no help

[icy]

i cant believe with all the people out there thats haveing to upgrade from windows milenium to xp that there isnt more help for it. ive done all that was required and still cant get it to except the xp disk. can someone pls.set me straight on what im doing wrong ? thanks !!!

[glc]

What problems are you having? You need to provide details and be specific for anyone to be able to help you.

[icy]

first it said to take off the conflicting programs such as earthlink 2x,direcd cd 3,easy cd 4,mmjb,and quicklink 3 and update to windows 2003 before i could upgrade to xp but everything i try to do still conflicts i also had to upgrade direct x 9.0 after doing all this it still sayes the cd is uncompatable so then they said put the xp cd in and go to start then run and type in d:/setup.exe and follow instructions well after giving hp support about 300.00 bux for nothing i give up on them i think there doing this just to make another billion or so anyway it still said the program it un compatable now im lost broke and stranded lmao

i was just trying to do a simple upgrade from windows milenium to windows xp home edition

[Kareeser]

Is a fresh format out of the question? That may be the best course of action.

[icy]

no i dont guess it would be but i dont know how to do a format and what if it still wont take the xp disk after that

[Kareeser]

From what I've read, the problem seems software based. That is, there are components (on the software side) on your system that are incompatible with Windows XP, be it drivers, or badly written software. Windows XP will run on systems built around 5+ years ago fairly well, so I doubt hardware incompatibility is the issue here

When I first had my copy of Windows XP given to me, I was also unable to upgrade my computer as well due to a software incompatibility. I eventually settled on formatting the machine, and it worked fine.

Keep in mind that if you intend to keep all of your files and documents, we'll keep trying to help you upgrade your operating system. A format is just an idea, but it doesn't have to be the first course of action

Can you give us the messages that you get when you try to upgrade Windows XP now? Also, have you tried calling Tech Support to see if they can lend a hand in upgrading your computer?

[GaryRouth]

Hi icy

It does sound like you are in a tricky spot. If your Windows Me installation is still workable, check the information in this Microsoft Knowledge Base article (it concerns how to tell if a system is a good candidate for upgrading to XP from Win98/Me) http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316639/

If you have any must-have data on your hard drive, by all means try to back it up somehow before going further in your upgrade attempts. If it's a smallish amount of data, saving to CD-R disks might do. For larger collections, if you are lucky enough to have a DVD-RW drive, you can save your most important data to DVD.

What sort of XP disk do you have? And do you have an operating system disk for WinMe from Hp that can act as "proof of previous version", should you eventually decide to go with a clean install? If "yes" is the answer to both of these questions, then you can do a clean install, like Kareeser mentions. Recovery Disks generally do not work as "proof of previous versions" - so you'd want to leave your WinMe installation on the hard drive, and try to get through by using the XP upgrade CD. You have the option, during XP setup, to either attempt to keep your older files, or do run a fresh installation, which destroys all your older data. You can view screenshots of the XP upgrade choices and procedures at websites such as windowsreinstall.com, which specialize in this sort of thing. If you look at the third screenshot down on the following link's webpage, you'll see that you have a choice during the installation of "Upgrade" or "New Installation". http://www.windowsxphome.windowsrein...exfullpage.htm You do NOT want to format, if the WinMe on your hard drive is the only proof of previous version that you have (although you could always run your Hp Recovery disks, and then try the "new installaion" from the XP CD again after that). If you have an upgrade CD, you need "proof of previous version" -either the WinMe files on your hard drive, or a WinMe disk.

I'll assume that Hp had you run the "Winnt32 /checkupgradeonly" option, yes? [you'd run that command from the command line -- from the /i386 directory of your Windows XP CD, and without the quotes]. Is that where you received the "not compatible" messages? Look at the MSKB article in the first link, it can help you figure exactly what options you have (usually there are XP-compatible versions of such software available via download ... your ISP would be happy to provide an XP-compatible version of Earthlink, for example. Many such updates are free-of-charge).
____________________________________

So -- to get back to your situation at the moment, it sounds to me like you just need to uninstall the programs listed as incompatible, then proceed with your upgrade. You are likely getting stuck trying to upgrade them either ahead of time, or during the upgrade process - not a high-percentage idea. Try the upgrade with the programs identified by the checkupgradeonly utility as incompatible uninstalled. Then, after XP has successfully installed, you can find XP-compatible versions for those programs. If all you need EasyCd for is to write data CDs, there's built-in CD-writing capability in Windows XP for that. Earlier versions of Roxio are famous for their incompatibility with XP - avoid trying to get them to run in XP.


