f13.net

I'm stuck troubleshooting one of my parents two computers.  It's a million year old piece of shit running WindowsME.

Apparently OLEAUT32.DLL is corrupt, and among other things this is keeping it from being able to access the internet.  Whatever, it's a 900k file, I'll use the other computer to grab a new one, toss it on a floppy, and put it where it belongs.  Except the god damned thing is refusing to display icons anywhere but the desktop.  Go to "My Computer" and you're left looking at an empty window, type A:\ into the bar and you're still looking at an empty window.  So yeah, not gonna be that simple.

Anyone have a clue?  Please tell me this is either really simple, or so complex it requires professional attention that the old shitbox doesn't merit at this point.

Buy them a new computer. Jesus.

Use the DOS command window.

Two WinME computers?  Surely there is a CDROM somewhere, in that case.

An alternative to icon might be command-line.

I'd take schild's advice, though.  Spend $199 and buy them something with WinXP on it.

It's probably got tons of malware/spyware/rootkits installed on it which may be why you can't see anything. Best to just nuke it from orbit -- it's the only way to be sure -- and then get them a new computer like the others have suggested.

Not to be a dick but I think I've found your problem.

If you don't want to follow the excellent advice above (get a new one) then boot to safe-mode run an anti-virus boot back to normal mode run ad-aware and then proceed to cleaning out the ms-config and registry and then go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com and install ALL the updates.  Probably take a day per machine.

Personally, I think you are better off dropping $450 on a cheap dell laptop with WinXP and turning the old ones into landfill.

Microsoft stopped support for ME a year ago so reinstalling and patching it up is not going to fix any of the exploits found in the last year.

There ya go then.  Add buy WinXP ugrade for 99 bucks per machine to the list IF those old machines can run it.

You can probably get XP cheaper if you buy a used and/or student CD from somewhere.

Forget WinXp, you can upgrade them cheaper.   Get a book of stamps, a local , national newspaper and phone book.  They won't even notice you replaced their computers.  Probably faster too.

In the mean time, unplug their hard drive and burn them a Live CD of some friendly *nix OS, like Fedora or Ubuntu. That'll get 'em on the internets and get 'em access to their hotmail, etc.

oh god oh god that's a good one

shit

man

have you ever met an old person?

The only friendly UNIXish OS I am aware of is MacOS.

Oh, come now, Live CDs are dead easy. It takes only a moment's instruction to get someone up on a browser, which is the only thing I'm proposing.

Take that to any computer repair shop and they're going to either do a repair install or fresh install of Me back on that POS.

What you really have to ask yourself is how much is your time worth?  You could spend an hour reinstalling, another installing all the drivers and getting it back up and running, and you still have a 8 or 9 year old computer.  I'm glad you chose to buy a new one, not worth repairing an old one when you can just buy a new one that is phenomenally faster out of the box.

Best of all you can take the old computer and turn it into a sweet firewall!

Oh and don't bother with Linux, I use Ubuntu everyday, it's still not ready for people who aren't 'adventurous'.

It is just that my own mother-in-law, who happens to run a corporation, has no concept of the right-click.  None at all, even after repeated demonstrations.  Old people are not good with computers in general, and switching to Ubuntu might be moving their chair too far away.  But hey, who knows?

Besides, WUA's parents probably play UO together.

You're right fucking hilarious, man.

As for Schild's "old person,"  I can find you plenty of 35 year olds I wouldn't trust to do half the shit already described in this thread without fucking it up completely.

The majority of people over the age of ~18 are still functionally retarded when it comes to computers.

In a related vein --

Exercise to the reader: provide a clear and simple rule describing when to use single vs double-click.

It's actually surprisingly hard.

Use single click to select and double click to activate unless using a program with it's own UI and then you use it's default (i.e. web browsers use single-click navigation).

Unless you are a retard and have XP in it's single-click activate mode, what did they call that?  Hot-click?  Something stupid like that.  Worthless feature.

So if I want to activate an "Ok" button, I should double-click it? 8-)

Dude, whatever.  If 'click OK to continue' is something you are having trouble describing to people then you have more serious issues than mouse functionality.

Double click something when a single click would rename it  :-P

Right click if you're feeling paticularly feisty.

So you're saying you've never actually watched a computer illiterate person try to use a machine then?

