normannoodleman,

If your wallpaper is a slideshow of the images in My Pictures this may explain the behavior of F1.

See if reinstalling Help and Support makes it functional. Make sure Windows Explorer is set to show hidden files and folders, then go to C:\Windows\inf\pchealth.inf. Right click and choose install. Have your CD handy.

It is not a reasonable conclusion that Dell Support disables Windows Help and Support. Since many users simply uninstall Dell Support from Add/Remove Programs (because it doesn't contribute much) if this is the case, the solution is straightforward.

Denny,

Thank you for the reply. I am not using a slideshow for my wallpaper. It is a single jpeg image of a personal photo. I would like to hear from other new users of recently manufactured 8300s regarding the functionality of Start>Help and Support before I try reinstalling files in new system software.

Norman

I too have this problem on a brand new machine, and I just discovered that a major coal company also has several  brand new machines that won't open Help and Support. I used Google and searched on  "XP HELPCTR.EXE WON'T"  and got lots of hits and found various fixes, some of which involved merging a downloadable file into the registry. I prefer having DELL come up with a fix that they have put in their Dell Support Alerts. When I called Gold technical support yesterday they recommended that I reload XP, but I have no desire to do this. The guy at support had no knowledge of the fixes and recommendations available on the web. I plan on calling back to see if Dell will come up with an "approved fix".

My new Dimension 8300 with XP Home has teh same problem.  Dell had me do a repair reinstall of XP, which failed to fix the problem.  Then, they sent a new imaged hard drive, which also failed to fix the problem.  I do not think they are being very coordinated about this problem.

 

Hi, Normannoodle,

I, too, had that very problem.  Instead of being on perpetual hold, I checked the Forum first!  In the meantime, I decided to press each of the functions keys.  When I pressed F3, a search box came up.  In the lower left column, there were several items to search for.  Low and behold one was Information in Help & Support Center!!!!!  I clicked on that and got the Help & Support Center.  That does not answer the question of why the button in the Start menu doesn't work, but it is a way around it.  Hope this helps

WindyToby

WindyToby,

I tried your work around and it operated as you describe. It does appear to be a reasonable solution for the Help and Support command not working on the Start menu. Thank you.

Have the same problem as Norman with the addition of not being able to open System Tools\System Information and the Task manager opens without a toolbar, which means that I can't close it or use any of the features.

From other posted suggestions,  I have tried the F3 key, the link at Control Panel, and going to the windows\inf folder. The application folder (in inf) for "pchealth" displays as "pchealth.PNF"  and is listed as a Precompiled application that was modified on 5/6/2004.  The pchealth setup folder shows it was modified on 9/3/2002. I did not knowingly modify this file or any of the other applications in the "inf" folder, all which have the .PNF extension. When I right clicked the .PNF file I did not get an option to install. Got the list that includes Send To and I, as a stab at this, created a shortcut on the desktop. It does not work either.

5/6/04 was last Thursday and that is the day I reformatted and reinstalled XP on a new HD. The installation did not go well and I reformatted and tried to reinstall three, maybe four times.

I was about to try to run Repair and see if that would help. I ran that once after a failed installation on Thursday(had the "hung up at 34 minutes" problem)  and I would like to avoid another reformat and reinstall. But, I came to this forum and found someone with the same problem and thought I would see what might be offerred as a solution.

 

Dimension 2350  (Bought 5/2003. Two major crashes)

512 RAM

80 GB HD

WinXPSP1

USB ZIP, USB Floppy

CD\RW

CD-ROM

ZoneAlarm Pro4  running (am connected via DSL)

Have run Spybot and Norton antivirus 2004 (part of SystemWorks) and have check to see if I have the latest worm\trojan. Had Pest Patrol and it only found Alexa. I deleted Pest Patrol to see if things would improve. SystemWorks did find 22 registry errors on first run after installation of XP. These were fixed.

Thanks for any assistance.

ONL

Computer is running with all other shortcuts working.

 

 

Message Edited by One Nerve Left on 05-08-2004 09:07 PM

Message Edited by One Nerve Left on 06-13-2004 10:16 PM

One nerve left,

As regards task manager, try double clicking on its border. That toggles between showing and hiding the menu bar and tabs, etc.

Thanks a lot for solving that problem. One down, one to go.

ONL