My computer is angry

[Kazilan]

Hey everybody, I've got a computer issue and am hoping someone can help me out. When I start up I get this error message:

Windows could not upgrade the file %1 from %2.
%1: %2.

It started appearing right after I tried to update the drivers for my video card (I have a geforce 256 - yes it is very old - yes my computer is just as old).

I realized I had forgotten to uninstall the old drivers and then I fiddled with the thing trying to uninstall the new drivers and made the situation worse, where it would get caught in a loop at startup. I used my boot disk to delete/reinstall windows (ME - yes my operating system is old, just like the computer and video card). Now the computer starts and runs, although it still displays that error message once during startup.

Any advice? (aside from buy a new computer - not financially possible at the moment).

Thanks!

[Bungleau]

Hmmm... I really hate it when something gets half-way done and dies

Have you checked for things like programs in the startup directory -- that's where Windows puts thing to run at startup? There might be something hanging around in there.

When you reinstalled Windows, did you blow away the windows directory, or just install over the top of it? You may need to blow it away entirely.

You might also check in autoexec.bat and config.ini to see if there are any commands stuck in there from the attempt to upgrade the drivers. They're at the root level of C:, so you probably wouldn't have replaced them in your reinstall.

Last chance before getting too serious... do you have a local geek friend who could take a look, or are you the local geek friend? [img]smile.gif[/img]

Failing that, a serious hard-drive wipe should do it... aka a format. But back up all your data first... it will really and truly be gone.

Good luck.

[Larry_OHF]

...do you have a local geek friend who could take a look, or are you the local geek friend?

ROFLMAO!!!!

That's gotta be the funniest thing I've read on IW in the last couple of months!

I pictured a guy who owns the only computer within 50 miles, living on a farm and he's the computer expert because he actually knows what Windows OS means.

I'm not saying that is you, Kaz...sorry to cut in on your serious issue. I just had to give props to Bungleau for making me laugh.

[ 05-04-2006, 11:54 PM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

[robertthebard]

Yeah, when in doubt, back up important stuff, and do a sys restore. At least it sounds like a software issue, instead of a hardware one, so it shouldn't be so bad, just time consuming...
Personally, I'm the local geek friend...I'm pretty good a resolving software issues, but it's a lot easier for me if I can actually see what's going on.

[Bungleau]

Glad to give you a laugh, Larry [img]smile.gif[/img]

I ask that because I'm the local geek friend around here, and I know my limitations. So if I'm stumped... where do I go?

Places like IW are one of them

[shamrock_uk]

It's a Windows Millenium bug. (Incidentally, I would go back to Win 98 or shell out for XP - ME is a diabolical version of Windows in my experience).

You can find several fixes on the relevant Microsoft page, here.

Hope that helps.

[Larry_OHF]

Originally posted by shamrock_uk: ... ME is a diabolical version of Windows in my experience).

I've heard that from so many different people that I do not doubt its veracity.

[ 05-05-2006, 11:03 AM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

[Lord]

I recall having this problem, and I think it went away when I turned my computer on and waited about 15 minutes or so (or maybe a lot longer, I don't remember). Then I cleaned up some space on my computer and it worked fine again.

[Kazilan]

Thanks for all the replies, guys. When I get home from work tonight I'll follow the fix from the Microsoft website. Hopefully that will fix it. If not, I guess it's time to reformat completely.

Unfortunately I'm the closest thing to a geek friend around, and I dont know computers all that well. I do enjoy fiddling with them though, which in this case didn't help at all. I'm planning to buy a new pc soon, but it's hard to convince myself to shell out money for one when the one I've got works just well enough for what I need.

[shamrock_uk]

In that case I would have two pieces of advice for you:

1) You say your computer starts and runs normally - I would live with the error message. Formatting a Windows PC is not a risk-free process and you don't want to get to the other side and realise you forgot to back something up, or a backup didn't work, or you can't find a critical driver cd..etc. If it works and you don't know computers all that well, then I would leave it alone.


2) If your computer does everything you need, don't buy another one. Unless you play games there is absolutely no reason why you couldn't be using a computer that's three, four or even five years old.

The word-processing computer sits idle waiting for you 99.9% of the time. Spending a load of money to speed up your loading times for that remaining fraction is simply not worth it IMO. Buy a stick of RAM if you want to spend some money on it, but getting a new computer is simply a waste of money (unless of course the new computer is a hobby in itself )

The myth that we should somehow need to keep upgrading our computers to perform the same tasks that we were doing five years ago with no complaints is largely perpetrated by those with a vested interest in you spending money to do so. Worth keeping in mind

[ 05-05-2006, 07:09 PM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]