...may still have bit of computing left in her after all. I can print again! And it seems generally stable again. [Imagine crossed-fingers emoticon here]
Way back when—might have even been late last year, but I think it was early this year—my Norton SystemWorks 2003 got messed up somehow and I couldn't get updates. Tried various things, including an upgrade to NSW 2006, but it turns out that's only for Windows XP and so it forced NSW 2005 upon me. No big deal to me, though, as I figured it was still an upgrade. I knew that there were issues around the time of NSW 2003 and later whereby if you wanted to uninstall one version and then install a new version you had to completely uninstall the old one first—which involved direct registry edits (Yikes!). However, I'd also read that the 2006 version did away with that issue, so I thought I'd be fine (I hoped that meant the bundled 2005 version was patched as well). Even after the "upgrade" I still thought I was fine—well, other than the fact that it didn't actually solve my Norton updating issue at the time. I ended up using what's called a "hawking tool" to reset the NSW updates and then I was able to grab stuff again. I really thought I was fine at that point.
It turns out, though, that things weren't fine after all. In addition to my recent printer issue, I've also had problems for a long time with my scanner software in that it often would blue screen me rather than start up properly. Usually after a few system reboots it would finally work. It was annoying, to be sure, but since I don't scan stuff all that often these days, I didn't bother trying to fix it. If I wanted to scan something, I just put up with the blue screens until it got over the hump. But other than that, my system seemed to be running fine, so I didn't want to go tinkering, trying to fix an issue that only affected me maybe once every few months. I'm always afraid that I might mess things up worse. (Well, there have been precedents!)
As I mentioned in my prior post, even with my system being thoroughly uncooperative I've been trying to get it up at least once a day just to keep on top of stuff internet-wise. Today however, at one point I received a message that my internet access software couldn't start up, that it was corrupted and should be reloaded. Well, I didn't do that, I just rebooted to try again, knowing my system was acting generally wacko anyway. Soon it wouldn't boot into anything other than safe mode. I actually took the time then to look at the Windows diagnostic/troubleshooting tool that comes up and it gave me an idea. I've used msconfig for a long time to make sure that only stuff I actually want in memory loads at startup. So much software forces itself into your system tray and when you don't really use it that often, you usually don't need it in memory until you want to start it for yourself.
Now I've strongly suspected for maybe the past month that perhaps Norton SystemWorks was somehow the source of my problems, but only recently used msconfig to disable the Norton-related stuff from loading at startup. That helped for a while, until I hit the printer problem. Then attempting to uninstall/reinstall the printer is of course when the crap hit the fan and the system became wildly unstable. Couldn't print, couldn't scan, couldn't burn CDs, couldn't hardly boot up half the time.
With being forced into safe mode and the automatically appearing Windows troubleshooting help tool I then came across a mention of msconfig which referenced the "Static VxDs" tab of the tool. When I disabled—or so I thought—Norton SystemWorks from loading, I used the "Startup" tab to stop any Norton/Symantec tasks from loading. But when I looked in the "Static VxDs" tab of msconfig, I realized there were a few Norton/Symantec processes in there that were still being loaded so they were running even though Norton itself wasn't. Now that I've unchecked those as well, my system seems to be running smoothly again!!!!
I'm glad I didn't rush to buy a new machine because, frankly, this one still adequately serves my needs when it's working properly. But knowing how old the machine is and given the hassles/headaches of reloading Windows and all software, I was just figuring it would probably make sense to upgrade now rather than wait. However, if I can figure out how to truly uninstall and reinstall Norton SystemWorks—mainly so I can have my antivirus protection back—then I see no reason to throw this system on the scrap heap just yet.
For now I was able to properly reinstall my printer—which I probably never should have uninstalled in the first place had I realized what was going on. And I even tried my scanner and it worked first time (!) which it hasn't done in ages. So things are definitely looking up. At least now I'm cautiously optimistic about keeping the old system reliably running for a little while longer yet.
Hey, it surprises me as much as anyone that I seem to have figured something out here.
3 weeks ago
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9 comments:
Glad you got it working again. We still take 20 some odd minutes to boot up in the morning. Sigh...Norton.
one word:
APPLE
Yeah, Angel, I'm finding out just what a resource hog Norton really is. Last night I noticed in downloading something that my data stream was staying above 7M/sec as opposed to the usual 5M/sec (and lower) that I would typically get when running Norton. That alone makes me question whether I even want to stick with Norton at all.
Still, if I could just get it uninstalled and re-installed properly I guess I'd probably stick with it just because I have it on hand already and my subscription is up to date (recently renewed it). However, for now I'm running "naked" and just being careful where I go, not opening strange attachments. Should be fine for the short term, but a good antivirus of some kind is no doubt a must long term.
Was just Googling some antivirus performance comparisons and recommendations, but nothing definitive decided. Will probably wait at least a week or so just to be sure this newfound stability will persist.
As for Apple, if money were no object I'd gladly jump on Mu's Apple bandwagon. However, the mere fact that I'm still running ME on an 8 year old PC should make it obvious that money is indeed an object with me. Or perhaps I'm just cheap. :-)
Anyway, I know you're only kidding, Gina, (or at least maybe only partially serious), but I actually did begin to ponder if maybe there could be some justification for spending a little extra dough if Apples are all that Mu et al crack them up to be (Is that a valid twist on that phrase?). If it could do everything I want (likely) and be more apt to remain stable for a much longer period of time (an unknown for me), then I might have given Apple serious consideration.
