alt.certification.a-plus - Help - need to fix moron's screw-ups

Author

Help - need to fix moron's screw-ups

dstvns

2004-02-11, 2:24 am

Hi, I do volunteer computer assistance for a local non-profit poor
and low-income housing organization. Last Friday they brought someone
else in who would "fix" their computers. Instead he removed non-OEM
XP from all the machines and somehow installed ME onto the systems.
In the process he screwed up all the Office 2003 applications, since
now they must run on ME. He even removed some printer drivers in the
process. This completely screwed them over, since this is a busy time
for them print-wise (printing fliers, letters to contributors, etc.).

I was able to fix the printer troubles this moron caused, and even
installed a quick & dirty microsoft printer redundancy network (simple
sharing between printers). They were ecstatic, but the Office 2003
problems persist.

I tried using microsoft update to update ME. Big mistake. Instead of
plugging holes, it completely froze dial-up networking, forcing me to
completely tear apart the protocols and services in ME. I then had to
un-install the updates, and re-build the dial-up networking and
network structure from scratch.

I don't know XP very well, and I was hoping someone could answer a
question - could this guy have stolen the XP code somehow? It was not
an OEM version of XP, so I was curious if he possibly stole XP for
himself and licensed it on his own computers. Thanks,

Dan

Barry Watzman

2004-02-11, 1:24 pm

He could have gotten the product keys, yes, but he would not have needed
to have removed XP in order to have done that. Product activation MIGHT
prevent him from using those keys for 4 months.

It sounds like he did a real number on your client.

If you have a complete backup of any of the systems, I'd install it.
Otherwise, I'd reinstall XP, but it's terribly time-consuming to do that.

dstvns wrote:

> Hi, I do volunteer computer assistance for a local non-profit poor
> and low-income housing organization. Last Friday they brought someone
> else in who would "fix" their computers. Instead he removed non-OEM
> XP from all the machines and somehow installed ME onto the systems.
> In the process he screwed up all the Office 2003 applications, since
> now they must run on ME. He even removed some printer drivers in the
> process. This completely screwed them over, since this is a busy time
> for them print-wise (printing fliers, letters to contributors, etc.).
>
> I was able to fix the printer troubles this moron caused, and even
> installed a quick & dirty microsoft printer redundancy network (simple
> sharing between printers). They were ecstatic, but the Office 2003
> problems persist.
>
> I tried using microsoft update to update ME. Big mistake. Instead of
> plugging holes, it completely froze dial-up networking, forcing me to
> completely tear apart the protocols and services in ME. I then had to
> un-install the updates, and re-build the dial-up networking and
> network structure from scratch.
>
> I don't know XP very well, and I was hoping someone could answer a
> question - could this guy have stolen the XP code somehow? It was not
> an OEM version of XP, so I was curious if he possibly stole XP for
> himself and licensed it on his own computers. Thanks,
>
> Dan
>

Rick Rottman

2004-02-11, 1:24 pm

dstvns <weoruu@ptd.net> wrote:

>I don't know XP very well, and I was hoping someone could answer a
>question - could this guy have stolen the XP code somehow? It was not
>an OEM version of XP, so I was curious if he possibly stole XP for
>himself and licensed it on his own computers. Thanks,

He very well might be a moron, but it seems to me what he did was
simple thievery. There is not reason to whatsoever to remove Windows
XP from multiple machines and then replace it with ME. Retrieving the
Windows XP serial number would have been as easy as selecting
Start>Settings>Control Panel>System and then writing down the number.
No hacking required. If XP had been OEM, simply copying it off the
back of the case could have been done as well.

The guy definitely has some 'splaining to do. It just doesn't make
sense. ME is arguably the most buggy microsoft OS. It uses FAT and
XP uses NTFS. You cannot simply install ME over XP. Not that people
ever even try.

