Major Problem: XP sucks... no, NT does

I updated my windows last night to XP. All seemed well... settings and everything were normal, looked OK... until I tried to get on the net.
I get an error within the window saying "PPPoE driver already loaded", and that it "can't load TAP".
Hmm.
After a couple of calls to my net provider, and some fiddling around... turns out that they couldn't help me.
Worst part is, I can't even uninstall XP!
The help within XP says that if your hd is formatted as NTFS instead of FAT (which mine was), and/or if I was updating from 2000 NT 4.0 (which I was), that XP was unable to uninstall.

I guess I have to save all my stuff and re-format the PC?

In terms of music, other files, and favourites, I think their burning will be straightforward... but to save saved games, what will I need to do to preserve my progress in my games? I guess that's my main worry.

Any recommendations on what to do? Cleaning my system out / starting over? I don't know if there are discs for the PC, in terms of setting up windows anew (don't think there are)... printer and scanner drivers I could get from the net, if I need to, I'm sure.
I've never had to do this type of thing before.
Advice?

Thanks folks... this is a big multi-faceted challenge / problem for me.

I hope I didn't kill any kittens with this post... I tried not to.

 

have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling your NIC.

 

Well...

Did you load XP with PPPoE software already installed on the system?

That is a big nono, and tends to cause issues.

You could try uninstalling the PPPoE software your provider gave you.

 

NIC... Network Interface Card... that's where my high-speed line connects, right?
A friend at work suggested swapping one / installing a new one to see if that worked.
As for PPPoE software, I'm not sure what it would be... I think the computer has had the software since before I started using it (wife's computer originally).
Taking a card out on my own is something I wouldn't do yet... may take the pc into work on Thursday. If I wanted to uninstall the PPPoE software, where would I find it / would I lose anything important if I uninstalled it?

I like these ideas that sound less drastic, however! A little more info, and I may try some tonight or Wednesday night or Thursday. Oyvay, what a pain.

 

Check Add/remove programs too.

There are others, like enternet 300 (I think thats what its called) and RasPPPoE, but like xflat said, the biggy is winpoet.

 

OK... still no 'net for me at home. Most inconvenient. Darn XP / NT...
So far, myself and a computer-able co-worker have:
-taken out the NIC, put in a new one... nothing.
-tried making new connections, still same problem... top 2 options are grayed out... can't make a new connection with password / name
-taken out PPPoE program (Enternet 300)... still nothing
-followed Microsoft's supposed 2 "fixes"... finally ending with deleting the whole telphony folder in the registry and re-installing the XP upgrade... nothing. Same old same old.
Now when I try to connect to my high-speed account, instead of displaying the error "failed to load TAP", it says failure "to create device".

Am I looking at wiping the machine clean, booting anew, installnig Win 98, and then building my pc life from there again?

Thanks for any help, people.

 

I have....

run into this before when trying to install DSL for a friend. What I found was that the PC had several viruses and several instances of spy ware. The problem with the spy ware was that while it uninstalled, it had corrupted some of the drivers and such that controlled the NIC. Try downloading lspfix.exe from www.cexx.org. It seemed to help rebuild the winsock that XP will not let you delete and reinstall. If that doesn't work, then I would suggest that you look for everything you would like to save, save it, and then start from scratch.

 

hi steverino
reading through im assuming you are using an upgrade disc for xp
you can still do a clean install on a freshly formatted drive with that cd as long as youve still got your 98 cd
when installing xp you will be asked to put the old cd in to prove you merit an upgrade so i would strongly reccomend doing it this way rather than putting xp over the top

 

If you can try connecting the computer up to the modem via USB instead of ethernet. That usually gives me a temporary fix to my internet problems.

 

Hi
Are you using a router. I had the same Tap error when i started using a router on my win2000. I was able to connect when i was directly connected to modem so i all did was redo all my networking and it workd. I hope this helps. If you dont have a router just ignore me.

 

If he was using a router, then he wouldnt be getting PPPoE errors (Point to Point Protocol over Ethernet).

I think that scanning for spyware/viruses and rebuilding winsock with the program above (lspfix.exe from www.cexx.org) would be a good course of action.

 

OK... still toiling in a 'net-less land.
I notice in regedit that I have, in my Microsoft folder, two windows folders. One for Windows and one for Windows NT.
Is this normal?
Should NT files still be around after an XP upgrade?
Thanks again, folks...

I tried getting to cexx.org, but the school's server won't allow access to the page for some reason.

And General... you say wipe 'er clean (if that's what I choose), and start anew... and start installing the OS with the XP upgrade disc?

 

OK folks... we tried everything. Tinkered with connections and settings and options and the registry and yadda yadda yadda...
and...
We fixed it! Woohoo!

For everyone's reference this is how we fixed it:

Went into the registry and deleted "25" and "26" under RasMan\ppp\EAP\.
I made a new connection, and all was well. Ahhhh... sweet high-speed net at home.

 

Ok steve glad you sorted it
thanks for posting the outcome handy if anyone ever comes across it again