However, all along my #1 ideal scenario was to somehow figure out what was wrong with this system and set it to rights. Didn't think I'd be able to do it, given the depth of the weirdness it was sinking to and just didn't want to face a hard drive reformat and Windows reload only to end up with essentially the same old machine.
Uh, typo above... Where I say 7M/sec and 5M/sec should be 7K/sec and 5K/sec. Hey, the K and the M are right next to each other on the keyboard. I just wish my Ks really were Ms in that context! But alas, my reality remains dialup.
Oh, and Angel... Even with Norton installed (but before things went south), my old machine here would only take a minute or two to boot up completely. Without running Norton now, it's even faster.
I've occasionally used other folks' newer PCs with XP and have noticed they tend to take the proverbial forever to completely boot. Now, some of that is due to folks leaving every little bit of installed software continue to load on startup even though they might use only ten percent of it (if that) on a semi-regular basis. Whereas I've always tried to make sure my system is loading only what I normally want and use a lot, not the stuff I only use once every six months.
But I think much of the bootup slowness on newer machines is due mostly to XP itself. I don't doubt that it's more stable, but this is the one area where I think I kind of prefer my old flaky ME over the newer XP.
I'm no expert, though, and never claimed to be one. Much of computing is simple trial and error and my many trials and errors have led me to that opinion. I will now quote my personal motto... "I could easily be wrong."
:-)
Yeah, something is definitely screwy with our computer, but I just live with it...for now. Sigh.
although glad to read your PC isn't acting up anymore (perhaps it was a grade A performance?), there are multiple reasons why an apple mac would serve your general internet and computer user purposes. it's perfect for music stuff. and you can try to get one in the second hand market, we have some pretty decent websites here in belgium/netherlands with a good reputation and you can buy good machines for affordable amounts of cash. some folks grade up quicker than others, some switch to notebooks and such, all kinds of reasons for ditching their apple macs. and even the 'older' models work good enough. it's very well worth considering!
http://www.secondhandmac.com/
for starters
Thanks for the Mac recommendation, Gina.
I must admit that just glancing at the recurrent Mac vs. PC theme over at St Al's Sign In Stranger Dan forum does occasionally pique my interest about Macs. (But then those annoying Mac vs. PC ads tend to kill that interest, so maybe it's a wash as they say. LOL!)
I've just never had the opportunity to really check'em out. And by "check'em out" I mean I would prefer to know someone who has one and would let me test drive it for a little bit. After all, you can read all you want about a computer, but until you actually get your hands on one you just never know for sure what it's like. I've seen displays in Best Buy and CompUSA, but those environments are not suited for a real test drive.
If I had true high speed internet access—and thus access to all kinds of cool virtual stuff out there—then that might make a Mac switch even more enticing. But with dialup (and no real chance of that changing anytime soon) I pretty much put the speed of a machine at lower priority because otherwise I have things set up the way I like'em. At this point I simply do what I do and 900 MHz is speed aplenty.
Also, I'm not just self-deprecating when I say I have no musical talent—I mean it. Consequently any music editing and related stuff I do tends toward the simplistic—fade outs, fade ins, volume adjusting, some simple cleaning of noise when possible—and for that there's no great need for machine speed either.
Actually, now that I've freed up the "Norton clog" I'm really quite amazed at how well my PC is running, how zippy fast it seems (for non-internet things, of course).
I will also admit that in re to Macs and the occasionally googoo-eyed (Google-eyed?) fans (note: not you!) I sometimes get that old "They can't possibly be as good as they say, can they?" feeling. I'm sure that's just my cynical nature kicking in. At least I'm much more willing to listen to or read the anecdotal Mac gushiness of some folks I "know" rather than just accept the calculated lovefest of consumer-targeted ads and corporate promo schemes.
I also get the impression that maybe a not insignificant amount of PC-related issues are laid at Bill Gates' doorstep in ignorance. Like my situation for instance... I've heard so much about how bad Windows ME is that I just sort of inherently assumed that my bizarre issues were due to the OS, either a suddenly corrupt registry or some obscure flaw. But close inspection fast revealed the true culprit—Norton.
(Well, technically maybe >>I<< was to blame for having not upgraded it properly way back when, but why shoulder the responsibility myself when there's a faceless corporate entity handy? LOL! Seriously, though, I do blame Norton because one shouldn't have to jump through such hoops or have to be so meticulous to completely uninstall the old version just to install an upgrade version in its place.)
I think a lot of folks often assign assumed blame to MS and that that somewhat falsely inflates the bad rep of Microsoft and the various Windows flavors. I could have stuck with my assumption that Win ME was responsible and either rushed to a new machine or done a full system reload. But a little time and effort soon revealed Windows was fine all along—imagine that!
I just think that happens more than people realize. A lot of folks don't know that Windows is to blame, but they assume it anyway and that becomes fixed in their minds as the absolute cause when they relate their horror stories to others. And perhaps it helps them justify the expense of a new system of some kind too.
Anyway, the search for a new machine is one of those catch 22 situations. When you need a new PC, you want to get something reasonably quick, so that means something familiar enough that you can get up and running and in your comfort zone ASAP. And when you don't need one, well, then the urgency to even look tends fade.
No time right now, but at some point I will look at that secondhandmac site. For now I've just bookmarked it.
Thanks again!
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