (Normal.dot). To do this, follow the steps for your version of Microsoft Windows.



Microsoft Windows XP:



1. Quit all instances of Word, including Microsoft Outlook if Word is set as your e-mail editor.

2. Click Start and then click Search.

3. In the Search Results dialog box, under What do you want to search for?, click All files and folders.

4. In the All or part of the file name box, type Normal.dot.

5. In the Look in box, select your local hard disk (or an alternate user template location if you are running Word from a network server).

6. Click Search to search for the file.

7. For each occurrence of Normal.dot that appears in the Search Results dialog box, right-click the file. Click Rename on the shortcut menu. Type a new name for the file, such as OldNormal.dot or Normal-1.dot, and then press ENTER.

8. On the File menu, click Close to close the Search program.



Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me) or Microsoft Windows 2000:



1. Quit all instances of Word. If you use Word as your e-mail editor, be sure to quit Microsoft Outlook also.

2. Click Start, point to Search, and then click For Files or Folders.

3. In the Search for Files or Folder Named box, type Normal.dot.

4. In the Look in box, select your local hard disk (or an alternate user template location if you are running Word from a network server).

5. Click Search Now to search for the file.

6. For each occurrence of Normal.dot that appears in the Search Results window, right-click the file, and then click Rename on the menu that appears. Type a new name for the file, such as OldNormal.dot or Normal-1.dot, and then press ENTER.

7. Close the Search Results window. Restart Word normally (without using the /a switch).



Microsoft Windows 95, Microsoft Windows 98, or Microsoft Windows NT 4.0:



1. Quit all instances of Word. If you use Word as your e-mail editor, be sure to quit Microsoft Outlook also.

2. Click Start, point to Find, and then click Files or Folders.

3. In the Named box, type Normal.dot.

4. In the Look in box, select your local hard disk (or an alternate user template location if you are running Word from a network server).

5. Click Find Now to search for the file.

6. For each occurrence of Normal.dot that appears in the Find dialog box, right-click the file, and then click Rename on the menu that appears. Type a new name for the file, such as OldNormal.dot or Normal-1.dot, and then press ENTER.

7. Close the Find dialog box. Restart Word normally (without using the /a switch).



If Word starts correctly, you have resolved the problem. In this case, the problem is a damaged Normal.dot template. You may need to change a few settings to restore your favorite options.

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HTH

There's more than one way to do it. - The Perl mantra

[Jennpurr]

YAY for justin!



You helped me fix my problem!!!



Thank you so much, sweetie. I really appreciate your help.



*hugs*



Jen

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Phoebe: I hate cemetery's at day. (They hear a noise.) What was that?
Prue: Ah, probably a zombie or vampire.
Phoebe: Great, where's Buffy when you need her?

[AshWeezer]

My mom just formatted her computer and everythings normal except for that for her color settings for her monitor isnt right. The only option there is, is 16 colors and it previously was high colors but now theres no option for that, just 16 colors. Her graphics driver is updated and it says thats the best driver installed and her monitor says the same thing. The resolution is messed up too, it only stays on 640x480. I dont know what the problem is, if anyone has any suggestions, I'd really appreciate it.



~Sheena~

[cattwoman98111]

shenna



sounds like you may want to uninstall the graphics drivers, then do a clean reinstall (redownload them if need be) of the current drivers

To be nobody-but-yourself -- in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else -- means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting..

[Grimlock72]

Which version of Windows does your mom use ? XP, 98, ME, 95 ??



Sounds like not-XP to me (640x480 default) in which case you will need to install the drivers for your video card. If you look at Display Properties (either via Control Panel or by right-clicking somewhere on the screen and choosing 'properties' from the dropdown menu), check the Settings tab. That is the same tab where you got the '16 colors' information from likely.



After a normal install of a not-XP Windows it usually say something like 'default VGA' or 'default SVGA' where there should be the brand and model of your videocard. Just install the video drivers from the cd you got with the system (either from nVidia or ATI probably). If you can't find the CD you need to figure out what brand card it is, driver install packages are generic once you know the brand-name (i.e. model is not very important to know)



The reason it says that the 'best known driver' is installed is that it thinks you videocard IS a 'generic VGA' card or such. You need to inform it of the fact that you have a real videocard first . Usually just installing the drivers and rebooting fixes that. Tends to be the first thing I do after non-XP installs.