Best of luck
. . . Gary

late edit - oops, I see my original salutation was for a different forum member = a bit of a senior moment

[icy]

ok all that tried to help thanks a bundh but i caused crash after crash trying to do this stuff. its just not for me. it turned out to b more than i can handle so i put the original copy of milineum back on there, and ive desided to leave it there. this is just to much, so now everything is going like its suppost to excupt something is conflicting with msn games after i go to it and play one game and close out it wont let me back into it till i reformat it keeps taking something off of exployer that wont let it go into games it still signe into msn just not games any thoughts there ?

[GaryRouth]

Hi again

Exactly how did you "put the original copy of Millennium back on there"? Did you use a Recovery Disk? Or?

And what do you mean when you say "it won't let me back until I reformat"? ? Are you running a Recovery disk each time, then returning to play a game on msn?

If yes, I think you need to appreciate that maintenaince of your computer might be a little more complicated than you think, and that perhaps you'll need to be more careful about researching any major changes you make.

Each time you run a Recovery Disk set, if you use a "full recovery", you are returning the computer to the condition it was in when it arrived home from the store. If it is a WinMe era machine, that means that all your security programs are going to be several years out-of-date. They'll need to be updated right away. Before connecting to the Internet, you need to make sure your antivirus, antispyware, and firewall are running. Then you need to visit your antivirus vendor's website & update it's definitions. You then need to visit Windows Update as soon as possible to download and install all the Security Updates for the time between now and when you first bought the computer. Any msn account information might need to be re-entered. If you are getting explorer errors, try an IE repair from Add-Remove Programs in the Control Panel.

If you feel that this is too much, see if a technically minded friend can help. These are fairly basic steps. If you want to learn more, check out the tutorials and guides available here at PC Mechanic (check out the homepages), and you can check sites such as computerhope.com -- lots of computer training material around.

Best of luck
. . . Gary

[icy]

the answere is yes ,yes ,and yes ive done all those things and still no help but ty
i used the recovery cd's that came with it.

[GaryRouth]

Hi again

It sounds like the trouble might not be with WinMe, but is an issue with a certain game on msn. It could be that the game was just a try-before-you-buy offer.

It could also be malware. It takes very little time to be infected while online, unless you have the tools I mentioned earlier taken care of first. Anytime you are online on a broadband connection (cable, DSL, or satellite), you need: 1) firewall 2) antivirus 3) antispyware 4) Security Updates for your operating system and installed programs.

You can test for malware by running scans with up-to-date antivirus & antispyware tools. There are some good free-for-personal-use tools - for an older system, try AVG antivirus, AdAware & SpyBot for antispy, and ZoneAlarm 4.5 for a firewall. You might be surprised how many Security Updates you'll need to get for a WinMe system --- many. Visit Windows Update & see if that helps.

Several components are likely necessary to run many of the newer games on msn: the latest Flash players & other multimedia plugins. And some of the newer games may simply be incompatible with WinMe. I don't play any games on msn, but you certainly could ask the folks over in the gaming forums for tips. Be specific if you post there - mention you are running WinME, and give the name of the game causing the trouble (or if it happens to all games).

Do your work with the firewall & antimalware tools immediately after running a Recovery, and before you reconnect to the Internet. Once the firewall & antimalware are running, you can reconnect, & go straight to Windows Update. Then visit some of the plugin sites to get up-to-date versions of Flash and Shockwave. Only after all these are set up and OK should you try the msn games again.



Best of luck
. . . Gary

P.S. ... and do give the tutorials available to you a look. You'd be amazed how much useful information you can learn in even just a short visit through the guides.

[Kareeser]

Gary... Not entirely sure, but didn't Microsoft end support for Windows ME as well as the 9x versions?

If so, I don't think there would be any other reputable place to download the requisite updates to keep the operating system running at marginally peak security...

[glc]

Even with support gone, Windows Update still works - they just aren't doing any *new* patches.

[HAL9000]

Don't even bother trying an upgrade from WinME... it's not worth it... I tried it 5 times and finally, the best install I got XP was up and running, everything worked... except I couldn't install and remove programs... would be fine if I wanted to leave my system like that forever.