Computer Problems - Advice Needed

[Jules]

I don't know how many of you will have the energy to go through all this, understand it and reply. Howeverm, if you do wish to help, please read everything carefully and patiently. Thanks!

I have a Dell Dimension E520 computer. It was purchased in August 2007. It was giving me inexplicible, unsolvable problems and had become slow and sluggish despite regular maintenance like disk defragmentation.

1) My first problem concerned my CD/DVD burning software (Roxio Creator 9.0). It came bundled with the PC and always worked well. However, it seems that ever since Windows Update downloaded Service Pack 1 for Vista for me, Roxio stopped functioning. Whenever I try starting it up, I get a small window telling me "Application failed to start because of: unknown error." I uninstalled the program and reinstalled it, only to make matters worse. Not only did the problem prevail, but now on startup Windows told me that Roxio had drivers that are incompatible with Vista and that were hence being blocked to safeguard the stability of the system. Wtf? Because of this and a variety of other reasons, I formatted my PC, to no avail. I still have the same problem.

2) Before formatting, PowerDVD DX was also giving me problems, in that it wouldn't start at all! I just click the icon, get the hourglass for a couple of seconds, and then nothing. After formatting, it still does the same thing.

3) Now, I'm also concerned with the format itself. My Dell PC initially had the harddrive partitioned in two. One of those two partitions was called "RECOVERY" and I never had any idea what it was for. When formatting my PC (in a real stroke of idiocy) I deleted both my partitions (including RECOVERY), created a new one, formatted and reinstalled Windows on that. Hence, I permanently deleted whatever was on that RECOVERY partition and I have no idea whether it was important or not. Have I screwed up my PC? (My hdd is now in one parition).

4) On a related note - this was my first time formatting a Vista system. When formatting with XP (on my old computer) I used to boot from CD and format, and the formatting process itself used to take well over an hour on a 40Gb hdd. When completed, then I would install XP. On my DELL PC, formatting a 320Gb hdd took me 5 seconds!!! There was a button called "format". I clicked it. The computer processed for about 5 seconds and returned to normal and I could proceed with the Windows installation. I find it very hard to believe that my hdd was really formatted in 5 seconds. I mean ... come on! it's impossible! Did I really format my PC?

5) I have all the required CDs to reinstall drivers blah blah blah, but I can't seem to find the software for the "Dell Support Center" and other related programs, among others. It's weird and worries me. Also, I've got a Dell CD that came bundled with the PC which is full of applications and drivers and God knows what, but it offers no description on what the programmes are (neither does it specify for which Dell PC model they are for ... Actually it does, but my DELL Dimension E520 isn't included ... can you believe it!?) so I can't install them! It's really frustrating. There may be programmes on that CD that were installed on my PC when it was brand new, and now I don't know what they were (and hence can't install them)!

Phew! Thanks for any help or consolation that my PC isn't fried.

[drfsupercenter]

Well, I dunno much about Vista since I personally can't stand it, but I'll say this: It is possible to format a hard drive in 5 seconds.

If you use "quick format", which may be the default in whatever program you were using, it only takes a few seconds. All that does is creates a start and end point for the computer. I would not suggest doing a quick format if you're trying to start over, rather use the normal slow way (Windows CDs usually have a formatting utensil in them)

[DarthPrime]

I don't know how many of you will have the energy to go through all this, understand it and reply. Howeverm, if you do wish to help, please read everything carefully and patiently. Thanks!

I have a Dell Dimension E520 computer. It was purchased in August 2007. It was giving me inexplicible, unsolvable problems and had become slow and sluggish despite regular maintenance like disk defragmentation.

1) My first problem concerned my CD/DVD burning software (Roxio Creator 9.0). It came bundled with the PC and always worked well. However, it seems that ever since Windows Update downloaded Service Pack 1 for Vista for me, Roxio stopped functioning. Whenever I try starting it up, I get a small window telling me "Application failed to start because of: unknown error." I uninstalled the program and reinstalled it, only to make matters worse. Not only did the problem prevail, but now on startup Windows told me that Roxio had drivers that are incompatible with Vista and that were hence being blocked to safeguard the stability of the system. Wtf? Because of this and a variety of other reasons, I formatted my PC, to no avail. I still have the same problem.

2) Before formatting, PowerDVD DX was also giving me problems, in that it wouldn't start at all! I just click the icon, get the hourglass for a couple of seconds, and then nothing. After formatting, it still does the same thing.

3) Now, I'm also concerned with the format itself. My Dell PC initially had the harddrive partitioned in two. One of those two partitions was called "RECOVERY" and I never had any idea what it was for. When formatting my PC (in a real stroke of idiocy) I deleted both my partitions (including RECOVERY), created a new one, formatted and reinstalled Windows on that. Hence, I permanently deleted whatever was on that RECOVERY partition and I have no idea whether it was important or not. Have I screwed up my PC? (My hdd is now in one parition).

4) On a related note - this was my first time formatting a Vista system. When formatting with XP (on my old computer) I used to boot from CD and format, and the formatting process itself used to take well over an hour on a 40Gb hdd. When completed, then I would install XP. On my DELL PC, formatting a 320Gb hdd took me 5 seconds!!! There was a button called "format". I clicked it. The computer processed for about 5 seconds and returned to normal and I could proceed with the Windows installation. I find it very hard to believe that my hdd was really formatted in 5 seconds. I mean ... come on! it's impossible! Did I really format my PC?