XP does a lot of detection and driver stuff by itself and if it can't do that it will start in 'generic SVGA' which is 800x600, which is why I assume your windows version isn't XP.



Well, that was the LONG version of "install the videodrivers from CD"



Hope that helps a bit, possibly explains some stuff too.



Grimmy

--
"You hurt Tara," Willow said too calmly. "The last one who tried that was a god. I made her regret it." -- Unexpected Consequences by Lisa of Nine

[AshWeezer]

Yeah my moms computer has Windows ME. Her monitor is Samtron. In the display window thing, it says Samtron 76DF and some other letters and numbers and Standard PCI Graphics Adapter VGA. She has a Samtron CD and stuff. When I put the CD in, it comes up with an error. Theres a paper that came with her computer and it says SIS 8meg video card APG. I have no idea if any of that goes together and its probably something really simple and I'm just too stupid to figure it out.

[Grimlock72]

You don't have a 'videocard' cd or 'SiS' cd ?? If not you need to find out which model you have. SiS's site has an auto-detect tool at www.sis.com/support/chipdetect/ which you will need to run from the ME pc itself. You did first install anti-virus and firewall tools before putting that pc on the evil internet, right ???



Or go to download.sis.com and click the stuff you need. (does that site look like a rip-off of nvidia or what?? )



What is the error you get from the Samtron cd by the way ?



And no you're not "too stupid" to figure it out, you provide a nice amount of information to work with. It's not like everybody is supposed to know how Windows works, odd things is that is assumed lots of times though.



Grimmy

--
"You hurt Tara," Willow said too calmly. "The last one who tried that was a god. I made her regret it." -- Unexpected Consequences by Lisa of Nine

[AshWeezer]

I think I downloaded the right thing from that website, but its a zip file and my moms computer doesnt have winzip and its late and I'm tired so I'll mess with it tomorrow before work. My mom and me appreciate all your help Grimlock, you're the best.



Oh and the error that comes up when I insert the Samtron CD is Monsetup has caused an error in DIRAPI.DLL. Monsetup will now close.

[Grimlock72]

Ash, free unzip program (JustZipIt) at free-backup-software.net/download.htm , you can of course download the shareware version of winzip from http://www.winzip.com but why bother ?



Goodluck,



Grimmy

Edited by: Grimlock72 at: 5/18/04 3:31 am

[AshWeezer]

That did the trick. Thanks Grimlock. My mom really thanks you a lot times like 5.

[AshWeezer]

Its just one problem after the other.



Now my computer wont load past the Windows screen. It'll come up to the Windows ME startup screen and it just stays there, its not frozen cuz the little line at the bottom still moves. If anyone could help, that'd be awesome.



Sheena

[Grimlock72]

Eeww... never been a fan of ME, you're sure you need/want ME to run on your pc ? Either win98 Second Edition (lower) of windows XP home (higher) would be easier I think. Some pc's run ME just fine, some just won't... it's rather picky OS version



You can always start in safe mode (press F5 after the 'press DEL to enter setup' message and before the windows logo screen). If that works it is very likely one of the drivers you installed recently is causing troubles. Installed any dangerous drivers lately ? Specificly scanner drivers are evil in this regards, so are some usb/printer drivers.



This is the same system that you clean installed a couple of weeks ago right ?



If anybody has more extensive experience with Windows ME feel free to add answer below



Grimmy

--
"You hurt Tara," Willow said too calmly. "The last one who tried that was a god. I made her regret it." -- Unexpected Consequences by Lisa of Nine

[AshWeezer]

Grimlock, I feel like I should be paying you or something cuz you always help me with computer problems. You're really smart.



This is a different computer from the one that got formatted. That was my moms. It's my computer thats messing up. I'm pretty sure that I havent installed any new drivers lately. I dont really remember.



I tried the F5 thing and nothing happened. I let the Windows ME screen stay on for a bit and then I pushed Esc to see what that'd do and it took me to a screen that says Please wait while Setup updates your configuration files. This may take a few minues. After that, it just sits there and does nothing like the Windows ME screen. I've had Windows ME for a while, I havent had like too many problems with it. I dont know whats wrong with it. I put the Windows ME CD in and nothing happened. I think I just need a whole new computer, I've had my computer for like 4 years.

