Problems with OEM XP Pro installation.

[Cameronian]

I was given two computers, belonging to a man who had recently died, in exchange for helping his widow out with some of his unfinished business. I am using the more recent of the two and planned to use the other one, via a local wireless network, to back up material from this one and from a couple of others in the house.

Once I had finished extracting the required information for the chap's widow and others I set to tidy the older machine's hard disc up a bit. There was a lot of material of a personal financial nature which I wanted to remove and a lot of other "noise" - a great deal of unwanted Norton, a pile of HP stuff which kept calling home etc. I'm sure you can imagine.

Well, I've been at it, little by little, for over a year and I seemed to be getting somewhere gradually and the machine continued to work perfectly. Anyone who has seen my previous posts asking for help here may have formed ideas about my computer competence but may rest assured that it is worse than it will have appeared!

The machine has an ASUSTek main board, 2Gb ram and about 128Gb HDD and the drive is now about 25% full.

Unfortunately, after my last episode of housekeeping, it won't boot completely. It all goes well and gets to the point where the desktop icons have all appeared and nearly all of the little ones along the bottom too (including Start and the clock) but then it stops and won't do anything more. The boot process seems to get to within just perhaps five seconds or so of satisfactory completion every time.

I have repeatedly started in safe mode and explored pretty well all of the obvious options which come up. Each time I do this it will allow me to take one step down my chosen route and then stops and I have to use the power button to turn it off, whereupon it will let me start it again, in normal or safe mode, and I'm perfectly free to reach the same point once more, but no further!

I think it's pretty clear that I've ditched something vital but I don't know what and I don't know what I can try next. Does anyone have any good (and polite) ideas, please?

[Mike-Bracknell]

If you've got the data off the PC, and you don't specifically *need* any of the other stuff, then for gods sakes don't waste a year of your life - boot with the XP CD, delete the partition and reinstall XP on the fresh disk. I quote 4 hours to build a PC including Windows Updates and things like Acrobat Reader and CutePDF. Surely now you can see that wasting a year pruning is simply that.

[mixture]

Does anyone have any good (and polite) ideas, please?

Yeah, what Mike said and he put it a lot more politely than I would have, which would have been something starting along the lines of "a year.... "

[Cameronian]

Thank you Mike-Bracknell and mixture but it's an OEM installation and I think that's why I don't have a CD. What you suggest is what I would have done from the beginning because I also want to reorganise the directory tree completely, eliminating the name of the dead man from all of it and simplifying it enormously. But I don't know how to do that without a full Windows CD.

[Spurlash2]

This link will remove the previous owners details HERE.

Does pressing F11 on boot get you to the recovery partition?

[mixture]

Perhaps an upgrade to Windows 7 via a reformat would be in order ?

Spurlash2, wouldn't quite remove all user details, plus I think the OP would be best starting fresh, having spent a year fiddling, I don't think we should be encouraging him to fiddle any more.

[Mike-Bracknell]

If you want to retain Windows XP, go to: Keyfinder | Magical Jelly Bean and download the freeware version, which will tell you your product key. Write it down, and then ask any of your friends with computers whether you can borrow (or have a burnt copy of) their OEM XP CD. The CD isn't what constitutes the license so you shouldn't have problems finding someone who'll lend/burn you a copy.

Then it's just a case of downloading and installing the missing hardware drivers, updating via service packs and MS Update, and installing any software you wish.

[Cameronian]

I could probably lay my hands on a copy of XP but what about WGA? At the moment my XP Pro is genuine, paid for and registered to my computer and I am loth to pay for another new version of Windows, which would be different from what is on this my main computer, when I seem to have no problems with what I've got (if only I could keep my hands off it!). I really don't want WGA issues with Microsoft either.


To say that I have been fiddling with it for a year gives a wrong impression! I used to turn it on every week to update Avast and a few other things and then would turn it off again. Once in a while I would go on to do something else before turning it off and, of those a few times when I had time, I'd root about a bit for half an hour or so. So, during that "year", I probably devoted an hour or two to attempting to tidy the hard drive up.

[mixture]

If you want to retain Windows XP, go to: Keyfinder | Magical Jelly Bean and download the freeware version, which will tell you your product key.

Erm Mike. It's OEM. There's an obligation to have the Microsoft sticker on the chassis with the product key.

[Cameronian]

Hi Mike! Your last post must have coincided with mine so, when I saw yours I thought "great, that's it" but then I thought that I can't follow your suggestion because, of course, that computer cannot quite finish the boot process so cannot download or run Keyfinder.

Ah, I should have read it further. It says that it can work with unbootable systems...... I'll be back!

Yes...., but then it gets complicated. I don't think I want to start dismantling my machines to connect the problem HDD into this, my prime machine. I don't know if I even want to risk it Mike - you have an idea of my limitations. The Magical Jelly Bean offers the use of Windows PE to start up the broken computer to enable analysis of it but the MS walkthrough of the process is far beyond me and requires the creation of a "Technical Computer".

The broken XP was bought and paid for so does that not include some right to get it fixed? Are WGA issues a problem?

[Mike-Bracknell]

Originally Posted by mixture

Erm Mike. It's OEM. There's an obligation to have the Microsoft sticker on the chassis with the product key.

Point to the people you know who've had a home visit from Microsoft to check OEM licensing compliance?

[mixture]

The broken XP was bought and paid for so does that not include some right to get it fixed?

No.

There is a reason OEM are so cheap, the two main ones being :

(1) The license is tied to the machine it is supplied with. Machine dies, license dies with it. There are also limitations on what can be classed as an "upgrade" of a chassis.

(2) Microsoft places a contractual obligation on the OEM to provide the End-User with a support. So OEM users should not expect any tea and sympathy from Microsoft if you try to obtain direct support (unless of course you get out your credit card for their paid support service).

[mixture]

Point to the people you know who've had a home visit from Microsoft to check OEM licensing compliance?

99.999999999% of people I know have machines from genuine OEMs and therefore this is a non-issue. And I don't provide any advice to the others....

[Mike-Bracknell]

I think it's a reinstall on the same PC, so should in theory have the OEM sticker on the outside anyway. I'm not advocating migrating OEMs to new hardware.

[mixture]

oooh... is that Golf Mike Bravo backtracking down the PPRuNe runway.....

[Cameronian]

Would it help to get in touch with ASUS?

[Mike-Bracknell]

Originally Posted by mixture

oooh... is that Golf Mike Bravo backtracking down the PPRuNe runway.....

OK once again, point to where I advocated piracy?

[mixture]

Never said you did.

Anyway, back to the point in question, Cameronian, no harm done trying, although you may find Asus a bit like pulling teeth.

[Cameronian]

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained", as I think someone said once. By e-mail or chat, do you think? Which is less likely to result in a brush-off....

[mixture]

I would say chat. Less chance of a copy/paste robotic reply.

Good luck, and keep us updated !