- Rick

Needs More Cow Bell

dstvns

2004-02-12, 2:25 pm

On Wed, 11 Feb 2004 12:28:08 -0500, Rick Rottman
<r.rottman@myactv.net> wrote:

>The guy definitely has some 'splaining to do. It just doesn't make
>sense. ME is arguably the most buggy microsoft OS. It uses FAT and
>XP uses NTFS. You cannot simply install ME over XP. Not that people
>ever even try.

I only have the word of the secretary that XP was previously installed
on the machine. The last time I had inspected the machines (about 6
weeks ago) they were all 98se's...no trouble at all. Then they brought
someone in from a local school who said they had one "extra copy" of
XP available. THEN they brought THIS guy in who "upgraded" to ME.

Now every time the computers are restarted I either have a failed DLL
file or something else crashing like rundll32. I don't even DARE
touch the keyboard or mouse while it's booting up, or else the entire
system will freeze (not even the task manager at CTL-ALT-DEL works).
ME is a piece of s---.

Dan

privato

2004-02-13, 9:24 pm

The sad part is he probably thought he was doing something good
there are too many so called A+ techs that do not know nothing about
pc's except how to install a simple program, and they make theirselves
believe they are some kind of pc guru. A company where I live went to
a business that just bought an xp machine, it was an hp. The tech took
it out of the box, formated the partitions, and put ez-bios on the
system and installed windows 98, all of this without making the cd's
that were on a separate partition on the drive. What a genius!!
You will have to reinstall xp, reinstall office and set up the
printers the way you want to configure them. as far as not knowing
much abut xp, is it the home version or the pro version? If it is the
pro wich it should be for any business, the os may have to be
purchased again. If you know this person who did this please tell him
for me he is a complete idiot. Sorry that happened

On Wed, 11 Feb 2004 02:03:11 -0500, dstvns <weoruu@ptd.net> wrote:

>Hi, I do volunteer computer assistance for a local non-profit poor
>and low-income housing organization. Last Friday they brought someone
>else in who would "fix" their computers. Instead he removed non-OEM
>XP from all the machines and somehow installed ME onto the systems.
>In the process he screwed up all the Office 2003 applications, since
>now they must run on ME. He even removed some printer drivers in the
>process. This completely screwed them over, since this is a busy time
>for them print-wise (printing fliers, letters to contributors, etc.).
>
>I was able to fix the printer troubles this moron caused, and even
>installed a quick & dirty microsoft printer redundancy network (simple
>sharing between printers). They were ecstatic, but the Office 2003
>problems persist.
>
>I tried using microsoft update to update ME. Big mistake. Instead of
>plugging holes, it completely froze dial-up networking, forcing me to
>completely tear apart the protocols and services in ME. I then had to
>un-install the updates, and re-build the dial-up networking and
>network structure from scratch.
>
>I don't know XP very well, and I was hoping someone could answer a
>question - could this guy have stolen the XP code somehow? It was not
>an OEM version of XP, so I was curious if he possibly stole XP for
>himself and licensed it on his own computers. Thanks,
>
>Dan

KDHAKL

2004-02-21, 2:24 pm

The only good thing that can be said for XP is that it makes a great coffee
coaster.

I have found that the machines that have ME on them are usually the ones
that give me the most problems.

I have adopted the practice of recommending that they upgrade (better still
clean install) to XP Pro. I even offer to do this at a discounted rate as
it will safe the customer monet in the long run

stratamite

2004-02-21, 7:24 pm

I agree with your methods. I've had nothing but trouble with ME and I
advise as well for my clients to upgrade when I come across an ME OS. ME's
instability and lack of security are bothersome. A positive note for ME, it
does have a good driver base.
Stratamite
"KDHAKL" <kdhakl@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:c1897s$or$1@lust.ihug.co.nz...
> The only good thing that can be said for XP is that it makes a great
coffee
> coaster.
>
> I have found that the machines that have ME on them are usually the ones
> that give me the most problems.
>
> I have adopted the practice of recommending that they upgrade (better
still
> clean install) to XP Pro. I even offer to do this at a discounted rate as
> it will safe the customer monet in the long run
>
>

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