The mysterious error

[broknwindupdoll]

OK, I’ve had my fill of weird things happen to Pai before. Many can be tracked down and fixed without too much issue. Some are just hose the whole system to the point that even a repair install doesn’t fix it. But few are the errors that make no sense. Errors with no apparent cause. Errors that seem to follow certain actions that can’t cause

Comments

[eltegantis]

Weird problems no one else has ever heard of are just so much fun, aren't they? About half a year ago some Japanese installation programs (all Windows Installer, that I've noticed) started displaying gibberish (and sometimes Korean?) and closing with an error for me. Japanese regional setting don't help (they're always on to begin with), Applocale doesn't help, System Restore couldn't help as by the time I realized it was that sort of problem I had no idea where to restore from, reinstalling Windows Installer didn't help. About the only thing I haven't tried is reinstalling Windows itself, and because all I have is a restore partition and DVD-R to go off of and fear that I'll lose stuff that would be hard to recover in the process, I've been hesitant to do that. I suppose I'll have to eventually, though, when something I really want to play (and/or have actually paid money to get) refuses to install and offers no easy workaround...

[broknwindupdoll]

Ah, I’ve had errors like that with Windows Installer. Well, not that severe, but I’ve had random errors that made little to no sense from it. And, like most of Microsoft’s installers, if it detects that it’s already installed (or should be installed based on your OS version), the it just doesn’t do anything at all, despite how severely b0rked that part might be. At that point, the only recourse you have is a repair install. But, in your case, you don’t actually have a Windows CD, so you can’t do that (I don’t know of a single OEM computer that comes with the damn thing, although some will give you one if you call them up and whine enough). So, therefore, I can say that I can make one available to you so that you can go about fixing this problem. That is, if you want to. And, just so you know, a repair install doesn’t overwrite any of your stuff; all your programs, settings, data, and whatnot will still be there. Hopefully what won’t be there is the problem itself. ^_^

(And w00t for tha PaniPoni Dash icon. ^___^)

[galaxar]

My parents comp (Dell Dimension 2100) came with a Windows XP CD. Hopefully, I'll be able to use that in their new compy that I'll be building for them.

[broknwindupdoll]

Well, if it's a real OEM CD, then you can install it. Have fun activating it, though. You'll need to call up Microsoft and talk to someone about it (it's a blanket OEM reactivation policy). Or you could go all haxory and use something like AntiWPA (I use it on my 2k3 box, Benares). But that isn't a good idea for a system that you plan to give to family.