need help desperately, please...getting wininet.dll error msg

[Murray S.]

Do you know anyone with a retail Microsoft XP cd? Or a non-branded one (not HP, Dell, etc)?

Murray

[Appzalien]

I wouldn't go out and buy an XP home since MS is about to stop supporting XP anyway and It would probably open a can of worms for you anyway since your machine is OEM you will need gateway drivers to reinstall with a retail disk.

You will lose all your data but your machine may have a factory restore (usually F11 or 12 during boot up) where it will take the machine back to the day it was bought, crapware all over the screen and all. Its usually on a hidden partition of the C drive but it should get you all your drivers, I would do it as a last resort.

How did you update your PC to sp2 or sp3? if you downloaded it in full there will be an i386 folder in the compressed exe file you can extract using 7Zip and then use the above method to cd its location if the file is even in there. Not all files are updated with a SP.

If your going to spend money and you want to save the data you have on that drive, you could get a new hard drive to install xp home on after collecting drivers for your model on the Gateway site (especially lan or networking so you can connect to the net when installation is done). Then with the old drive removed and swapped with the new you could install you newly purchased OS (whatever you decide) and then add the old drive back as a secondary or slave depending on if they are sata or ide (ide uses the wide ribbon connector and has jumpers). It will require a little technical ability on your part, are you comfortable inside your PC? kinda cramped in there is it?

The non-destructive reinstall will probably not work because your OS is OEM and would not have everything Gateway requires on a retail store bought disk. I don't know if a gateway purchased disk would work that way. Personally I have never owned an OEM and boy am I glad I can build my own and use retail disks. My brothers both have OEM and I have fought with those monsters when they have issues and I do not envy them or you for that matter. I offered to build for them but they would rather spend $300-400 dollars on junk than to spend the extra $200-300 for a home built iron clad PC. Its too bad you not a Dell, I know of a recovery disk that you can aquire but not for Gateway.

[saskygirl]

murray...no i dont know anyone retail with windows xp or a non branded one...so basically what im thinking is either get someone to fix it for me at a store or all in all just buy a new processor...im thinking im hooped on trying to fix it myself haha!

[saskygirl]

appzalien....ya i called around to a few places and no one carries windows xp anymore...so im thinking either get someone to fix it for me at a store or all in all just buy a new processor as i said to murray in post above...just having no luck with this situation at all. i mean i have no worries, i have a new desktop myself but just would like the buggered up one working. mine as well just go buy a new processor for 400 and be done with it all haha!

[Murray S.]

Okay.. now, here comes the fun part. Boot the system and go to Task manager. Now plug the flash drive in.

Now, you have to find out what drive was assigned to the flash drive.

Using the directions I gave you earlier, start changing directories until you find the flash drive directory. Just keep going up the alphabet starting at d: drive until you find it.

Murray

[saskygirl]

whoop whoop....i got it fixed. dont know what i did, but it allowed me to do a system recovery and thats what i did. went back to the first day i bought it, which was fine, i didnt have anything important on there anyways. everything is working just fine now! thanks to both of yous', appzalien and murray for all your help and patience, muchly appreciated take care!

[Murray S.]

Great and thanks for the update.

Murray

[Appzalien]

A typical complaint about factory defaults is all the excess icons on the desktop and all the adware. There is an application (free) called PC Decrapifier that will allow you to easily remove the things you do not want.
http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/