I've seen folks do exactly what Baldrake is describing, because they think the default for anything is double click.  In the same vein they try to double-click web links.

I think the general idea is to single-click targets that have only one action and double-click targets that have multiple possible actions.  Right-click to ride the snake to the lake.

As in, a desktop icon or an explorer file can be moved with a single click, and so it is activated with a double click.  An href link has only one action, so it can be single clicked.

To us, this is instinctive.  Try to explain it to gramma, though.

On the original post, Murgos is right; ME may not be The Problem, but it is A Problem.

But really, who cares if they double-click web links.  Sure it's the IT equivalent of someone walking on your grave but if it works and they don't have to keep asking you questions then I'd just leave it be.

I'd also go with Schild's advice.

My 68-year-old mum was using my brother's old computer which just started packing it in left and right. We just took a couple of weeks and bought a new super-basic thing for AU$350 (remember, that's like US$200 in terms of what you can actually buy on your side of the pacific). Put a used copy of XP on it, same with Nortons, and away she goes. The bargain-basement box she now had does ninja-flips over the old maching, and while sure, it doesn't have a video card, who cares? She's not playing UT2k4 anytime soon.

Its scary - I work for a company that writes and consults software for big businesses.  90% of our software is web-based (the whole thin client thing is one of our selling points).  I do a lot of work with one of our senior sales guys, and he ALWAYS double clicks all our web links.  Always - despite constant reprimands from us tech bods that you dont need to do it.  Sooner or later I'm going to ask one of our devs to put in some fancy ajaxy stuff that screws up on double clicks, just to teach him what to do...


Whered you grab this from Az?  I have a few family members in a similar situation, and I dunno whether to point em towards Dell, or Harvey Norman, or try to put a PC together myself (which eats up a big chunk of my time).

People telling me to push the old shitbox off a cliff and replace it with a bargain-basement machine that still infinitely spanks it is about what I expected.  Figured I'd ask though.

If they can handle Windows they can handle a simple KDE or Gnome desktop just as easily.

Initially, perhaps.  After that, when issues arise I can either fix a Windows machine or fix a Linux machine, so there's that to consider.  Besides, my point is that lots of people really can't handle Windows but rather bumble through it until their mistakes accrete into a critical mass of computer-stoppage.  I'd rather KISS and leave Linux out of the equation.

Also when these people read instructions on saving shit to their C: drive or don't know why Reader Rabbit won't install, it is even more of a hassle.  The conversation would be like "I can't install this", "That's a Windows program, you have a Linux machine", "Can you get me a Windows computer?".  I'll stick with the ubiquitous OS, for great justice.

Good suggestion. Mac mini ftw.
So true. I've yet to meet anyone outside of a couple gamers I know that this quote doesn't hold true for. Or they have macs and no serious problems.

F13 is cracking me up today.

I like this better.  Still, I think dingdongs should use Macs if for no other reason than I can tell them I have no idea how to help them without lying.  It seems that half the people I know are below average intelligence.

It's a well-kept secret that WUA's mom is Peaches from Stratics.

Very subtle, Yeg.



It certainly doesn't bother me. It was meant to illustrate a lack of knowledge on their part, nothing more.

:rimshot:

See, the whole point of bringing up a Linux Live CD was precisely that every concievable problem short of spilling coffee on the computer is solved by simply rebooting. If there was a such an animal as a Windows or Mac Live CD, I'd suggest that too. For people who do not do office work, and only use the internetz to do web based email, any Live CD will do. It boots, they click on Firefox icon, they go to Yahoo.com, they enter their credentials, and presto, they have 90% of their needs taken care of. They can even read USA Today Online if they so desire.

I can tell you it works because I've done a Live CD solution for a homeless shelter for families; short of physical damage, the thing was intact after months of heavy use by people who's ability to handle any form of technology was all but non-existent. But you should have heard the howls of protest if the machine was down for hardware repair for any amount of time.

You might have just started making sense.  There's a good bit of Linux hate to dig through with me, but you have a good point.

http://www.cpl.net.au/
Their shitty PDF, then whatever the cheapest system they have in the top left.

It's just for the box. She already had M&KB, and we gave her one of our old 19" CRTs. Bearing in mind, this is for my 68-yo mum, so it doesn't have any bells or whistles whatsoever.
HN will gouge though. Stay away.

