Dell WLAN stopped connecting: XP Insp 1520

My daughter overloaded her HD and. with some difficulty, I was able to clone (Norton Ghost) to a new HD. It worked well at first except I was unable to access the registry. After a day or so the wireless connection stopped working and I am having difficulty sorting this out. It actually seemed to work briefly today, I do not know why. Can you help me with these 2 problems?
Thanks:cry

 

Hi and welcome to Majorgeeks

I think it would be useful background info if you spelled out what you mean by

what were the initial symptoms? What did you have to do in order to successfully clone it with Ghost? Details on Windows version and Service Pack level, relevant software versions too ^^

 

She began to have Blue screen errors which would freeze her system when she tried to download music. I looked at these and reproduced the problem. She had about 70GB on an 80GB HD. I bought a new HD and after a couple of failures, was able to clone her drive (using a USB connector HD enclosure) to the new 320 GB drive. She has Windows XP home edition with service pack 3. It accessed the internet, but when I tried to set restore point, it says it has encountered a problem and needs to close. After I returned the computer to her, it worked well until it suddenly stopped wireles connection (Dell WLAN).

Thanks for your quick response

 

Update: I have been able to re-establish WLAN function by updating with an appropriate driver (from Dell). I ran a registry scanner and find 759 errors! Can someone please advise me on safe programs to clean these up? Perhaps this related to my inability to use the restore program? Any ideas appreciated. Anyone have experience with Norton Ghost cloning who can tell me if this might be related to the program? Thanks in advance.

 

I agree with plodr that this is a fairly common problem of XP's registry becoming corrupt over time.

Registry problems may well have changed how the computer uses the driver, or Windows Update may have applied a new one that was broken (happens a lot to me).

These problems probably would have occurred if the hard drives had not been swapped.

Here is an explanation of the registry for anyone viewing this thread in the future if it is needed:

The registry of a computer is like a large list containing all the data of where the windows files are, settings for how to run the computer, and a list of how to run all the file types. It also contains settings for programs that have been installed.

If we compare this to a shopping list, it is like writing out all the things you want to buy, thier brands, and how many of them you need.Just like a list, it is contantly having things added to it, edited, and taken away from it. This these list entries can be changed by updates or programs in such a way as to break a little bit of the functionality of the computer, like if you change a Philips toothbrush head on the list to a Sony one which will not fit the Philips brush. There can also be entries left over pointing to things that were uninstalled, like if you went shopping and forgot to cross items off the list. A registry cleaner will check the registry and see if there are any things left over that don't need to be there, or if there are things that are broken, and then it fixes them if you want it to.

Obviously fiddling with the registry is dangerous for the computer as if it is done badly, like some registry programs do, the computer could die completely, and if the right (wrong) bits are fiddled with it may corrup the contents of the hard drive as well. This is why trusted registry cleaner programs are so important.

One of the mots recommended registry programs here at MajorGeeks is CCLeaner (slim) as plodr has said above. Not only does it clean the registry, you can use it to clean space on your computer by deleting one-use files like internet cache or files that have not been used for a long time.

Please note I am not affiliated with CCleaner in any way at all, this is just a recommendation from a satisfied customer.

 

Thank you plodr and collinsl for their advice and help with my registry problem and I have used ccleaner successfully. The computer is working well, but I am still unable to access system restore to set a restore point. The message is "System Restore Application has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." While I cannot access it, the ccleaner reveals that my last restore point is listed (pre Ghost HD cloning). Does anyone know if this is due to the Ghost program? I am actually interested in uninstalling Ghost, but I worry that this may destabilize the disk I have created. Norton does not seem to be much help with tech support of this product.
Thanks to everyone. This is a very special resource for me.

 

I successfully reinstalled the restore program and have set a restore point. I am very happy with everyone's support and I consider all the problems solved. THANK YOU!!