Problems running Nero

[darnott]

Any help appreciated with this one, I had some problems with my PC last week and had to reinstall Windows XP. Put Nero7 back on, which I had been using for a couple of weeks beforehand. No problems there.

Then a few days later when copying some Cds amongst other things, the PC stalled and I had to reboot. Since then Nero7 refuses to work!! StartSmart launches and then when I click on one of the options, I get the error message that "nero.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." etc. etc.

I have tried deinstalling and reinstalling, even deleting the info in the nero software registry, but nothing has worked. When I reinstall it automatically enters the serial number, so somewhere it is still caching some kind of file related to Nero. Where would that be? I wanted to delete every single file to make sure that it was not some corrupt file that got damaged when the PC stalled that is causing the problem, a file that is not removed when the programme is reinstalled.

Maybe it is related, maybe not, but for example I am also having problems installing the Logitech software for my cordless keyboard and mouse, which says that it is not compatible with my OS. Needless to say this worked perfectly before.

When I reinstalled XP the entire drive was formatted before installation, so it should have been a clean install.

:mad:

Any ideas?

Cheers

[CWR03]

It may be an extreme fix, but since you already reinstalled XP a week ago I doubt you've accumulated much to lose if you reinstalled again. If you're having such problems as not being able to install a keyboard driver, there's probably a corruption within XP. It should be repairable, but if you're not knowlegeable enough to do so a reinstall might be the easiest fix.

[charleski]

Nero has a cleaning tool on their site that will remove all references to it. Unistall, clean, then re-install.

[tareek]

while installing Nero, my installation crashed in the middle / before finishing, then, i restrted installation process, but i mistyped the product key and it keep on saying that "...wrong key..." . so i've deleted registry entries (related to serial) of nero, then restarted installation process, and then it found the correct key what was entered the first time, then installation finished without problem.

[tareek]

so most likely it keeps the first entered key somewhere in the target installation files (or in the temp installer folder)

[darnott]

If I was to reinstall XP would it be sufficient to write over the top of the one already installed, or should I format the disk and start again?

[tareek]

if you were to reinstall XP without re-formatting the drive (reformatting is bad), then first boot in safe mode (if possible), delete all folders, files inside the "c:\Program Files" folder and also delete everything inside "c:\Documents and Settings" folder, some folder/file will not be possible to delete as they are in still use by the system, that is fine . then re-install XP .

[tareek]

but if you are using the current win installation for long, and have installed many app and/or done many customization, then, google may help, and also give it little bit more time, for someone who knows exactly the correct solve of this problem, to leave answer .

[darnott]

Reinstalled Xp and everything now works fine. Obviously some corrupt file was to blame.
Cheers

[CWR03]

tareek, I'm curious, what's "bad" about reformatting a drive? I've been reformatting mine every six months or so for years.

[writersblock29]

@Tareek

That one has me scratching my head as well... I tend to do fresh re-installs after reformating maybe two or three times a year. I'll agree that backing up often-used files beforehand -- and re-installing afterwards -- can be a bit cumbersome (so if that's what you mean by "bad," you've got me in full agreement!), but are there other risks to account for?

[tareek]

sorry for delayed response, stuck in ...

what was meant by that is, full re-format again & again in a short period of time, is not good . As he has just installed XP, so the 2nd time formatting in a very short/close time period is not necessary .

and about ... formatting, twice or thrice a year ... are good .

re-formatting process rewrites many of the fat/mft structural data, thus making the polarized bit/transition cell (on magnetic media) be refreshed . the process also identifies bad sectors, if found then re-maps it .

usually i suggest to skip full re-format (if executed in a very close interval) ... (high-level) full format of (recent days newer &) big drives takes much longer time and therefore, chance of a power outage/loss from the electricity supply company (unlikely in USA & some other parts of the world), or, chance of a power loss, occured accidentally by your family member or collegue, or, power surge, or, an unintentional forceful shut down of system by APM/ACPI, will (most likely) create bad sector(s) in the drive .

[writersblock29]

@tareek

I see... thanks for the clarification!