windows xp reinstallation problems

Hi Guys
My friend has an Acer Aspire 5315 which was infected with virus so as a result we reinstalled windows xp (from CD) but now there seems to be a problem in that it wont connect to the internet, we cant seem to turn on the wireless adapter to pick up the wifi, I thought that it might be drivers for the wireless card missing so i download to USB key to install but the Acer doesn't seem to recognise the USB key (have tried several different brands etc.) the light flashes on it but the drive doesn't even show up in my computer, dont know what to do next.......... help

 

Can you burn the drivers to a CD?

 

yes can burn to CD and have tried this but obviously i have wrong drivers as am getting error messages....maybe someone would have link to correct drivers

 

sounds to me like you do not have the chipset drivers installed. sans that, xp doesn't manage the usb ports well.

what version of xp, and what Service pack level?
if the cd works, and you have any version of xp basically already loaded, you could put a sp3 cd in there and it would go.

also, worth a shot, try booting into setup and reset everything to defaults, and try a different flash drive, and move around from one usb port to another

 

windows xp home edition version 2002 (only disc i had) think it SP1 or 2 not sure....
dont have SP3 disc..
.have tried several usb keys different make and tried them in every usb port on laptop but still nothing .... strange thing is that i have a plug in mouse which works!!

 

in Network Connections, do you show a wifi adapter? [control panel, network]
if so, disable/enable with right click

back to usb. when all drivers are not yet installed, Winxp will not show any evidence of the USB flash drive being plugged in. you must go to Windows Explorer and expose drives under "My Computer".
if you have WIFI router, are there any physical ports on it? plug in the ethernet cable

 

No wifi adapter when i right click on network Connections
No connections when i open network connections

Not really sure what you mean to "expose drives under my
computer"!!:-o

As it turns out i dont have SP1, 2 or 3 so tried to install SP1 but got blue screen with the following
kernal_stack_inpage_error
Technical info: STOPsical memory 0x00000077 (0xc000000e,0xc000000e, 0x00000000, 0x0056e000 beginning dump of physical memory

 

ok tried reinstalling SP1 and managed it successfully this time without blue screen

tried SP2 but the file is too big to copy to a disc and the usb still not working!

 

pearbelle...

Don't know if this will help;

I just had the same issue. Luckily I had a Netgear wireless adapter attached to another computer. The problem was I needed a driver for the ethernet connection to work on this PC, so that I could connect via ethernet to the router (no wireless card on this PC), but I didn't have the driver, so I couldn't connect. I installed the Netgear adapter driver, which I had on the CD that came with it, and then I was able to connect so that I could get all the drivers for the computer from the manufacturer(s).

You could download the driver installers using another PC to any external source and try installing them onto this PC from that source. If there is a wifi or ethernet connector on the back of the PC, the original manufacturer drivers should get you connected. Then you can download and install SP3...

One other thing...if you install XP Service Pack 3, you won't need the other service packs. If one of them is on your XP Home installation disk that's no problem, but you only need service pack 3 to get the Windows updates...

 

pb, you need to step back and take a fresh look at this - you're setting yourself up for more issues. it ain't that hard.

Check the BIOS for any testing features: many late-issue BIOS's have a short disk test or SMART feature, and memory test. Also ENABLE full long boot [not short boot] with feedback on all the POST routines. You could have disk and/or memory issues that are stopping progress.

second: you've got to find another machine somewhere and burn a couple of discs. CD will do fine. you need SP3 on a disc. also, I'm confused as to what Disc you are installing basic XP from: is it one marked as being FOR that particular unit? if not, you're going to have issues getting it activated as xp needs to be matched disc-to-product-key. Get the base one right, after that, any SP3 will do to upgrade it.

 

Was this the restore/recovery disk made from the Acer eRecovery program on the computer?
http://acer.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/12869

eRecovery disk or USB stick from Acer, if the person did not burn the disk
https://store.acer.com/store?Action...rvicePage&Env=BASE&Locale=en_US&SiteID=acerna

 

Sorry but dont understand what this means!!!

 

I have another machine that can burn disc but like i said the SP3 wont fit on the disc!!....the Disc I am installing xp from has the product key to match but is not from this particular machine but my understanding was that it didn't matter as long as the product key matched the disc

 

No it was not a recovery/restore disc it was an Windows XP disc

 

Have your friend purchase the restore CD from Acer. All the proper drivers will be installed so the computer will connect to the internet.

 

Don't mean to sound like a scrooge but is there any way of fixing it without purchasing the restore disc???

 

Personally, I would go with purchasing a USB wireless adapter like this:



If you go this route, you can get a good used one on ebay for $15 or less, including postage. The best part about doing this is that you can use the adapter on another PC or give it to a friend or whatever, once you have the desktop working.

Some instructions for network setup using a USB wireless adapter in case you need them:

Plug it in a USB port and open Device Manager->Services and scroll down to Wireless Zero Configuration. Right click on it and select "Properties". Locate the dropdown and change it to "Automatic" if it's not already that. Close the menu and then right click on Wireless Zero Config again and start it.

That should cause a little connection tv to appear in the system tray. From there you can select your router from the list of available connections and then enter the 10 digit password on the router. Once that is done, you can download all the drivers you need, including the ethernet driver...

Oh yeah, one thing about the ethernet adapter/driver. Once you have the driver installed, you still may have to enable the Wired AutoConfig service in Services. Do just like you did with Wireless Zero, setting it to "Automatic" and turning it on...

 

Thanks Altbo but not much point in purchasing a wireless USB adapter when one built in already ....but anyway NO NEED i managed to install SP3 and some missing drivers from the Acer website and am now connected (wahoo)to the internet via the wireless network card.... apart from antivirus is there anything else you guys would recommend that i should do to prevent having any future problems

 

Yes, run the Acer eRecovery program to get restore disks burned.
That's the first thing I do when I purchase a new desktop/netbook - burn the recovery disks.

 

The best fixes are the freeest ones!

Glad you have your friend's PC back and running. No advice or tips from me other than it's a relief for me making sure I have some sort of portable drive device around so I can install drivers and service packs in these types of situations...

 

I recently purchased some USB flash drives (FAT32) of various makes. They all worked right away with my Win7 system but most of them weren't even recognized by my XP3 system until I reformatted and repartitioned them. Don't ask me why. I read a bunch of reviews about the flash drives on Amazon and there were many people who reported that the flash drives weren't recognized by their systems. There are a bunch of freeware partitioning programs that you can download right here from MG site under Disk Tools category. It's worth a try. At the very least you'll be able to salvage some flash drives.

 

Most manufacturers (HP for sure) only offer the sale of system restore disks for a period of 2 years. Given that the system in question is running XP, the computer was probably purchased well in excess of 2 years ago. So that's probably not even a viable option, although it almost certainly would have solved the problem, or at least provided the necessary files that may be missing presently.