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Man, System Restore is a crock of shit. As expected, it was not able to restore back before this started.
I spent a couple hours running CHKDSK, which may have found stuff but the final stats didn't stick around when it was done, so all I saw was that I had a clean volume afterward. And, weirdly enough, when I tried to open something in Paint, I lasted much longer than I usually did. So I thought maybe it was fixed...until I tried opening something in IrfanView and it crashed after a few seconds. I went back to Paint and it didn't work. So I don't know.
I'm guessing that it probably isn't a virus or anything at this point because nothing else is going screwy. I've identified four similar operations that cause the program to crash, which does lend credence to the corrupted DLL idea, and I'm going to see if I can figure out how to replace them. Is there a good, reliable scanner available? I searched online but couldn't find one that most people trusted (RegCure appears to be the most popular one, but I read some fishy stuff about it so I'm afraid to try it.) Otherwise, I'll see if I can borrow XP discs from someone.
I think running a repair install with an XP disc should be your next step. It's fairly painless.
Have you tried uninstalling Irfanview and seeing if the problem persists? It may be that it's adding a DLL or substituting one of its own that doesn't play well with the other children.
A month or two ago, I ended up doing a System Restore on my Vista desktop... and it totally worked. Coulda' knocked me over with a feather....
Have you tried uninstalling Irfanview and seeing if the problem persists? It may be that it's adding a DLL or substituting one of its own that doesn't play well with the other children.
I tried that, and it didn't work. I installed that program a loooooong time ago. I don't even remember why anymore.
I think running a repair install with an XP disc should be your next step. It's fairly painless.
Yeah, System File Check found five DLL files that needed replacing. I hope one of them is the one causing the problem.
I wonder why it's asking for my Windows XP
Professional
CD2. I didn't think I had a Professional installation. Does that mean a Home disc wouldn't work?
I wonder why it's asking for my Windows XP Professional CD2. I didn't think I had a Professional installation. Does that mean a Home disc wouldn't work?
XP Home and Professional are different OS's under the hood, although the GUIs look almost the same. Right click on My Computer and choose Properties. That'll tell you for sure if you've got Home or Professional. Only the respective CDs will work for a repair.
That'll tell you for sure if you've got Home or Professional.
It didn't say that I could see. Just Windows XP Version 2002 Service Pack 2. My computer at work definitely says "Professional," though, and I didn't see that at home.
It asks for a Professional disc, though. Will it take a Home disc if that's what I actually have? I'm not trying a repair install yet; I just need a disc for System File Checker to get the clean DLL files from and replace the bad ones. That's far more painless than a repair install, which seems less painless than a full re-install but still stressful.
3.5-inch Floppy Disk RAID Array Is of Questionable Value
Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. That didn't stop Daniel Blade Olson, who created a RAID array out of a series of floppy disk drives. Yes, he set up a redundant storage system on a format that hasn't been relevant in over a decade.
It's cool though, I guess. I mean, it can write a whopping 3.6MB in a mere 32 seconds! The future is here! But he's not done yet; he wants to create a 125 USB floppy disk drive array, which is too crazy for me to even think about.
I picked up a bunch of 125 USB drives at Target last weekend for $1.50 each. I couldn't help myself. I had a bunch of burnable CDs, then figured USB drives would do just as well.
Will it take a Home disc if that's what I actually have?
I don't think so, but hey! Try it! The worst that will happen is that it'll tell you it's not the right disc.
Heh. Also, my IT department is more likely to have Professional discs lying about, so I hope that's what SFC actually wants.
