RandyL

Hi ernotire; It's been a while since I used Office 2000 and I only tried Outlook. I didn't like it. But I'll offer what little advice I can. Keep in mind some suggestions could cause you to lose saved emails. 1.Delete your Outlook account and re-create it. 2.Go to add/remove programs and uninstall Outlook or Office. If I remember right you should get a Repair option as well as an uninstall option. 3.Go to add/remove programs and uninstall Outlook or Office. Reinstall then recreate your email account in Outlook. 4.Get all the Office 2000 updates. On my old version of Windows I got them from here. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/default.aspx 5.Temporarily turn off your antivirus program to see if it's stripping your emails. 6.Delete your user profile in Windows and create a new one. Set up Outlook again. 7.Carefully check your options in Outlook. It could be something there. I doubt this is the cause but check to see if Outlook is set to receive email in plain text format only. If so enable HTML or Rich Text format. Like I said before if you have emails you want to save you should try to back them up before trying some of these steps. I never backed up Outlook email but I can probably google a link for you if you want. Good luck for now; RandyL

Hi Fle; As this is a new unrelated question you should start a new thread. This would help your question to be more readily seen and solved. Please do so and I will respond there with the most likely solution which is you need a PDF reader. More to follow. RandyL

Hi blue; Is this your product? http://www.digitus.info/scripts/digdetail.asp?artnr=DN%2D7053&grafik=0

Thanks allheart; I'll save the info. Take care. RandyL

Hi allheart; Can you tell me more details about these programs? What are the abilities of each? Do any support imaging to an external drive? Do any support imaging to CD or DVD with disk spanning? Which ones work with Windows 98, XP and Vista? Are there any bugs with large file names? I'm always looking for good free programs. But before I trust a program for backup I need to really have faith in it. Has anyone here tested any of these yet? I would really be interested in feedback if you have. Thanks; RandyL

Hi bc; Certain game software causes the machine to be slow to respond you say. This is a clue. What is “certain games”? Details would help. With your computer specs being relatively good I suspect too many startup items running. Without knowing ALL of the software you have and what is running at startup it's hard to say but I think you might have too much running from the second you turn your computer on. Note that Norton is a resource hog. Look at the notification area (lower right in the taskbar area). Anything there is loading at startup. See if you can safely disable any of those programs from starting at bootup from the program options. Next look at msconfig to see what might be running that you don't need and to turn off the programs that can't be disabled via the program options itself. If you suspect any particular software as being an issue let us know. If you need more help with startup issues and msconfig let us know. Also note that even though you have an antivirus program malware or programs bundled with malware can cause such issues. Also as kelly stated a failing hard drive can cause slow bootups and a sluggish computer. You should run a hard drive test too. RandyL

From HP support. HP and Compaq Desktop PCs- Resolving Startup Problems in Windows 98, ME, and XP http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=bph07173&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=367636&lang=en More importantly here is your recovery options. Recovering during startup See #5 in particular. To perform a standard system recovery, click Next , and then click Yes . http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=367636&lang=en&docname=bph07145 To order Recovery CD's see here. http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=367636&lang=en&docname=bph07143

Hi shrimply; So you have your files backed up. Do you have your Microsoft Money files backed up too? To know what your recovery options are it would be helpful to know your exact make and model. I understand you have no CD's to boot from. Depending on your computer the recovery options will be different. Since you were able to reinstall to factory conditions once before there might be other options via the same method such as doing a repair install via the Recovery Console if it's been previously installed. The other thing that concerns me is the reason this keeps happening. If this is the third time then there are probably underlying root causes. As such it will most likely keep happening. Usually this is software or malware related. Get back to us; RandyL

Hi telboy; You said you pulled the power cord by accident and replaced it. I assume you mean the main power supply cord to your computer. Am I correct? If your mouse is a PS2 wired mouse then XP should recognize it and install it. Can you borrow another PS2 mouse and try it? If that works then it's just a faulty mouse. Considering how cheap they are your best solution is to just replace it. On the other hand if a borrowed PS2 mouse doesn't work and this happened after damage to your main power supply cord then I can only assume that caused issues such as an improper shutdown etc. If that is the situation I would first try tapping the F8 key at bootup to get into options. Then using the arrow keys choose “Last Known Good Configuration”. If that doesn't work do the same thing except choose to boot into safe mode. See if the mouse works there. RandyL

Hi greg; That appears correct. Look here. http://www.sapphiretech.com/us/products/products_overview.php?gpid=185&grp=3 While your there click on the Driver tab at the top of the page. RandyL

Hi bc; Welcome to ExtremeTech.support - Free PC Help. I like your sense of humor. Pardon my English spelling. I'm American. RandyL

Hi Fle; We need to know what the file type of the attachment is. Right click it and save to a location. Right click the saved file and choose properties. Can you determine the file type extension from there? Once we know the type of file we might need to figure out if you have the ability to open it or convert it so you can see its contents. RandyL

Digitalsunrise is a reseller I think. You have probably bought an OEM version of Media Centre. As such there are many issues. http://www.digital-sunrise.co.uk/ What you need to do is reinstall XP Home from the recovery disk provided by your vendor. If you want Media Centre you might be able to purchase the proper upgrade disk from Microsoft or buy a full retail version for a few hundred pounds. I think you said you had "Recovery CD's" that you ordered. If not you will see options to order them. The recovery options state that you can reinstall from disks even if it is a new hard drive or if you have deleted the recovery partion. Go here This option appears to completely state that the recovery disks will work on a new hard drive or a hard drive that has had the recovery partion deleted. At one point it clearly states the following; If the hard disk in your computer has just been replaced (or totally erased), then you will only get the option to press 'R'. In this case, just press 'R' If you are attempting to install an illegal or unsupported version or upgrade that is not meant for your system then we can not help you. Please refer to the above steps to put your system back to factory specs or contact your vendor and/or the reseller to obtain a refund for Media Centre. RandyL