[Grimlock72]

After four years it's very possible that just formatting your C-drive and re-installing windows ME and all the software you use will fix your problems. Given that the system is 4 years old I'll take a guess that XP Home wouldn't run to good on it



Make sure you copy all the stuff you want to keep to some place safe before cleanly installing it though!



Read this: support.microsoft.com/def...bid=273738 on how to clean boot ME.



Also read-worthy (Microsoft knowledge base is your friend ;-) :



support.microsoft.com/def...&x=12&y=11



and



support.microsoft.com/def...duct=winme



I don't know how experienced your are with computers overall, if you can create create a second partition (D) and copy files you want to keep to it. That way you can safely format partion C and place the OS fresh and new there. (if you got NO idea what I'm talking about here, just copy the files to cdr or floppy )



Good luck!



Grimmy

--
"You hurt Tara," Willow said too calmly. "The last one who tried that was a god. I made her regret it." -- Unexpected Consequences by Lisa of Nine

[AshWeezer]

Alright so I'm gonna format it. When I first got the computer I have now, it was a different hard drive. It was like 40GB, the one I have now is from my very first computer I got 5 years ago when I was 14. It's like 7 and a half GB.



The 40 GB got screwed up so I hafta temporarily use the 7 GB hard drive until I get enough money to buy a new one. Anyway, it had all the old stuff on it and I formatted it and everything. I dont even remember how I did that. I pushed F8 and it took me to a screen that has 4 options: normal, logged, safe mood, and step to step configuration something. I've tried every option and nothing has worked. I just dont remember how to get to the DOS screen to format it. If you could tell me how to get there, that'd be great. Thanks!

[Grimlock72]

Most of the 'how' info is in those links to Microsoft I posted above. A boot disk (floppy) can be downloaded from http://www.bootdisk.com . You likely need this disk, those images are self extracting so just run 'm with an empty floppy in drive.



Grimmy

--
"You hurt Tara," Willow said too calmly. "The last one who tried that was a god. I made her regret it." -- Unexpected Consequences by Lisa of Nine

[AshWeezer]

Alright, my computer is up and running again. No wonder I couldnt get to DOS mode cuz the startup disk I had was like bad or something so I found another one and it worked. I was wondering why I was having such a hard time with it. Anyway, thanks Grimlock, again! You're the best.



Sheena

[Warduke]

Firefox 0.9 is out.



Make sure to read the notes, since this release uses the new Extension Manager. Which means that if your old extensions haven't been updated for 0.9, then they won't work. A great place to check if your favorite extensions are updated is here.



Also Mozilla 1.7 should be out today. So if your prefer the suite, just keep checking here until you see 1.7.

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Firefox: One Browser To Rule Them All.

[darkmagicwillow]

EPOC.Cabir is the first worm to propagate through cellular phones. It replicates on Nokia series 60 phones, attacking all Bluetooth wireless devices without range. Imagine going to a crowded theatre with one of these infected phones in your pocket ... and of course, imagine the future, as the cell phone worms will be used by attackers to make money by sending you sales pitches (phone spam) or simply causing your phone to dial up expensive 1-900 numbers. Of course, I also imagine it won't be long before Symantec and company start selling antivirus software for cell phones.

--

"Omnia mutantur, nihil interit." -- "Everything changes, but nothing is truly lost."

Edited by: darkmagicwillow at: 6/15/04 3:49 pm

[mollyig]

As someone who has grown to love Firefox, I immediately installed 0.9. Haven't seen much difference yet, but when looking for new themes I found one that has a penguin instead of the usual mozilla logo - I'm definitely keeping that one!

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Sheacht mh'anam déag do bhéal, do mhalaí's do ghrua

[cattwoman98111]

Anybody have any info on why Xp Pro System Restore suddenly will not work?



I created a restore point, uninstalled firefox .8, installed the new browser (firefox .9) then realized I did not save my bookmarks. So I attempted to restore the system to save them and suddenly it won't restore. It gives me a simple message that states “system restore is unable to restore your system to an earlier point. Please restart system restore to try again" nothing else, it just won’t work at any point.



I have never used the restore that often, but when I have it has always worked.



MS help and support has nothing, doing a power down reboot did nothing. I can always redo my bookmarks....but that is a lot of work.





And frankly at this point I really want the restore to work for the future.







---------

licky, wanna get ice cream?

Edited by: cattwoman98111 at: 6/16/04 6:44 pm