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You might try re-burning the DVD using the slowest burn speed for your CD/DVD burner. I had a couple of bad burns until I slowed it down to a crawl.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

I’ve seen variations of this with the /n switch. What effect does this have?

This MS site explains the explorer switches.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

Okay so the system came with XP and a Vista upgrade already installed on top of it. Can I use a Win 7 upgrade and will it wipe the XP AND Vista if I choose that upon Win 7 install?

Yes, you can do an upgrade installation that will save all your previous files and settings. You may encounter a program or two that has a conflict with Windows 7, and it will let you know when you try to run such a program.

You don’t necessarily have to do a clean install IF your edition of Windows Vista is on the upgrade path for your edition of Windows 7.

I am currently dual booting XP Pro that was upgraded over Windows 2000 Pro that was upgraded over Windows 98 that was upgraded over Windows 95 OSR2. I’m not a believer of “the clean install is the only way to go” mindset. If you keep you system clean and fit, there is nothing to fear from an upgrade.

On the other hand, if you have frequent crashes, hangs, BSOD’s, etc. you might want to get your system cleaned up and error free before you upgrade.

There is no substitute for regular system maintenance and frequent total system backups (my preference is drive imaging).

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

BATcher’s shortcut works just fine, and is what I use. If you have the Explorer shortcut pinned to the taskbar, you can modify that shortcut by adding the switches instead of placing another shortcut on your desktop.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

I completely started over this morning by installing XP again and starting the Windows 7 disk again – only to later find that the problem still exists!

There is no need to install XP before you install Windows 7. Why did you do that?

Boot from the Windows 7 DVD and do a clean (custom) install.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

Exactly what message are you receiving on these installation attempts?

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

Allow me to throw in my two cents here. I run older hardware; I stay behind the curve on new developments, because it makes the older (but far from obsolete) hardware much cheaper. On my desktop I have an Intel D875PBZ board, two 300GB SATA drives and a 200GB SATA running through a IDE/SATA adapter. The CPU is a P4E 3.0 GHz with Hyper-Threading, and the graphics are handled by a Diamond/ATI 9550 AGP.

I skipped Vista entirely; nothing offered in that OS particularly enticed me. I installed Windows 7 Ultimate in a dual boot configuration with XP SP3, and the only driver I needed was the Intel Matrix (SATA) driver; my motherboard is a little too long in the tooth for 7 to have the particular iastor inf file available. But the driver installation went off without a hitch, and Windows 7 was up and running. I used the transfer wizard to bring a total of seven User accounts over to Windows 7, and other than references to programs not yet installed on Windows 7, that was also flawless. An interesting aside, one of the accounts used Windows Classic, and Windows 7 has managed to emulate that GUI to a great extent, even though it isn’t directly available in Windows 7. My Windows experience index is 4.1 (the lowest score is the CPU at 4.1)

I am slowly migrating my progams and apps over from XP. Office 2000 Pro runs without a hitch, by the way. I am currently searching for the pathway to modify the 7 installation in a fashion similar to my XP setup. See my homepage for details of that setup and the reasoning behind it.

I next installed 7 on my Dell Latitude D800, which Dell does not support or recommend for 7 (of even Vista; only XP drivers are available). The only cachet on that installation was the graphics driver. 7 had a default driver that worked, but did not give me the resolution to match the capabilities of my LCD. I found a free utility that converts nVidia desktop drivers to mobile drivers, ran the utility and updated the driver, and it works like a charm. I’m also dual booting on my laptop toward the same ends of migrating my programs from XP to Windows 7.

In both cases, my startup times are a bit quicker with 7, switching users is much faster on both machines, and overall performance is better than XP. The Windows experience rating on the D800 is 1.0, but it still runs better and faster than that hardware runs XP.

I must say that in both cases, I am well pleased. As far as my home network, I only had to enter the WEP code for my laptop to connect; 7 found everything needed.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

For starters, run only one AV program. Running two will invariably cause some conflicts. I personally run Security Essentials. You can check your startup load to see if there are some items that don’t need to start everytime Windows starts.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

Unfortumately, you are in a realm of Windows that a repair/reintstall will not touch. A clean install is the only way to replace the corrupt file(s) and registry settings. I had a similar circumstance some months back, but I use disk images for backup. I just restored my last good Windows image and Documents and Settings image, and all was well. There was no need to restore the Program Files image, as nothing of any consequence had occurred in that partition.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

You can visit my homepage and click on Disk Cleanup. The same techniques work in Windows 7.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

When I installed Office 2000, I ran all of the available updates from the Office Update site before I ever tried to open any of the apps. They all work as expected.

Download and install all available file converters, etc. for later edititions of Office, which will then also kick in the Office 2007 SP1 update.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

The update catalog is handy if you run into an update that for some reason won’t install through Windows Update. The update can be downloaded to your hard drive and run from there, which quite often will work. I’ve used it a number of times with good success.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

Thank you for the welcome explanation of home wiring; about the only thing you might have added is the difference between two-prong and U-ground.