Hi brib; First of all what version of Windows are you using? Vista has a native DVD burning software. XP only has a native CD burning software. Aside from that if you have a DVD burner it most likely came with software. Which programs do you have. Perhaps Roxio or Nero? Maybe if you supply the exact make and model of your computer as well as the operating system we can determine what your options are. What I don't understand is why a "PROGRAM" won't fit onto a CD. Very few programs would need more the 750 MB. Unless you are talking about an operating system like XP or Vista. Can you give us more information please? RandyL

Hi bigal; Welcome to ExtremeTech.support - Free PC Help. You've found a great place to learn and a great place to ask questions. Glad to see you here. Stick around. RandyL

Hi telboy; Can you also tell us what kind of mouse you have? Is it optical? Is it wireless? What model?

OK everybody, here's what we have so far. dazza40745 has two other posts that might be related. http://extremetech.support/forum/t931-System-Management-Controller-Possible-cause-freezing http://extremetech.support/forum/t879-caching We do know he has run memtest86 which he says passed. So it might not be memory related. We do not know if he has run error checking or check disk. We do not know if he has run any anti-malware programs. http://extremetech.support/forum/t931-System-Management-Controller-Possible-cause-freezing#p2912 We're not sure if it's just the computer that is not working and experiencing intermittent startup or shutdown issues or if it's just an issue with accessing the Internet through an unknown browser at this time. The answers are not entirely clear. But I think he can no longer boot at all. Note that in his first post in this thread he stated that he re-installed via destructive method. Look at posts below. Without knowing more particulars I still suspect hardware issues such as: Memory. PSU. Hard drive. Motherboard. Heat or fans. Batteries etc. If dazaa can't boot into Windows at all anymore would you suggest other diagnostic tools such as a hard drive test or malware test or memeory test from a bootable CD like UBCD? The only thing google turned up on any of the error messages appear to be 2000 related. Such as the 0x000000E3 error. I found one other for XP but it seems unlikely. Any ideas anybody?

What were the memtest86 results?

Hi Vlegga; Welcome to ExtremeTech.support - Free PC Help. Good to have you here.

It sounds like you might have memory issues. Have you actually tried to replace the memory or switched to just one module depending on your system. Some memory (DDR has to be run in pairs). You could try running a test. If errors appear right away you would probably have a problem. http://www.memtest86.com/ Even after long scan times on the test with no errors it could still be a memory issue. The only sure way that I know of is to swap known good compatible memory to test it. RandyL

Hi again; Like I said if you're sure it's related to the dubious software that we don't offer support on then your system may be corrupted beyond repair. Since it's impossible to tell what it may have done and since you experienced these SOFTWARE issues before then your only real option is to restore your OS. If you have the disks this should not be a problem if something goes wrong. After a reinstall of Windows only install legitimate software and make sure your system meets the RECOMMENDED requirements and not just the minimum. For instance; Portal specs are Recommended: processor (3.0GHz or better), 1GB RAM, DirectX 9 Do you meet these? Hacked programs are not supported by us or Microsoft and these issues could be the cause of all your problems repeating themselves including the error you stated. Reinstall Windows and be more careful in the future as to what else you install. This is the only viable option that we can offer. RandyL

Hi boothy; Taskeng.exe is part of Windows task scheduler. Disabling this service should resolve the error but is not recommended. Especially with Vista. For one thing the scheduled restore points in Vista is dependent on it. Which running task is producing the error is hard to say. Like kelly said this might be a hardware issue. Or that error might be a clue. Whether it's related to the Office issue or not is anyones guess. Software of that nature is fraught with danger. For one thing the uninstall may not be clean. If it were my system I would reinstall Windows because who knows what code may have been on it. Did you not get Vista disks when you got your computer? For future reference there are free office programs that won't corrupt your system. OpenOffice is the one I use on Vista. http://www.openoffice.org/ RandyL

Hi dazza; Based on previous posts over time it appears all your problems may be related. You said before you reinstalled XP trying to solve the L1 and L2 caching issues but you never responded to the question asked by danzil. http://extremetech.support/forum/t879-caching On this same computer you also ran into other problems after attempting to fix it by reinstall. Again you didn't respond to the last post by danzil. http://extremetech.support/forum/t931-System-Management-Controller-Possible-cause-freezing Now you post again with similar issues on the same machine. Yet to the best of our knowledge you never followed through with the previous suggestions by danzil. This could be hardware related but since you keep limping this computer along and never get back to us I suspect other issues. Do you have infections? Have you checked your memory to see if it's good? Are you using this computer for gaming and overclocking it? If you never get back to us on the solutions suggested or post back with answers to our questions then there is not much we can do to help. Please take the time to bring all of your issues together with detailed information and supply the answers to ALL of our questions so we stand a chance of helping you. Please do so in this post. Do not start another one. Sincerely; RandyL

Thank you tony for letting us all know what worked for you. We really appreciate that. Help us spread the word that FPCH is here. Tell your friends.

Hi frannie; As maynard said you can create new shortcuts or redirect existing ones in most cases. What concerns me more is what type of reinstall you did. Did you do a repair or a nondestructive recovery. It sounds like it. As such a reinstall of some programs may be needed. As well as updates. What StartMenu Programs shortcuts aren't pointing to the right programs? At least we know you still have access to your files. Am I correct? RandyL