Aces High Bulletin Board
Help and Support Forums => Technical Support => Topic started by: Golfer on April 06, 2005, 08:45:54 PM
-
I just upgraded from Windows ME to XP.
There are a few things that aren't working out for me so far. The first I noticed is when I right click on desktop, the typical pop up menu does not come up, the machine freezes for a moment then an error box pops up saying DrWatson malfunctioned.
The second is now my Joystick no longer works in AH. Saitek X45, CH Pro USB pedals and CH Flight Sim USB Yoke are not located.
Little help please!
Thanks in advance.
-
Golfer...
Did you do and ugrade or clean install?
-
Upgrade. It sure is annoying because I don't think I did anything wrong.
Maybe I need Sherlock Holmes to help me find and kill Dr. Watson.
-
The error is not being caused by dr watson, it is being reported by it. To check out what is going on you can get to the dr watson program by the following.....
go to run....type in
drwtsn32
hit enter......this will open it up for you to check the dr watson error logs. Hopefuly this will shed some light on what is causing the problem with your desktop.
Also my Saitek X-52 works great with XP Pro...... try and reinstall the drivers and software.
good luck
-
I was told that Dr. Watson was a Windows ME utility and I need to delete it from the system.
Does anyone have an idiot-proof guide for uninstalling windows ME and then installing fresh Windows XP? At one point I was proficient with DOS but that day is long gone.
Thanks.
-
http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=93658
-
Nifty. I have a question, can I backup all my files on C: drive so when I format it...I don't lose my entire friggin world including school, work and play files?
-
Golfer do you have a spare hard drive laying around that doesn't have an OS on it? If so I'd just connect it temporarily (format it if needed) and transfer the files you want to keep. Or if you have a cd burner just burn all that info onto a disk. Or if you have a second pc temporarily setup a lan connection and transfer the files that way. I think the easiest would be burn the info if you have a burner.
I know with my XP Professional upgrade I never had to load the original OS (98SE) to install XP. I set up my bios so that the cdrom would be looked at first for an OS instead of the hard drive. I then placed my XP Pro into my cdrom and booted it. If I had a second OS loaded it would give me the option to boot to either that OS or the cdrom. I chose the cdrom and followed the on screen instructions to format the C drive. When trying to install it will ask you for a previous version of Windows(it will not ask you for the cd key of the original version). Place your ME disk in the tray and proceed. It will do a little reading then tell you to replace it with the XP disk. After the first time during the install that it asks you to reboot I change my bios back to normal during that reboot. Then continue the setup and your all done.
Note:
I know I had issues if my pc was connected to the LAN right away. So I saved the fixblast.exe onto a disk from my wifes pc and before connecting the lan I ran this to avoid getting that chitty virus that shuts your pc down after 60 seconds.
-
I don't have the ME disk. It was crushed in a tragic office chair accident some time ago. I think I'll just burn things like Aces High, my picture/video/audio files (I have only a 56k connection so redownloading will be the biggest pain in the rear you ever did see) considering the 25 or so gig's of "stuff" i've loaded onto this computer.
Thanks for the tips I think i'll just save my files, format the hard drive and go straight in with XP. Sound like the easiest option?
-
Didnt you say you have the upgrade version of XP? You'll need to have something to prove a previous version of Windows to it before it will install XP. If you cant come up with something, I believe I have an old recovery CD from an HP computer I rebuilt for someone awhile back, or I can make a copy for you of my Win95 or Win98 CDs. Come to think of it, if all you really need is the .CAB files I could just copy off that folder and zip it, it might be emailable (of course with a 56k download its going to take you awhile).
-
I upgraded from ME to XP. There is an upgrade window printed on it and on the side it says it will only work if I have one of the windows versions listed. It says it will search my hard drive to locate them and I had no trouble simply booting up the computer normally and popping in the disc. It's just there are some things that don't work and it's quite buggy like something just isn't right. I'm at a loss now :(
-
Golfer is the XP disk you have purely and Upgrade Disk? If so I don't think you can do it without another OS disk. There might be a trick out there to fool it but I'm not sure. If not ask a buddy. Granted it won't help you later if you need to reload but it will get it loaded until you can get another basic OS like 98 or ME.
If it's an original I'd say it's the easiest and cleanest way to go. If you have anyone near you who is nice and on broadband ask them if they'd mind downloading a bunch of windows updates and burn them to a disk like they described in that BBS link. That could save you some time if someone will help you.
I know just as precautionary measure I always partition my drive if it's fairly large so it will have basically a "save me" drive. That way if for some freak accident I have issues and need to reload windows I can always save that stuff to that partition if my burner isn't working and/or if I can't connect to a lan to transfer the info.