5) I have all the required CDs to reinstall drivers blah blah blah, but I can't seem to find the software for the "Dell Support Center" and other related programs, among others. It's weird and worries me. Also, I've got a Dell CD that came bundled with the PC which is full of applications and drivers and God knows what, but it offers no description on what the programmes are (neither does it specify for which Dell PC model they are for ... Actually it does, but my DELL Dimension E520 isn't included ... can you believe it!?) so I can't install them! It's really frustrating. There may be programmes on that CD that were installed on my PC when it was brand new, and now I don't know what they were (and hence can't install them)!

Phew! Thanks for any help or consolation that my PC isn't fried.

1.) I'm not sure on this one. SP1 should not have messed up your programs. I don't use Roxio, but have you checked to see if there is a update to Creator 9.0? It would be on the Roxio site if there is one. SP2 is coming out soon for Vista as well, but that shouldn't cause any problems. Another alternative is to try a different software. I'm currently using a combination of CDBurnerXP and ImgBurn on my Vista 64 bit machine. Both are free and I highly recommend them. The last time I used Roxio was on a Windows 2000 machine and I did have some issues with the program. I know they later released a patch to fix the problems.

2.) I don't use PowerDVD, but have you tryed playing your DVDs in Media Player, or Windows Media Center (if its included with your version of Vista). Check to see if there is a update for PowerDVD. If your DVDs play fine in another program its PowerDVD, if they don't it could be something else.

3.) You want get the Recovery partition back. What this partition contains is back up files that let you restore the computer back to the same condition you had when you booted it up for the first time. Depending on the manufacturer it can also reinstall a lot of unnecessary programs that you have uninstalled, but came with the PC. Its best to do a clean install with the discs if you have them. Some PCs do not ship with recovery discs and you have to create them from the Recovery partition. You haven't hurt your computer, and in my opinion did the best thing by using the discs and not the partition.

4.) What you did was a Quick Format. It should be fine. A Full Format will take longer. Depending on the speed of the computer and hard drives time varies.

5.) Hmm... The application disc should have all the applications and drivers that were preinstalled on your system by Dell. They should work, but if they don't I would call up Dell. They can sell you a set of discs that will return your computer to its preinstalled condition. I think they used to charge $10 for these, but that was a few years ago. The Dell Support Center was probably part of the software on the Recovery partition. You might not be able to get this back.

I'm not sure if you have tried, but here is the support page for the Dimension E520. You can download drivers, etc... there if you need them. I'm not sure what version of Vista you have (32-bit or 64-bit), but there are some updates for applications also listed on this site. Roxio is one of them.

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/ ... NT_P4_E520

[Jules]

1.) I'm not sure on this one. SP1 should not have messed up your programs. I don't use Roxio, but have you checked to see if there is a update to Creator 9.0? It would be on the Roxio site if there is one. SP2 is coming out soon for Vista as well, but that shouldn't cause any problems. Another alternative is to try a different software. I'm currently using a combination of CDBurnerXP and ImgBurn on my Vista 64 bit machine. Both are free and I highly recommend them. The last time I used Roxio was on a Windows 2000 machine and I did have some issues with the program. I know they later released a patch to fix the problems.

I am aware of two patches intended for Roxio which I downloaded from the Dell website and installed successfully. They had no effect, unfortunately. Thanks for the names of those software titles! If I never get Roxio to work, then I'll try those as an alternative!

2.) I don't use PowerDVD, but have you tryed playing your DVDs in Media Player, or Windows Media Center (if its included with your version of Vista). Check to see if there is a update for PowerDVD. If your DVDs play fine in another program its PowerDVD, if they don't it could be something else.

Unfortunately, on my Dell PC, DVDs can only be played on PowerDVD. The reason is, that once you have Cyberlink's software installed ... even if you specifically tell Windows to play a DVD using Windows Media Player, Windows will open the Media Player, then realise you've got PowerDVD installed on your system, close Media Player and open PowerDVD.

If I uninstall PowerDVD and try to get DVDs to run on Media Player they will then be able to do so freely without interference ... but, of course whilst uninstalling PowerDVD I've uninstalled the MPEG-2 codecs aswell. Grrr!

3.) You want get the Recovery partition back. What this partition contains is back up files that let you restore the computer back to the same condition you had when you booted it up for the first time. Depending on the manufacturer it can also reinstall a lot of unnecessary programs that you have uninstalled, but came with the PC. Its best to do a clean install with the discs if you have them. Some PCs do not ship with recovery discs and you have to create them from the Recovery partition. You haven't hurt your computer, and in my opinion did the best thing by using the discs and not the partition.

I don't understand. You said that "I want get the Recovery partition back", so I'm assuming it's useful. Then you said "Its best to do a clean install with the discs if you have them.", by which I think you meant that it's best to reinstall Windows and all the necessary software from their original CDs/DVDs (which is what I did since they (the discs) came packaged with my PC when it was new).

Then you said "Some PCs do not ship with recovery discs and you have to create them from the Recovery partition." What do you mean by recovery discs? Are these the DVDs containing Windows and all rather relevant software? And if your PC doesn't come with these discs then you have to create them yourself from your recovery partition?

If so, then since my PC came with both recovery partition and discs, then doesn't that make its recovery partition redundant?

5.) Hmm... The application disc should have all the applications and drivers that were preinstalled on your system by Dell. They should work, but if they don't I would call up Dell. They can sell you a set of discs that will return your computer to its preinstalled condition. I think they used to charge $10 for these, but that was a few years ago. The Dell Support Center was probably part of the software on the Recovery partition. You might not be able to get this back.

The disc I speak of contains a software program which lists all the applications, drivers, whatever ... your computer needs (and provides them), but first you must choose your specific model. Though the CD came bundled with my E520, the software on the CD doesn't contain the E520 in the dropdown list which lets you choose your PC model (which then prompts the program to display the relevant list of software). That's my difficulty.

Thanks to both of you drf and darty! Your help is greatly appreciated!