I was working on a Gateway MX6440 series laptop and I had to do a clean install. After installing Windows I did the normal routine, try to install the drivers. I normally hit the homepage of the laptop manufacturer to get the most current and legit drivers. I found all but two drivers. The audio and the modem driver did not work.
The audio driver, come to find out, is a two step process. First you have to download the Realtek driver and then once you do that you have to download the ATI sound bridge driver. Next, the dial-up modem driver. No matter what I did I could not get the driver to load. I finally gave up and contacted Gateway’s chat tech support. The tech support agent took control of the unit and eventually went to an unofficial EMachine/Gateway website which listed all the drivers. I was then able to download a driver pack that included the modem driver. Once I did that, ran the executable, the driver installed fine. Here is the driver pack in case you need it.
If you attempt to view events within the Event Viewer and you double click on them and nothing happens, perform this:
Go to Start, Run, type in, “Regsvr32 els.dll” without the quotes. Now try to see if you can view the events. You should be able to. Thanks to an MVP over at the XP newsgroup.
I’m working on this Toshiba laptop, Windows XP Home with SP2. Basically what happens is that IE7 when opened, immediately closes. Also when I attempt to view events in the Event Viewer, when I double click on any event be it in the System or Application directory, I cannot view the item. Nothing happens when I double click. I searched high and low yesterday, all day, via Google and could not come up with a simple fix. I was able to save the Event Viewer files to a network drive and view it on my bench computer and found that all the errors had to do with COM+ and Volume Shadow. Even after researching the error message/code, I was unable to come up with a working solution.
This stumped me and is giving me fits. I would like to know how to fix this rather than just wiping the system out and then reinstalling Windows. I haven’t had a tough problem like this for quite some time. My other conscience tells me to just wipe it as it is probably going to take way too much time to figure out a fix and even if I can, it believes Windows is heavily corrupted.
I scanned for spyware and viruses, none were found. Another thing that I am having issues with it uninstalling programs. Whenever I try to uninstall programs from the Add/Remove within Control Panel, I receive error messages saying that 1. It cannot find the install.log and then 2. Random .DLL errors.
The above mentioned symptoms are the main issues that I am having. Hopefully I can figure out something today otherwise I will just go ahead with the wipe/reinstall.
Update:
I ended up having to perform a clean install. It was going to take way too much time to try and figure it out. The last details and fix that I was able to do had to do with WMI. I had to fix the Windows Firewall as it has been corrupted. In the third tab within the Windows Firewall settings, it had a note saying that the firewall had become corrupted. I ended up having to re-register several .dll files and that worked. That still left me with a messed up Internet Explorer along with Windows Update. Hope this helps some what, if you figure it out, be sure to let me know.