Help and advice needed

[acmech1954]

Please, can somebody help me, I have a 6 year old Compaq Presario 1729. Due to a variety of problems I did a destuctive reboot and reset to factory settings. This time, after reconnecting to internet and selecting auto updates and also trying manually, I keep getting error massages telling me I cannot connect to windows updates, some 18 months ago I had the same problem but found a download on one of the forums that made it all work again(but forgot to take note where it was or to save it :(),.
The other option I can think of , is to change the hard drive and get Windows 7 loaded, that way I can save the old hard drive just in case.

Can anyone advise me please, and would you keep it simple as I am a rigger by trade but have delved in the internals upgrading bits :ok:.

[mixture]

acmech1954,

Can you confirm what OS you are running (right click on "My computer" and go to properties) .... if its Windows 2000, there's very little we can do to help because that's now firmly obsolete in Microsoft's eyes. There may be scope for helping you if its Windows XP (depending on the exact version).

You can, however, forget about your aspirations of Windows 7 unless you go buy some new hardware (not just internals, I mean completely new) .... there aint' a cats chance of Windows 7 running properly on something that old.

[Helix Von Smelix]

Is the Time & Date correct? Also location, but not normally a worry.

[acmech1954]

Sorry meant to mention, it's XP

Why would the internals stop windows 7 running

just checked - time and date are correct

[Saab Dastard]

Why would the internals stop windows 7 running

It's not the internals per se, it's the lack of driver support from Compaq / HP that's the problem.

You can certainly try installing Win 7 on a gash HDD and see if you can find driver support built in to Win 7 or by searching around for compatible drivers.

In terms of the components, I believe it's a dual-core Pentium D x64 (clock speed?) with up to 4GB RAM, so that should be OK, plus it supports SATA 7200 HDD. The weakest component is probably the graphics card (forget Aero / glass without a graphics upgrade).

Worth a go, if you've got a spare HDD, IMHO.

SD

[Helix Von Smelix]

Correct Microsoft validation code entered?

[Milo Minderbinder]

This is now the normal behaviour when updating Windows XP
The Windows Update site only works for XP if you have IE8 installed, but IE8 will not install unless you have XPsp2 installed.....which you can't install because Windows update won't work without IE8....a real catch-22

The workround is to manually download XPsp2, XPsp3, and IE8 and install them one by one
The relevant sites are
SP2 Download Windows XP Service Pack 2 for IT Professionals and Developers from Official Microsoft Download Center (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=28)
SP3 Download Windows XP Service Pack 3 Network Installation Package for IT Professionals and Developers from Official Microsoft Download Center (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=24)
IE8 for XP Download: Windows Internet Explorer 8 for Windows XP - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details (http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=43)

Install all those one by one, and then Windows/Microsoft Update will work

Don't bother trying to search for these at Microsoft Download Center (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads) as that also needs IE8 to work

[Milo Minderbinder]

to pick up on something mixture said

Its very unlikely an Intel P4 chipset is going to be fully compatible with Win7. You may get it installed, but driver support would be poor and the machine would be crippled. I doubt if you would find drivers for the audio

[Bushfiva]

The motherboards is the ASUS P5LP-LE, so audio drivers, for example, would come from Realtek and others from Asus or Intel (network). It should run Win 7 just fine. But Milo's given you the gen to get Windows Update working, and that should be all you need.

[acmech1954]

Thanks for the response guys.
Sp2 installed, so far so good, tried to download SP3 but it come up with
temp file windowsxp-kb936927-x86-enu exe is not a win32 application. IE8 installed no probs, still no update

[Milo Minderbinder]

then SP3 didn't download completely

try downloading it again.
make sure the download completes before you run setup.
Also go into the Internet Explorer settings in contol panel and set the defaults - its possible that after the previous attempts the activex controls have got scrambled.
After you've got SP3 installed then run this (select the correct version)
Information for network administrators about how to obtain the latest Windows Update Agent (http://support.microsoft.com/KB/946928)
It links to the latest Windows Update agent

One off-the-wall thing I have seen over the last year is that if I try to run Windows Update while using my ISPs DNS server settings (Zen Internet) the downloads fail. If I switch to OpenDNS they work.......weird, and probably totally irrelevant to this case.

[Mike-Bracknell]

One off-the-wall thing I have seen over the last year is that if I try to run Windows Update while using my ISPs DNS server settings (Zen Internet) the downloads fail. If I switch to OpenDNS they work.......weird, and probably totally irrelevant to this case.

That's mainly due to the Akamai distribution method not working very well.

[mixture]

That's mainly due to the Akamai distribution method not working very well.

Unlikely. Double unlikely if the eyeball ISP in question is Zen. :cool:

But if you care to PM me the details of the problems you feel exist with the Akamai distribution system, I'll be happy to quizz the guys from Akamai next time I see them. :E

[Mike-Bracknell]

Unlikely. Double unlikely if the eyeball ISP in question is Zen. :cool:

But if you care to PM me the details of the problems you feel exist with the Akamai distribution system, I'll be happy to quizz the guys from Akamai next time I see them. :E

Akamai vs public DNS servers | Frank DENIS random thoughts. (http://00f.net/2012/02/22/akamai-vs-public-dns-servers/)

[acmech1954]

Thanks for the heads up guys, finally got SP3 to load ( 4th or 5th attempt had to leave it 24 hrs between the last 2 attempts)and updating has started,126 in the first batch, :eek:

[mixture]

Mike,

I think what we've got here are two different issues.

Milo said :
my ISPs DNS server settings (Zen Internet) the downloads fail. If I switch to OpenDNS they work

As far as Akamai is concerned, this should NEVER happen. It is Akamai's job to distribute the content.... it they cannot reach you at your ISP then that is something they need to be told about via the ISP.

Zen in this instance need to be told something might be up that needs to be looked at which is preventing access to Akamai via their resolvers.

Separately, in terms of what you posted in terms of performance (or lack thereof), I need to re-read it before commenting (or raising it informally with Akamai at some point if nothing stands out). At a first glance, I suspect there may be some over-simplification going on in that blog post.... but as I said, need to re-read with a clear mind at some point !