Need hammer to fix computer after "fixing" it

t-clark,

Outlook Express is an integral part of Windows XP. If you are receiving an error message advising that it is installed incorrectly I would suspect that XP is also installed incorrectly. During the installation did you delete the C:\ partition, recreate it, then format it before installing Windows XP. If you are receiving a prompt to choose an operating system I suspect not. Further, if the Dell Solution Center still works, I suspect you did a repair reinstall rather than a clean install, the latter of which normally disables Dell Solution Center.

I don't know what problem caused you to need to reinstall XP but it sounds as though either it was not reinstalled or was reinstalled improperly. You might wish to repeat the process using the information here.

Hi Denny,

I thought I did a clean install but the tech person was very hard to understand and impatient. What he did say is that my computer would be "like new" and that we had deleted all the files.

The problem that I was having that resulted in the reinstall was I could access Windows Updates but nothing appeared in the area where it is suppose to check for updates. Also I could not use my Antivirus to scan and all my settings in Norton were unchecked. When I would put a check mark in auto protect and click Ok the setting would not change. Norton icon was missing next to the clock. When browsing the web, the buttons would not work. I was not able to delete email. Disk defragment would not work meaning no buttons (like analyze) would appear. When I would open up defragment from System Tools a different program would sometimes open. On and on. Dell tech support thought first I had a virus (none were detected), then adware or spyware (which I did have some), then finally they thought SP2 was the problem so they had me uninstall it. That did not fix the problem but it was somewhat better. In the end we had to reinstall Windows. Two things I might have done wrong (the tech person said that it was ok after the fact) when installing was that my printer was hooked up to the back of my computer. I had forgotten all about it and the other was I didn't pull my DSL cable from the back of the computer. I would think that the tech people would have reminded me to do so. Do you think that could be why my system is still wacky? 

Thanks

t_clark,

The printer and DSL cable probably didn't corrupt the installation (but I stress the probably). The fact that Outlook Express doesn't work properly on a clean install however causes me to suspect that something was improper in the process. Do you recall deleting the C:\ partition, recreating it, then formatting the new partition during the reinstallation process? After the reinstallation did you install the chipset drivers first before the other drivers?

In your postition I would do another clean install using the links in the reference I provided in my initial post. After XP is installed, install the chipset drivers then install SP2 followed by the remainder of the system drivers then your applications. Those instructions are in the links here.

Hi Denny,

I do recall deleting the partition and creating a new one but I am not sure about the chipset. I think we did that first but the whole process went kinda fast.

I was told by the tech people that I don't need to install SP2. They said that since I connect to the internet through a (DSL) router that has it's own firewall and that I have Norton Antivirus that I should be just fine as long as I do the virus updates and keep the Spyware and Adware off my computer. They said that the SP2 was for security and a popup blocker. They also told me that the SP2 can conflict with the antivirus. That is what they figured my problem was and why I had to reinstall XP. But another tech person told me that I do need an additional firewall to go along with the router firewall. I do know that I did not install SP2 correctly from what I have read so maybe why I had trouble. Where can I get reliable info on SP2 and if it really is something that I need. 

Thanks for all your help.