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exbrit
MVP
MVP
Message 11 of 21

RE: An update



In my experience most of the problems people post about aren't real problems at all, and those that are, are often easily fixed. Google searches can be very useful at such times.
Microsoft themselves state that it's wise to disable unnecessary running processes during a service pack installation, especially independent protection software.

Anyway, SP3 for XP wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be, nor was SP1 for Vista.....after I'd read up about it.

If one only heeded the "bad news" one would never get out of bed in the morning, let alone work or turn one's computer on.
adelaide
Former Member
Message 12 of 21

I despair!

Ex-Brit

I gave Technical Support Chat another go this afternoon. Guess what? "You will have to uninstall and reinstall the product". I agreed reluctantly. I then reported that I had got an error message prior to getting to the download screen for the removal too - and was it safe to continue (it probably was, as it was a runtime error on IEXPLORE.EXE, but it seemed sensible to confirm). Tech Support couldn't terminate just posted standard guff about how to uninstall and reinstall and then couldn't wait to terminate the thread. Certainly didn't say "yes, it's safe to continue".

Total waste of time!


Adelaide
exbrit
MVP
MVP
Message 13 of 21

RE: I despair!

Oh dear, I'm sorry. I'll flag this to see if any techs are watching the forums.
adelaide
Former Member
Message 14 of 21

RE: I despair!

No response yet, I see. Have you tried lowering and raising the flag? 😛

Sorry - couldn't resist...


Adelaide
exbrit
MVP
MVP
Message 15 of 21

RE: I despair!

No response yet.
exbrit
MVP
MVP
Message 16 of 21

RE: I despair!

Adelaide, could you run the McAfee Virtual Technician please and post the session ID# here and I'll have someone look at it?

It's linked in my signature. I adjusted your profile as you had it set not to be able to see signatures and images on the forum.
adelaide
Former Member
Message 17 of 21

RE: I despair!

Ex-Brit

I've tried MVT a couple of times. Whirs away for a bit and then tells me it is unable to check my computer. (What? A piece of McAfee software not working as it should? Shurely shome mishtake, as Private Eye used to say.)

The only reason I can think of is that it expects to find files on the C:\ drive that are actually on my F:\ drive. My boot partition has to be small as I dual boot to Windows 98 still (initially for my daughter's games but my scanner only works properly under W98; we never access the internet from W98 now though) so a lot of folders that traditionally live on C:\ had to be moved elsewhere. Nothing that is dodgy to move if you want Windows XP actually to run, of course.

I also has a follow up e-mail to my on line chat session. I explained that I was not a happy bunny and (as invited) gave a phone number for them to ring. Have they rung yet? You can guess the answer, I think. But judging from the various other threads, they would come back to "uninstall and reinstall" anyway.

Ho hum. Our work computing expert reckons AVG free anti virus and Windows firewall are perefectly adequate for protection at home. But the way things are going I'd probably end up with a messy uninstall of McAfee which would stop AVG working properly!

Looking at the threads with problems, a lot of them seem to relate to people renewing with a new version or upgrading from free. I have traditionally done the former, but last summer I nabbed three months free off a Personal Computer World cover disk, in order to bring the renewal date closer to that for the laptop on which it also resides (without trouble). I then renewed on top of that. None of this should have caused any problems, but I can't help wondering whether it is somehow related.


Adelaide
exbrit
MVP
MVP
Message 18 of 21

RE: I despair!

It would help probably if you got rid of 98 as it isn't supported by anyone anymore as you well know. Have you tried running your daughter's games in the XP "Compatibility Mode". You install the game by right-clicking the setup.exe, go to Properties, Compatibility tab, and run in compatibility with Windows 98.

Once the game is installed, then you would go to it's installation folder and do the same with whatever the .exe is for running that game.

Anyway, I'll pass this back to the person who cam to my aid and see what they say.
adelaide
Former Member
Message 19 of 21

RE: I despair!

My understanding is that XP cannot see the W98 partition, and vice versa, thus maintaining W98 should not affect any operations under XP - unless relocating files to get round having to put both boot partitions on the first 8Gb of the disk upsets anything. It doesn't seem to upset anything else though.

Some games work in compatibility mode; some don't. But to be honest I only maintain W98 in order to use the scanner, which will only run in XP with very limited options. The lack of support for W98 should not be a concern for such limited usage.

The wrinkliest software I still use occasionally is an office system called Smart, which dates back to the late 1980s. Installed from five floppies - which we thought was bloatware then and still runs perfectly in a DOS window within XP! Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.

I suspect that the above has diddly squat to do with the issues I'm experiencing, but I thought it worth mentioning just in case anyone could say "ah, of course it is going to be that!"

Roll on the formal release of Windows 7, shortly after which desktop and scanner will go to the great recycling plant in the sky. We'll still have the XP laptop though; I don't think it will have the oomph to run W7.


Adelaide
exbrit
MVP
MVP
Message 20 of 21

RE: I despair!

I wish I could help but Win 98 is a lost cause as far as I'm concerned, not that I had any knowledge of it to start with.

If it were me I'd ditch whatever is obsolete now and at least keep my XP up to date, which makes it good until 2014.

Not sure what else to suggest, sorry.
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