Help Me Out, Fellers

[SARGE]

A friend brought his grandson's Sony over for me to fix. All he knew is "it doesn't work". I turned it on and it has XP which I'm totally unfamiliar with. It shows his user name and I click it and desktop comes on. The only thing I can access is Admin Tools. All other programs, including regulars like Word Pad, give the message, "windows cannot access specified path, or file. You may not have permission to access the item". I did notice the case has Windows ME on a sticker so guessing he upgraded to XP. I don't know if it ever worked with XP or how long it's been installed or if was working and now doesn't. I can't talk to the grandson until tomorrow so don't know the answers.

Ideas, please.

[bailey]

you will need to log on as admin to be able to do very much

[Panama Red]

Sounds like the grandson is set up as Limited User. Can you get into User Accounts in Control Panel? That will tell you the accounts on that pc and the type of each account. You have to be Administrator level to make account changes. Might have to go thru bios and safe mode.

[Statica]

Seems like the user is an admin (note the access to admin tools), seems like the rest of the permissions on the drive are screwed up. Try checking the perms of the drive and folder. winME->XP makes for a lot of crazy errors. If XP works fine then try a fresh xp install - you have already verified compatibility.

[pam123]

It sounds as if he tried to set himself up as the administrator and ended up as a user with access to administrative tools.
If there's no name listed for administrator on the welcome screen you may be able to act like one when using safe mode.
So press F8 and when it loads it will give you the option of administrator or use accounts , provided no one has password protected anything.
Choose administrator.
You're almost there.
Start>Control Panel>User Accounts
Make the grandson the Administrator of his own machine.
All this is based on the premise that this an install gone awry.

[SARGE]

Thanks for the info; it at least gives me a starting point. XP is foreign to me.

[andyms18a]

first thing i wood check is system restor to see if that fixes it for you

[glc]

Actually that sounds like the fake M$ patch virus got him - last XPee box I had to work on with this critter had similar symptoms. If system restore doesn't work, it may be time to format and reload, that's what I wound up doing.

[DragonNOA1]

i don't know much about XP either but I just want to say that this topic has brought up some useful info that will be helpful to me, if not, everyone. great POSTS and make sure you respond back SARGE with what was wrong/what you did. thanks

[SARGE]

Originally posted by glc Actually that sounds like the fake M$ patch virus got him -

Just talked to the kid. Said it was working and believed he got a virus. A "bud" of his somehow isolated it as being a "hybrid" that changed everything to read-only. He lost the XP disk but has a Win98 disk so have his ok to install that if necessary.

[Panama Red]

That's a shame if you hafta remove XP in favor of 98, Sarge. I'd be real disappointed if I had to use 98 full time again. But that's just me. Good luck

[SARGE]

I've restored the pc all the way back to June 30 and still has same problem. Games work ok, though. I hit F8 and there's no option for admin or user. At boot-up all I see is SONY and if the BIOS access "hit key" is there it's moving too fast. I'll find the way to access it off the Net, but not sure what I'd do if I did as far as disabling any Admin passwords, etc., as BIOS has nothing to do with the operating system, right? I mention this since Panama mentioned it earlier.

BTW, he evidently has a bootleg copy of Win98 on a disk that he said never would install, plus he lost the XP disk. I'd use my copy but that's a "no-no". Kids....

[lil Jimmie]

To boot into Windows as the Admin, you'll need to hit "Alt + Ctrl + Del" twice at the Welcome Screen (login screen) and this will give you the option to login as the Admin, however if it has a password you'll need it, but try it with the password blank.

I assume the account you have access to has admin privileges if so you can reset the Admin password if need be.

[scalifash]

Being the disgruntled owner of a Sony VAIO may I be so bold as to suggest that the drive is failing. It happened twice on my VAIO (first time sony replaced it under warranty, next time was after the warranty expired) which is now sitting on the corner of this desk as a paperweight. Run some disk scanning tools and listen to the drive. If it makes a clicking noise when you try to access the files it's new-drive time.

[HAL9000]

Most programs aren't working.... but can you get on the net with it? If so, try a virus scan with housecall. I agree with GLC here.. sounds like that fake patch virus.

[SARGE]

Can't get on Net. I downloaded F-Prot in my Win98 pc, unzipped and copied correct files to 3 floppies. When boot on the XP it says invalid system disk. Boot using F8 and select "safe mode with command prompt". Switch to a: and it says "an installable virtual device driver failed DLL initialization".

I'm ready to chunk it.

[SARGE]

Managed to do a virus check for any form of Blaster and found nothing. Mentioned to a bud at the VFW who is an XP guru and he "said" immediately what was wrong; something about something in System folder being corrupt. He offered to take a peek and has the disk to repair. Good riddance and I'll definately stay with Win98 myself.

[Statica]

Originally posted by SARGE ... and I'll definately stay with Win98 myself.

One bad installation doesnt make a bad OS, Sarge. XP is better than 98 in more ways than just a pretty interface.

[SARGE]

I don't believe it was a bad installation since he says it was working, hit a snag and some "certified" tech started jacking with it. Maybe I'm too comfortable and/or too old to switch to XP but with Win98se on 4 PCs they all run stable or at least I can diagnose and fix, even with 3 on a home network with DSL. I see no reason to "upgrade".

[bailey]

hey sarge:
I am not trying to convence you of anything, but if your going to be doing much help for others, and you will be seeing xp a lot more, maybe you could set up a system with xp, just to learn the finer points of it so you could have a better understanding of what to do with some of the problems you may run into. even dual boot something.
just a helpful thought

[SARGE]

bailey, an excellent point. I'm living in an apt. now by myself with just my 1 pc. The house still has 3 on the network. Not sure how to go about "dual-booting" on my personal pc. It has a large enough hd to hold 98 and XP. Would be willing to get the XP home edition to install and learn as you say. Guess I'd have to wipe out current stuff and do the FDISK thing and learn about dual-booting.

[HAL9000]

No need to wipe Sarge... just get Partition Magic and resize your partitions.. then install XP and it will setup the dual boot for you.

[scalifash]

Just make sure if you do reformat the drive, install the oldest operating system first and then the newest last. Otherwise you'd have to start over ;-)

[bailey]

that is correct, I hope you can do this ok as it will be a great learning experience for you sarge.

that is what I did and for the same reason too. but now I find myself on xp full time, and wondering why I even keep W98se on the other drive.

[Statica]

In addition, if you are dual booting, try using NFTS for XP and not FATx. You will benefit from the added stability of the filesystem, and also prevent Win98 from gunking it up.