Problems upgrading IE5.5 to IE6, Me to XP, and a host of ailments.

Running WinMe on HP Pavillion with Intel P4, original OEM install since
purchase in early 2001. I am a lazy user of my "computer tool" and generally
if it ain't broke, don't fix it, and only upgrade/update when forced to. I
apologize in advance for the long posting...the actual question is near the
end, this is a long story from someone with enough knowledge to be
dangerously stupid regarding computers.

Recent troubles started when my ISP forced me to upgrade to IE6, which
bombed, but thanks to alot of previous postings, and a little help from HP
support, I recovered (uninstalled to IE5.50.4807.2300IC, SP2, Q823353) except
I haven't gotten my OE to work since. (There was a whole series of brokes
that I have fixed,...things like my System Restore wouldn't work, etc., some
I didn't fix like Windows Update wouldn't work, and now more brokes).

I decided to continue with the upgrade from advice of several postings here
as well as the fact that in the past year I got a linksys router/wireless
modem and another home system that I would like to network and it seems
better to network in XP than a "mixed network". Got the Upgrade Advisor and
ran that and was generally following the accepted advice to clean up before
upgrading. Ran AVs, AdAware, CWShredder, etc. No bugs, viruses or other
problems left. My sytem kept crashing (blue screen error) when my old AV
(McAfee) would run in the boot-up process. Fixed that by renaming the
directories in DOS. I have had several versions of McAfee in the past,
including Internet Guard Dog..was effective at keeping my preteen son from
"internet evil", but was also a major hassle to administer for my family of
5. Got in trouble with McAfee about a year ago when they stopped supporting
my original AV version with their virus definition files....locked my system
so tight, I couldn't move my mouse or boot into safe mode, or anything.
Fixed that one in DOS too...deleted everything that smelled like
Mcafee....probably the root cause of all my woes, but was functional for
another year or maybe it has been two.

I was in the home stretch until yesterday, when I was merrily "uninstalling"
5 years worth of children's games and remnants of programs gone by. I
decided to legitimize the removal of the mcafee by renaming to their original
folders, and doing an "uninstall" on them. Of course, instead of doing one
uninstall at a time, followed by a reboot, I did a bunch of uninstalls, and
then rebooted. Got blue screens again, (stupidly decided to reinstall from
disc..thinking when I do a clean "uninstall" it would fix everything)... so I
went back to renaming the directories in DOS. I can work in general, but
now, that computer can no longer get my Explorer to connect to ISP (DNS
error) yesterday and today. I get IPconfig data, but "unknown host"
responses to pings. My other two computers connect fine.

I've done the fix winsocks thing. It saved me once before, but it isn't
working for this problem. Uninstalled/reinstalled NIC and updated drivers.
Ran Connection Wizard, but no connection. I haven't resorted to calling ISP
(since other two computers connect fine), but searched around their
newsgroups and didn't see anything helpful. I'll start tomorrow by calling
my ISP. I am sure that I have some registry problems, but I'm wearing down
and am chicken to touch them.

My main question to the wise sage(s) is...would you advise me to ditch
WinMe, and do a "cleanXP" install, or clean my WinMe problems and then do my
XP upgrade? Of course, neither is likely to fix my Internet connection
problem (or is it?) I seem to have a host of ailments from my lack of
maintenance and stupidity. Any offer of help to my connectivity problem
would be received gratefully. Be happy to post details of any scans, etc.
just tell me what you need to see....

Run the XP Upgrade Advisor, and repost with its results. If there are no
major problems (and possibly if there are ...), by all means migrate to XP,
for many excellent reasons.
I recommend the "clean install" :

Upgrading to WINDOWS XP
HOME EDITION or PROFESSIONAL
Version 4.9 — Last Updated January 3, 2004
by Gary Woodruff
© 2001-2004 by Author, All Rights Reserved
http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpupgrad.htm

Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

--
Jack E. Martinelli 2002-05 MS MVP for Shell/User / DTS
Help us help you: http://www.dts-L.org/goodpost.htm

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/secu...t/default.aspx
In Memorium: Alex Nichol
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/e...ts/nichol.mspx
Your cooperation is very appreciated.
------
"Hopeful" wrote in message
...
Running WinMe on HP Pavillion with Intel P4, original OEM install since
purchase in early 2001. I am a lazy user of my "computer tool" and
generally
if it ain't broke, don't fix it, and only upgrade/update when forced to.
I
apologize in advance for the long posting...the actual question is near
the
end, this is a long story from someone with enough knowledge to be
dangerously stupid regarding computers.

Recent troubles started when my ISP forced me to upgrade to IE6, which
bombed, but thanks to alot of previous postings, and a little help from HP
support, I recovered (uninstalled to IE5.50.4807.2300IC, SP2, Q823353)
except
I haven't gotten my OE to work since. (There was a whole series of brokes
that I have fixed,...things like my System Restore wouldn't work, etc.,
some
I didn't fix like Windows Update wouldn't work, and now more brokes).

I decided to continue with the upgrade from advice of several postings
here
as well as the fact that in the past year I got a linksys router/wireless
modem and another home system that I would like to network and it seems
better to network in XP than a "mixed network". Got the Upgrade Advisor
and
ran that and was generally following the accepted advice to clean up
before
upgrading. Ran AVs, AdAware, CWShredder, etc. No bugs, viruses or other
problems left. My sytem kept crashing (blue screen error) when my old AV
(McAfee) would run in the boot-up process. Fixed that by renaming the
directories in DOS. I have had several versions of McAfee in the past,
including Internet Guard Dog..was effective at keeping my preteen son from
"internet evil", but was also a major hassle to administer for my family
of
5. Got in trouble with McAfee about a year ago when they stopped
supporting
my original AV version with their virus definition files....locked my
system
so tight, I couldn't move my mouse or boot into safe mode, or anything.
Fixed that one in DOS too...deleted everything that smelled like
Mcafee....probably the root cause of all my woes, but was functional for
another year or maybe it has been two.

I was in the home stretch until yesterday, when I was merrily
"uninstalling"
5 years worth of children's games and remnants of programs gone by. I
decided to legitimize the removal of the mcafee by renaming to their
original
folders, and doing an "uninstall" on them. Of course, instead of doing
one
uninstall at a time, followed by a reboot, I did a bunch of uninstalls,
and
then rebooted. Got blue screens again, (stupidly decided to reinstall
from
disc..thinking when I do a clean "uninstall" it would fix everything)...
so I
went back to renaming the directories in DOS. I can work in general, but
now, that computer can no longer get my Explorer to connect to ISP (DNS
error) yesterday and today. I get IPconfig data, but "unknown host"
responses to pings. My other two computers connect fine.

I've done the fix winsocks thing. It saved me once before, but it isn't
working for this problem. Uninstalled/reinstalled NIC and updated drivers.
Ran Connection Wizard, but no connection. I haven't resorted to calling
ISP
(since other two computers connect fine), but searched around their
newsgroups and didn't see anything helpful. I'll start tomorrow by
calling
my ISP. I am sure that I have some registry problems, but I'm wearing
down
and am chicken to touch them.

My main question to the wise sage(s) is...would you advise me to ditch
WinMe, and do a "cleanXP" install, or clean my WinMe problems and then do
my
XP upgrade? Of course, neither is likely to fix my Internet connection
problem (or is it?) I seem to have a host of ailments from my lack of
maintenance and stupidity. Any offer of help to my connectivity problem
would be received gratefully. Be happy to post details of any scans, etc.
just tell me what you need to see....