So my second computer is being a bitch.

It locks up on that Windows loading screen when the little blue bar is supposed to be zipping across merrily.  The rest of the screen is fine, but the graphics for the bar are all fucked up.  Then it locks up.  Every time.

So I tried to repair it.  This is what it looks like.

(http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t51/Xerapis/CIMG0871.jpg)

How the hell does that happen?  The splash screen for the mobo and the windows screen are fine except for the loading bar.  But now the installation gets all wonky.  Im so confuzzled.

YOU'RE IN WINDOWS JAIL! Oh no!

HUR HUR.

Anyone have anything USEFUL to contribute?

Try booting into Safe Mode? But really it looks like you are fucked. Not sure if it's a hardware or software problem ATM.

Tried safe mode.  It went to the user selection screen but it was all graphically fucked like the screen I showed.

I tried just rebooting.  I checked all the connections and THEN rebooted.  I restored to last known settings.  I tried all the safe mode variants.

I tried booting through the CD to repair the installation and got the fucked up screen just trying to do that.

I was just hoping to know what I should be replacing.  As opposed to the whole damn thing.  Might try a new hard drive after work. (I'm having to teach.  On Saturday.  And it's raining outside.  But all of my fucking students keep showing up.  IT'S FUCKING RAINING ON  A SATURDAY, KOREA!  TODAY IS NOT ENGLISH LEARNING DAY!!

My guess is a fried video card.

That was my initial thought.

But the fucked-upedness is selective.  MOBO splash screen is fine.  Windows loading is fine except for floaty-bar.

And the whole blue screen where you select repairing windows is just fine too.

It's just when it tries to do anything windows-complex it goes wacky.  And I'm not sure that a bad vidcard would cause windows to just lock up at the loading screen, really.

And the boyfriend is being a complete bitch because it's his computer. ~sigh~  Home now.  Hate Korean weather today.

Some possibilities:

1. Bad memory
2. Bad video card
3. Seriously corrupt Windows install

Burn a Memtest86+ (http://www.memtest.org/) disc and check your memory. If you have another video card try that.

Did you try the safemode option where it doesn't even load up networking drivers and what not?

It looks like possibly 1 of the following:

1) Corrupt video driver.
2) Video card going bonkers when it overheats.
3) CPU going bonkers from overheating.
4) CRT trying to display a resolution/refresh it can't support.

Is it overclocked?  Make sure all the fans are working even if it isn't.

No second video card, sadly.

All fans are functional, no overclocking.  It's my "nothing special" computer :P

How many passes should the memtest run for?

Overnight if possible.

Oh geez.  I'll be dead by then.

Well, run Memtest for an initial pass, and if it passes, chances are you're in the clear. I save the longer testing for the total head scratchers.

The reason I have my bets on the vid card is because I've encountered similar problems before; although the hardware that runs the dumbed down mode for BIOS and Windows Repair is fine, the more advanced hardware; particular transistors, higher functioning ram spaces, etc, might be fried and you only get that when you enter the real graphical Windows environment, if that makes any sense.

I've been wrong plenty of times, but I sort of want it to be the vid card, cuz otherwise its likely the CPU/Mobo and those are a total waste to replace if its an older computer.

Let it run for 25 passes.  No errors.

Re-installed Windows.  It actually worked, unlike the repair installation attempt.  No graphics issues.  Then I installed the nvidia drivers for the motherboard.  Rebooted.  BAM!  Almost identical problem.  Although, this time it let me actually get past the loading screen.  I could select account, login, all that.  Just the graphics are totally hosed.

Did a full wipe.  Reinstalled.  Only installed drivers for nvidia ethernet.  Now it seems to be working just fine.  I'm updating Windows as we speak.

It just bothers me that I don't know for sure what caused it, or if it could recur.

Oh boy. A your momma joke on f13. What is today coming to?

Did you install nTune? What motherboard do you have, and what nvidia chipset? I ask because some Asus motherboards, the A8N-32SLI in particular, barf at some of the new nTune drivers.

Looks like bad video card ram to me. Or the video card is overheating. I've seen that before.

So the graphics were working fine till you installed the Nvidia motherboard drivers?  Does it use an onboard video chip or some such?