Windows XP a bunch of stuff doesn't work

[Guest]

Alright, my in laws are having a problem with their computer and they said that last weekend Windows XP (SP3) asked to reactivate so they did without a hitch. I've never had a computer ask to do that unless I changed some hardware (which they did not) but maybe it's just never happened to me! So last week (a couple of days after the reactivation) they said weird things started happening. For instance if you go to the start menu to active windows, it comes up with a blank screen, the Windows search function comes up with a green screen and the little dog but that's it, IE doesn't load unless you type in an address and I couldn't get any web page to load that uses Active X. I ran the Kaspersky online test with no problems found and I couldn't run the antivirus from Eset because it requires Active X. Windows media player also doesn't load, it just brings up a blank screen. My father in law was able to defrag the computer though. I didn't have much time to really play with it so I'm not 100% sure what else isn't working but I know Firefox, Utorrent and VLC work fine. Has anyone had a similar problem or know where I should start to fix this? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[number13]

I think the SP3 upgrade didn't go so good, worse yet, I'm not sure that you can roll it back, most of use have learned that installing SP3 is the kiss of death to a system that hasn't had any problem, or you could call it a servie pack designed to get people to try the new OS

 

[Guest]

I think the SP3 upgrade didn't go so good, worse yet, I'm not sure that you can roll it back, most of use have learned that installing SP3 is the kiss of death to a system that hasn't had any problem, or you could call it a servie pack designed to get people to try the new OS

haha, that's messed up but believable. and you are right, that was another feature that didn't work. no rolling back!

 

[MrLinux]

Try this:

http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/genuinewindowsxp/thread/618a52cb-65e5-408b-8bbc-53a80779a786

Genuine MS activation will not ask for any personal (or payment) details, a fake one will.