Has the most recent windows update screwed with your guys' computers?

[exodusamphi]

My laptop always updates at 3 am everyday, and I get on my laptop at work to watch a movie, and Im getting the "Windows cannot access the file" error, So I try some music, and same deal. The weird thing is, I get video in WMP, but no sound, nothing in VLC, DivX shuts down, and IrfanView gives me audio but no video.

Anyone have ANY idea what could be the cause of this?

Also, got the nice BSD while updating again while at work, which led to inability to start up, but Vista has a nice diagnostic that actually works...

Whodathunkit











ps: I wonder how that new "remove malicous software" update works.

 

[Seteyu]

I can only presume your laptop uses XP (and if it does, good for you)

First off, I'd say check all your drivers, just in case. Snag the latest, uninstall the old ones, and drop the new ones in place.

Still no good? Try a system restore to a previous system checkpoint, pick one a few days ago when your system was good. (This will blam your new drivers btw)

If that doesn't work, there is a way to remove windows updates one by one without much effort. (Bare with me though, as I've never had to do this before, but know how to do it)

Go to "Add or Remove Programs" inside the control panel, check the "show windows updates" check box. Then scroll down the list till you find the (prolly) huge list of windows updates. Pick the latest, *write it down!*, and uninstall it. See if it made any difference. No? Try the next one, working your way down till the ones that are the most recent have been removed. Don't go nuking all the updates, as that's a bad thing to do. Personally, I've never done this, ever, so take that advice with a grain of salt, and don't flame me pls. Uninstalled updates will probably appear in the next automatic windows update thing, do a custom install to see if the offender appears on the list, uncheck it, install the others, and tell windows update to never notify you about the uninstalled update (automatic check box query will appear).

If none of this work, well, I've not a clue. Google it or wait for the more knowledgeable qcdners to enlighten you (and in the process, me)

Disclaimer: Use above subjections at ones own risk, I take no blame if your pc goes BLAM from it. Thanks.

Edit: Omg man, your spoilers sig thing is freaking huge.

 

[exodusamphi]

I can only presume your laptop uses XP (and if it does, good for you)

First off, I'd say check all your drivers, just in case. Snag the latest, uninstall the old ones, and drop the new ones in place.

Still no good? Try a system restore to a previous system checkpoint, pick one a few days ago when your system was good. (This will blam your new drivers btw)

If that doesn't work, there is a way to remove windows updates one by one without much effort. (Bare with me though, as I've never had to do this before, but know how to do it)

Go to "Add or Remove Programs" inside the control panel, check the "show windows updates" check box. Then scroll down the list till you find the (prolly) huge list of windows updates. Pick the latest, *write it down!*, and uninstall it. See if it made any difference. No? Try the next one, working your way down till the ones that are the most recent have been removed. Don't go nuking all the updates, as that's a bad thing to do. Personally, I've never done this, ever, so take that advice with a grain of salt, and don't flame me pls. Uninstalled updates will probably appear in the next automatic windows update thing, do a custom install to see if the offender appears on the list, uncheck it, install the others, and tell windows update to never notify you about the uninstalled update (automatic check box query will appear).

If none of this work, well, I've not a clue. Google it or wait for the more knowledgeable qcdners to enlighten you (and in the process, me)

Disclaimer: Use above subjections at ones own risk, I take no blame if your pc goes BLAM from it. Thanks.

Edit: Omg man, your spoilers sig thing is freaking huge.

Lol @ spoiler comment

I know comps quite well, but I always get plagued with video or audio related issues. Im running Vista (came with the craptop), have no restore points before this morning (trust me, ive looked), so i guess ill check the drivers and remove updates.

My girlfriend commented the other day about how cluttered my comp was, I guess its time to Darens Boot N Nuke and start fresh... Im just a sad panda about my 30+ dvdrips and 26 gb of music ; ;

 

[Xalioniaf]

Kinda a question from me, but how do you uninstall drivers after updating them?

 

[Seteyu]

My girlfriend commented the other day about how cluttered my comp was, I guess its time to Darens Boot N Nuke and start fresh... Im just a sad panda about my 30+ dvdrips and 26 gb of music ; ;

Do you at least have a portable HDD? It'll take awhile, but find some way to copy your important stuff to it before nuking the laptop with a full format.

And sorry you're stuck with vista. /comfort

Kinda a question from me, but how do you uninstall drivers after updating them?

Opps, sorry, didn't see your post.

Anyways, to uninstall a driver that's been updated, either a: find it in the "Add or Remove Programs" and uninstall it from there, or b: right click on "My Computer" (the actual my computer, not a shortcut) goto "Manage", find "Device Manager" in the list on the left, click it, locate the device in the tree list, click the device, and click the "Uninstall" Icon on the icon menu bar (or right-click it and select Uninstall)

Hope that's helpful

 

[exodusamphi]

So I figured out what it was, Disk Defrag confused my computer. Is there anyway to undue it? It happened to my friends computer too, and he had to format and redo everything. What would Defrag do to cause the computer to have problems?

 

[Seteyu]

...I have no idea. At all.

How the hell can a defragment even do that? It shouldn't unless the links between the fragmented files got lost (explaining how files get fragmented is way beyond this topic), and defragmentors are designed to not do that.

Drop Diskeeper on your box (I use it, works great imo), and run a full defragment. Cause there is no way to "undo" a partial defragment that I know of.

 

[exodusamphi]

Yeah I used the recovery console and just reformat/reinstalled everything. I realized all my music (save for a few downloads) and movies are on my old desktop (now my brothers) on my home network so I just need to LAN them back. So, next question, whats the easiest way to connect to his desktop? I want to do just ethernet to ethernet for the fastest download, rather than wireless through my gateway, so how do i do that? Should the computers recognize eachother on plug in?

 

[Seteyu]

It is possible to network 2 pc's together using a crossover Ethernet cable, and configuring sharing between the 2 pc's...but I've never done that before. But this is the age of the internet, so I bet you could find it using Google.

And wait just one sec. You say you've already a home network in place eh? Granted, you said your laptop is wireless, but all laptops come with on on-board Ethernet adapter nowadays. Plug your laptop directly into your router, and set the up your two machines to be able to share files with each other. Then copy the files over. Anything more fancy that just that basic explanation, I don't know. Networking it not my line of expertize.

It can be done, but from the sound of the shear size of it (she sells sea shells by the sea shore lol), it sound no matter what you do it will take a good chunk of time to complete the transfer.

 

[exodusamphi]

It is possible to network 2 pc's together using a crossover Ethernet cable, and configuring sharing between the 2 pc's...but I've never done that before. But this is the age of the internet, so I bet you could find it using Google.

And wait just one sec. You say you've already a home network in place eh? Granted, you said your laptop is wireless, but all laptops come with on on-board Ethernet adapter nowadays. Plug your laptop directly into your router, and set the up your two machines to be able to share files with each other. Then copy the files over. Anything more fancy that just that basic explanation, I don't know. Networking it not my line of expertize.

It can be done, but from the sound of the shear size of it (she sells sea shells by the sea shore lol), it sound no matter what you do it will take a good chunk of time to complete the transfer.

Yeah I would do it wirelessly overnight, but my network has a habit of dropping my wireless, which is actually why I quit FFXI.

I think ill just plug into router, his comp is set to share files already, and I can see it on wireless, so LAN through router should be exactly the same. Ill probably just get it running overnight. Thanks for your help.