-
I'm telling ya borrow a friends old 98 or ME disk. I use the same 98SE disk when reloading both my wifes pc and mine. Granted I've got two seperate XP upgrade disks but I still use the one original full 98SE to get it started. It won't ask for that disk again ever after it's seen it at the beginning of the load.
-
I hate computers :(
Ok...so I save all the files I want on CD's.
I format my C drive
I now have a big paperweight of a computer.
With the formatted C drive...I pop in the windows XP disc.
During the startup sequence it asks for an earlier windows version disc...I put this in and it makes the disc happy.
I reload the XP disc (or follow the directions) from here and when it's over I have a computer with XP.
Is this correct?
-
I hear ya Golfer. I tried the upgrade thing from ME once too. It didn't seem to like it much. So a friend told me I didn't need to load the main OS then do the upgrade. I just needed an original disk handy so it could see it when loading XP directly.
-
Yes Golfer. One question though before I say absolutely. Is that a newer revision of the XP Upgrade? Basically did you buy it recently from the store? Some of the original revisions of the upgrade disks were not capable of doing a load this way is why I ask. If it's a fairly recent version then you'll be fine.
-
It was delivered two days ago. It has service pack 2 if that means anything.
-
I have a reinstallation CD from my dell laptop (The desktop i'm fudging with now is a Dell 8100)...
Will that do? I'm upgrading from "home" to Professional then. The box says it would be ok.
-
You are fine, just make sure the CD you borrow is not an upgrade version itself. Wont work. You need a full install version of Win98SE or WinME or Win2k. I dont think Win95 qualifies after thinking about it. Could be wrong.
-
the CD I have is a "REinstallation" cd with dell computers. Will it work? I'd like to know before I erase my hard drive. Thanks!
-
Okay you should be perfectly fine by loading it this way. Like I said previously though I would setup your cdrom to be the first device that the system looks at when looking for an OS. Once you go to do the first reboot during the installation cycle you can change your bios back to it's original settings and reboot. It will immediately go back to where it left off during the load process.
I say this because I don't want you to worry that if you interfere with the installations reboot that it won't continue loading. You can change your bios settings back and reboot and it will start where it left off during the installation process.
-
Star or someone else may be able to help you there. I've never tried it personally with a reinstallation package disk that comes with Dell, Gateway or Compaq pcs.
-
As long as you can put the CD in your drive and see the Windows directory and the .CAB files, it should work fine. If you cant, it probably wont work. There are different sorts of "restore" CDs.
-
Thank you for all the help and suggestions. I've decided that I'm not recent enough with working with computers and their basic OS's to do this with any real confidence. I'm "outsourcing" to my father's crew. He's a bigwig and heads up an IT Security & Compliance division for a big company and his guys said they'd get it done.
They oughta...I got a few of them their jobs, ya know the reformed hacker types :) They can do things with computers that make me cringe...I'm glad they're on my team.
-
Originally posted by Golfer
I just upgraded from Windows ME to XP.
Hey... a bit off topic... but is there any AH benefit to moving from XP Home to XPPRO?
:confused:
Woof
-
Not that I know of. Unless Home doesnt have the Administrator tools that Pro does. Even then its a bit iffy if you really get a benefit. For gaming anyway.
-
Originally posted by SkyWolf
Hey... a bit off topic... but is there any AH benefit to moving from XP Home to XPPRO?
:confused:
Woof
None, The only real difference between home and pro is that home cannot be joined to a Windows Domain (Network of Windows Computers). If you only have one computer it's not worth the additional cost.
-
tech support rule. Windows upgrades suck. They always have and always will.
Trying to overlay old windows system files with new ones and then keeping your old settings and applications is not something happy. Me is 9X, Xp of whatever flavor is NT. Not the same at all. Not the same dlls, ocxs, drvs.
Do yourself a big favor.
make sure you have @ least 256 megs of ram, or go down to your lcs buy enough to get you to 256 minimum (512 is much better) and get a real copy of xp for about 80-100 bucks. Not a fraggin up(F&$*up) grade.
You'll be ever so glad you did.:aok
-
Another thing with upgrade vs. wipe-itand-start-from-scratch, is that MANY programs/devices use completely different drivers, or completely different versions altogether, for XP than for '98. (XP disk quite likely hasnt got these, and the wrong ones will get plunked in their place) What I did was buy a completely new 80 gig hard drive (only $65.00 on tigerdirect), installed XP on that, and left the old hard drive as drive D:...when I couldnt get new ATA drive to work, I just went into bios and told it the '98 drive was the #1 (later found out that ATA drives have special drivers ya insert when XP install inquires about SCSI, etc)