Task Manager is missing.

Well, more progress!

Bypassing the Dell diagnostics for the present. Ran chkdsk. First pass detected something like 75,000 items in (I think) step 2.

Second pass - about 30 min - was clean. And disk free space increased about 0.4 gb.

Looked at eventvwr log - app directory had 1616 events, dating back to 2009.

Do I leave them, or clear them?

I was unable to find "windows logon" in the right (show action pane) (actions) panel. What does this one do?

A couple more snags: unable to read a couple of items.

https://vimeo.com/101647637 gives me a message: "Aw Shucks. This video cannot be played with your current setup".

Another site - can't find it just now - says I couldn't play an MP4 (?) file.

Device Manager shows 6 items in the sound/video/game slot:
Audio Codecs
Legacy audio drivers
Legacy Video Capture devices
Media control Devices
SoundMax integrated digital audio
Video Codecs.

Not sure whether these are relevant.

Comments?
 
in event viewer, right click on each directory (left pane) and choose clear all entries, you can save them if you like, but it is not necessary because now we will look for current issues.

once all entries in all directories are empty, run checkdisk again and then see if you can find the winlogon entry in the application directory.

when you double click on an event in the right pane it brings up a more detailed box.

================

the video played for me

do you have adobe flash and/or silverlight installed??

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http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...n-xp-sp3/73771241-857a-4705-a717-22214e4c4f04

read through the links in the thread above on playing mp4.

=========

if there are no yellow warnings in device manager then the driver is not bad so far.

in device manager, double click on soundmax integrated digital audio, does it say that this device is working properly??

==
 
Reran event viewer, cleared, reran chkdsk. Event viewer then showed winlogon. It was a history of what chkdsk did. Nothing struck me as serious.

On the video - I have Adobe Flash Player 10 ActiveX showing up in the Add/remove programs panel. Got in trouble a few days ago when I got a message to update to ver 15, downloaded and that McAfee PITA was piggybacked on it. Got rid of both. As you pointed out, I should read carefully the notes before downloading, and I'm thinking I should have kept the flash player update.?

Will follow the MP4 info later.

Soundmax is reported as working properly. The only yellow flags appearing in the Device Manager listing are yellow question marks on "Other Devices" and "PCI Modem".

I assume that has to do with a card inserted in one of the three white sockets; it has a couple of jacks for phone type plugs, and I'm not using that - have a yellow 8 conductor plug for fibre op connection in the network adapter connection on the main connector grouping.
 
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remove all adobe and the reinstall adobe flash, always choose custom install when available, that way you can make sure that only the desired program is installed. and also download from the get adobe website, not from another site.

ok on chkdsk, what winlogon will tell you is if any errors were found and corrected, since chkdsk is run from within windows, the report will not stay up on the screen long enough to read the report.

==============

if you are not using these devices, then uninstall by right clicking the device in device manager and choosing uninstall, if it is attached , then on a restart windows will say it has found new hardware and will attempt to install it.

============

How To Find Drivers For An Unrecognized Device

1. Open Device Manager (Control Panel>System>Hardware>Device Manager)
2. The hardware whose drivers are missing will appear as Unknown device, so it's easier to locate the device.
3. Right click on the unknown device and click on Properties.
4. Under the Properties window click on Details tab and select Device Instance Id from the drop down box.
5. You should see a code similar to this

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27DC&SUBSYS_30868086
&REV_01\4&1E46F438&0&40F0

6. The portion of the code highlighted in RED is the Vendor ID and the portion highlighted in GREEN is the Device ID. In this example:

Vendor ID = 8086
Device ID = 27DC

7. Once you have obtained both the IDs, proceed to PCI Database. There you can either search for the vendor from the vendor ID or directly get information about the device along with the vendor name by searching with the device ID.

8. Then from there you can go directly to the hardware manufactureres website and get the driver.

http://www.pcidatabase.com/

==
 
Well, not a lot to report.

Flash player deleted and reinstalled, still unable to read the Vimeo clip. No problem - it's not critical.

I did have an interesting event, and haven't sorted it out yet. I brought along my HP 1018 printer and connected it to a USB port on the rear. Got it fired up after a bit of head scratching - Dell recognized the printer and talked to itself for a bit, then said ok. But it wouldn't work, finally found that the default printer was one used by the previous owner. Cleared that out, and in business. Sort of....

I've been transferring files from my old unit using the little USB memory sticks, and they refused to work....

The lights would come on, but they did not appear in Explorer. Finally disconnected the printer, and away we went!

No errors showing in the USB section of Device Manager. 9 listings: 3 Intel Universal host controllers, 1 Intel enhanced controller, 1 USB printing support, and 4 USB root hubs. All reporting working normally.

Anyway, I'm out of commission for a week. Tired of all this snow, and heading for a beach a hundred miles or so south-east of you! I tried to attach a couple of pix of our snowbanks, but the image posting seemed to want a URL, and my pix are home here on my HD, not on a website.

When I return, I plan to copy and post most of your replies into a document as a reference for diagnosis and repair. You have given me a crash course on computer innards, and it's some very helpful material.

Later,

Jack
 
have fun on your spring break and stay safe.

my colors in my previous reply did not post so here are the red and green colors.

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_27DC&SUBSYS_30868086
 
Well, I'm back.

Not a lot to report - just getting settled in with all these changes, and trying to observe all the "behind-the-scene" activity.

Firefox had been tacking on a couple of plug-in containers that slowed things down - and gave me a message that reloading firefox might speed things up a bit. Did that, and now these two add-ons appear only on some websites, not on initial start-up.And the 360 antivirus program seems to update itself on every start-up, takes a couple of minutes or so to work through the process.

Is there an option to update it perhaps weekly?

On the whole, the unit is far faster than my old machine, and I'm slowly transferring files. I could remove the hard drive from the old unit and connect it up as a slave on the new one, but time isn't critical, and ambition somewhat lacking!

I'm still waiting for the larger memory module to arrive; I think that will speed things up somewhat.

There is one anomaly with the new unit - the usb ports don't recognize my little memory sticks or my camera card reader until I disconnect the printer cable....

Device manager shows 9 items under the USB controller heading, none showing yellow flags.

Any thoughts on this one?

Thanks!
 
Hello again.

The Chinese memory module finally arrived. 6 weeks in transit. 1gb, PC3200, 400 mhz. It was installed following the Dell manual instructions, turned on, and after a half dozen squawks from some sound device in the box, nothing more..... Repeated, more squawks, nothing.... Original memory modules replaced, and running again. $7 out the window!

I can hear your comment... I warned you....!

Task Manager has resurfaced! I don't know when that occurred, but it's there.

My USB problems are somewhat reduced, but not eliminated. I've made no changes to anything, but now only one device - a 1 gb memory stick (?) is causing problems; it's not readable in Explorer unless I disconnect the printer USB cable first. Then it works normally.

Device manager shows it is drawing current, and no error messages appear anywhere - it just doesn't work until I pull out the printer connection. It's interesting that other devices show up as drive C: in Explorer (the hard drive shows as drive E:), while the troublesome one is recognized as drive I: .My multiple socket memory card reader logs on as C:, F:, G:, and H: .

So I'll source a more reliable memory module, and I can certainly live with the unit now. Thanks to all your tips, it's been given a new lease on life.

Your help has been very much appreciated, Elizabeth. It has been a most enjoyable learning experience for me!
 
okay, you might want to reinstall, as the os should be on c: drive, but any further questions just post a new question and I will try to help. :)
 
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