desktop has gone weird

[gsmithp]

hello fellow tp 'lovers'.. I bought an ebay T30 and it has actually been running pretty well until I plugged in a new usb 2.0 PCMCIA cardbus for the faster ports and also so my wireless mouse transmitter wouldn't be sticking out the back. First of all I couldn't get the driver to install or even recognize the driver on the cd. Don't know what to do about that but now when I click one of the desk top icons like 'my computer' all the icons blink off and then back off without opening the program. Does that on all the icons. If I right click one I get a windows installer window saying "the feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable." It can't find 'tmpcc.msi file. What th.....?? I am not very knowlegable when I comes to going into dos on these things so some lay info would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[joester]

1.0 Welcome aboard!
2.0 Lets cover some basics...
2.1 Remove the PCMCIA device.
2.2 Uninstall the driver(s)via control panel/system/hardware manager. Spotting the bad device should be easy, it will have what's called a "bang" next to it. (Exclamation point in a yellow field)
3.0 READ the installation instructions carefully. Some devices specifically instruct NOT to introduce (install) the new device until an installation program has been run to prepare the computer for the device. Premature installation will force the computer to choose what drivers it thinks are best, and many times the device will need specific drivers instead of the generic ones avialable in the computer.
4.0 Follow the installation instructions to the letter.

If the device still fails, the manufacturer should be able to offer detailed assistance. Others on this forum with more experience than I may be more helpful, but at least you have a starting point.

Joe

[gsmithp]

Hi Joe, I would like to go into control panel and do that but when I select control panel from the settings menu the desktop icons just blink off and then on again. Same thing when I left click 'my computer' and also windows explorer. I can't seem to access anything in the system anymore. Also when I removed the card the screen went blue and began dumping 'physical memory'. What the heck it that? I'm starting to worry about this thing. Oh..also the no-name hong-kong chinese card came without instructions. It was Cheap, tho!

[jamerslong]

did you try booting into safe mode? right after post press F8 and boot in safe mode. this will keep it from loading any uneeded drivers, also make sure the Card is removed before you boot. than do as joester suggested.

[gsmithp]

ok..I booted into safe mode and the same problem exists there. Can't open control panel. it's getting worse. When I opened Word just to see if anything worked I started getting weird error notices and at one time the keyboard stopped working..had to reboot. Virus? I run Trend PC-Cillin with regular updates and scans. I may have to bite the bullet and take it in but I hate to spend too much to fix a $300 laptop.

[Robbyrobot]

What I'm missing up to now is what OS you're using. If this is WinXP and you have an installation CD, you could boot it and repair the system, which might help.

But one thing does puzzle me... you mention trying to install a driver for a USB 2.0 card. But I have such a (noname) USB 2.0 card myself and have never needed to install any proprietary driver for it under either Win2000 or WinXP. Insert the card, the system recognizes it and that's that.

I'm wondering whether you're using Win98 or even Win95, and if so, whether those OS's even support USB 2.0.

Whatever the situation, fom your description it definitely appears that this is a software problem and has nothing to do with the hardware.

[gsmithp]

I'm using Windows 2000 Professional which is what came with the laptop. I did reinstall the os with a Win2kPro upgrade disk & coa I own and it did install ok but no change in being able to open control panel. During the reinstall I clicked the 'repair' option with no luck so I loaded 2000 one more time as a fresh install just to see what might happen and it did reinstall but now for some reason it loaded in safe mode! This thing is making me dumber and dumber. I'm thinking I should just reformat the whole hard drive completely and install Linux Kubuntu 7.4 but I really don't know if my prob is software or hardware yet. As far as that card goes I did install the card first and windows recogonised it right away as a usb hub controller. But the card didn't work with my wireless mouse or thumb drive so I installed the cd (with the card still in the slot) and that's when I started seeing all the problems like being locked out of control panel.

[Robbyrobot]

Have you tried checking your HDD for errors? And I assume you're using NTFS?

That assumes you can access "My Computer" and then highlight the boot drive, right click, click on "Properties" and then "Check Now" with both options checked (the system will tell you it can't check the running drive and ask if you want to check it at next boot, to which you answer "yes"). Then restart the system and wait until the check is over and the computer reboots.

This is about the only thing I can still think of that might be giving problems, and I'm still convinced that this is a software issue, since no hardware problem I can think of would selectively block your access to the control panel.

Unless... I don't suppose you could have picked up any malware that could be causing this?

I'm using Win2000 now and have been for the last 5-6 years, so I have a fair idea of the system... never had anything like what you mention, but some other strange stuff. In the end you'll get things worked out, but it may take some time to find the culprit.

[rkawakami]

I'd have to say that you'd probably have to start at the beginning... make sure your hardware is performing properly before tackling the software.

If you can, download a copy of PC Doctor from here: T30 diskette version of PC Doctor (DOS) or here T30 bootable CD version of PC Doctor (DOS)

Naturally this will require an operational system and diskette drive or CD writer and a program which can burn the .ISO image properly. Once you have PC Doctor in a bootable media, load it and begin running some tests. Start with CPU/Coprocessor, Systemboard, Memory and Fixed disk. There are separate diagnostics for memory and the hard drive which only require a boot floppy. memtest86+ will check your system's memory for any errors and Hitachi's Drive Fitness Test (DFT) will scan your hard drive.

[gsmithp]

I think I agree that I have to start over which leaves me with just one question. What do I have to do to access the Thinkpad preloaded restore files so I can save them to disk before formatting the hard drive? The only time I am offered the F11 option is right after running pc-doctor diagnostics but pressing F11 during boot does nothing. I've done it a number of times..pressing it steady while booting, stabbing it repeatedly while booting, doing both F11 and the 'thinkpad' button..still nothing. Computer management doesn't show an extra partition for it so maybe previous owner nuked it somehow..don't know. I will go ahead without it if I have to but it would be a comfort to have it. Thanks, every one for your tips and suggestions, I do appreciate it very much.

[rkawakami]

While it's a good idea to backup your system prior to any diagnostic sweep, as far as I know, Hitachi's DFT is not supposed to alter any data on your hard drive. Same is true for PC Doctor's Fixed Disk diag. However, read the directions/warnings when running either program and pay attention to anything which says "may or will destroy your data".

It does sound like the previous owner(s) have removed access to the restore partition or it may have been done when you reinstalled the OS. Not having ever used it before, I don't believe that you can write or store your data into the recovery partition. It's use is to read and restore your drive back to the factory pre-load condition.

If you are concerned about saving some of your own files, I would either network the laptop to another system or copy them off onto a flash drive (assuming you can get the USB working, either built-in ports or your PCMCIA card).

[gsmithp]

There's no trace of the hidden partition with the restore files so I went ahead and ran pc doctors full format and I'll install xp on it when it's done at about 1130 tonight. I have disks for all the programs I want and I use web mail so that's always safe from crashes. My main purpose for this laptop was to give to my wife who recently retired and had to turn in her work HP so nothing was loaded onto it yet. On a side note about the pcmcia card that may have caused all my woes. It came with no inst instructions so I emailed for a copy of them (better late than never) and found out they were on a separate faq page in the ebay auction site. Driver cd first, card second. I did it reversed. Doh! I filled a notebook binder with all the tips and suggestions I got here and I appreciate that very much. I should be ok now, my friends, as long as all the hardware survived my digital stumbling.

[gsmithp]

I think it's fixed..I think. wiped the harddrive clean and installed winXP. I'm on-line with it right now and it works great however I need to connect via cable to my router. Wireless won't work. I down loaded driver from lenovo for the Cisco Aironet MPI350 to cd but it won't install. I have spent most of the day looking online for a way to enable or configure it to work but it seems it might be a common problem with older thinkpads and XP. Maybe a pcmcia type can be made to work. I feel like I'm really milking the forum for what most of you probably see as minor issues but the help I have received so far has been much appreciated. If any one of you have questions about streetrod building I would be most happy to reciprocate. Thanks again!