Thinking of Doing a Repair Installation, couple Q's

[Bob34]

Major one is will I need to switch the Harddrive to Compatability (ACHI or whatever) mode before doing it.

Also, anything in particular I should backup? I'm going to be imaging my drive before I do it, so I can go back but anything besides like.. the All Users Start Menu that I should be concerned about?

Mainly, I'm hoping http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=

will be fixed if I do this.

[USSS]

Before doing a Repair Installation, have you tried uninstalling CSS and Fingerprint Software? I replied to you in a related thread on the problems you had encountered with these two applications.

I would uninstall those two programs completely, perform a registry cleanup, and then uninstall the camera drivers and disable WIA again, if it is enabled. Then see if your reboot time improves.

But somehow, I get the feeling you've probably tried all of this to no avail.

Have you gotten any feedback from the Microsoft KB when viewing the DCOM errors (and any other related ones) in the Event Viewer? Have you tried running System File Checker with another WindowsXP CD? Just throwing out some ideas as they come to mind....

If you go the Repair Installation route, I believe I have an old list of items that should be copied/backed up under WindowsXP. I have done 3 or 4 successful Repair Installations of WindowsXP on my desktop system.

[Bob34]

I've tried everything you mentioned. CSS is already uninstalled, I don't use it.

I have no hope of a repair installation fixing my Power-On Security Fingerprint issue, since I don't see how it could be related, but I'm hoping it will fix the issues I'm having with WIA. I've tried everything to try to fix the boot times, the Camera is just disabled at his point I don't use it anyways. Although it boots faster than WIA enabled, it isn't back to normal.

PS I'd love that list. IIRC I will have to reinstall all the patches and Hotfixes, but with Windows (Microsoft) Update + System Update shouldn't take too long. I'd just like to insure my settings aren't messed up if I go this route. I'm going to be using a OEM Windows XP disc (Retail Disc modified to accept OEM Keys) so none of the Thinkpad specific drivers will be on it. I just don't know if I'll need the SATA drivers when doing this. I guess switching to AHCI compatability mode wouldn't be a bad idea.