I edited my post to include that explanation.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

If it doesn’t matter then why did they switch from having unpolarized plugs to polarized plugs

UL proposal regarding safety. Ideally, a disconnect (switch) should disconnect only the hot wire, and leave the grounding circuit connected. That eliminates any shock hazard to only those foolhearty enough to disassemble the switch itself while it is plugged in (which is probably a relatively small number of folks). Appliances wired correctly with a polarized plug have only the hot wire disconnected by the appliance switch, eliminating any potential for current being back-fed through the electrical circuitry of the appliance. With an unpolarized plug, the switch/disconnect (hot wire or ground wire) was random. The potential for a shock hazard was there; the ground could be disconnected, but the appliance itself would be potentially hot (back-fed) through the applicance circuitry to the switch, and the idiot sticking the fork in the toaster would complete a separate path to ground through his feet. Having a polarized plug and approved household wiring (polarized outlets with the hot wire connected correctly) eliminates that potential shock hazard.

The 3-hole outlet (grounded outlet) when wired correctly with two conductors plus ground wire carries an uninterrupted dedicated ground through the round third hole back to the main disconnect, the box that is being fed by the power company’s meter. The main disconnect is grounded through the service ground (the bare wire coming from the pole) and the ground rod(s) driven into the earth near the meter location and connected directly to the ground buss of the main disconnect box with a bare solid wire. 125V-rated appliances and tools that are equipped with a 3-prong plug are grounded through the cabinet or tool body being wired directly to the third wire that terminates in that third prong, either round or U-shaped. In the event of a short circuit energizing the cabinet or tool body, this bare ground wire (not to be confused with the insulated “neutral” wire) provides a dedicated path to ground which will cause the circuit breaker to trip and denergize the faulty appliance or tool.

That being said, the difference in which way a two-prong plug is inserted into an outlet boils down to whether the switch disconnects the hot wire or the ground wire. There is no difference whatsoever to the actual electrical circuit function when the switch is on; AC current is a sine wave at 60 Htz in the US.

A DC power supply that plugs into an AC outlet serves to step down the voltage, chop off the negative half of the sine wave, limit the output amperage to the requirements of the appliance it is meant to power, and complete the path to ground.

great expense to the homeowners who may have had to upgrade their wiring to accommodate their own new appliances (a toaster, let us say), and probably cheating by skipping the ground if they just replaced the outlet? Further to that end, are you acquainted with ‘cheaters’, which is to say a type of dongle that lets you connect a ‘grounded’ plug to an ungrounded outlet?

It’s commonly called “grounded outlet adapter”. I keep a few handy for calls. And “downgrading” a new appliance to fit older household wiring amounts to filing down the wide blade. Most are only wider at the insertion tip, anyway.

Now look at your power bar. Does it have a filter (EMI/RFI)? Does it have a reset button, which is to say a circuit breaker for overload protection? At what load is it set to trip out? How fast is it set to trip?

Think of ordinary old-fashioned household fuses: 15A, 20A, 30A for the small stuff. For air-conditioners, again in the plain old screw-in fuse box, think of the slo-blo fuses with a time-delay built in.

Most modern code household wiring is 20A for all 125V outlets (limit 6 per circuit breaker in most places), GFI breakers for outlets in bathrooms and kitchens, and outside outlets. The more important question in this discussion concerns the voltage coming into the meter from the power line. Is it 110V, 115V, 120V, 125V? How many houses are on the same transformer? How much voltage fluctuation occurs over the course of the day? A DC power supply made on the cheap won’t compensate for those things. If the incoming AC voltage is lower, the DC output voltage will be lower in proportion. Plugging it directly into a wall outlet instead of a power strip can make a difference; it puts it on a different “rail” from the “rail” the power strip (and everything else plugged into it) is on.

At the other extreme we have giant breakers that are set to trip as fast as present technology will allow, in part as a result of the blackout of August 14, 2003. Look up a few details of the extent and cost of that blackout and you will understand why it matters.

That blackout was triggered by low voltage. If the routing could have been switched fast enough, there never would have been a blackout. Plugging the printer power supply directly into a wall outlet routes the power supply to higher voltage.

On single phase 120V the only difference in which way a plug is inserted into an outlet is whether the plugged-in appliance’s switch disconnects the hot wire or the ground wire. The completed (switched on) electrical circuit functions identically in either case. On a low output DC power supply, you would be hard-pressed to find one that is polarized (has a wide blade), since the polarity of the DC voltage is not affected in any way by the AC polarity, and there is no real safety factor involved. Many peripherals use DC power supply plugs for two main reasons: the peripheral can be smaller and lighter by not accomodating the power supply internally, and it’s cheaper.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

Two comments: Revo Uninstaller is not a registry cleaner per se; it searches the registry for entries specific to the application/driver/utility that your are uninstalling. These entries are marked in bold, and completely safe to delete. I have in the past uninstalled hp software by manually editing the registry to remove the hp entries, and there are hundreds of them. Revo is much faster.

The other comment is regarding the transformer for the printer. It doesn’t matter which way it is plugged it, but it sometimes can make a difference where it is plugged in. The current draw on a power strip that has PC, monitor, high-speed modem, router, speakers, etc. all plugged in and running could be just enough to lower the voltage slightly on the rail. The slightly lowered voltage will also reduce the DC output from the transformer slightly. This slightly lowered DC input to the printer may be right at threshold voltage, or just under, for the printed circuit board that processes the sleep/start signal. Plugging the transformer directly into an outlet can increase the voltage just enough to stay above threshold.

Satisfy your own curiosity by plugging it back into the power strip and see if the wake-up problem recurs.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs