Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Error messages galore!

Dec 29, 2012 11:16AM PST

I'm dumb, I know...I hit my PC tower and the screen froze. No sound or nothing. I turned it off and on and a screen came up asking me about installing drivers. I chose the option along the lines of "Na just go continue" since I already have everything installed. Now things have changed.

1. When loading drivers and stuff at the black screen at the start (where you'd enter BIOS) it says "loading ASUS express way" and loads fine. But it never done this before. I disabled the message in BIOS but that hasn't solved any problems.
2. When I load to desktop, nVidia pops up and says "nVidia com object has stopped working". Closing it does nothing and attemp to fix before closing does nothing.
3. When I'm on Firefox it tells me every website is unsafe and I need to do the "I understand the risks" and add an exception for every site.
4. I can't load Steam. It says something about the program being in use by something else or something like that (I've forgotten and I'm in bed now but I can clarify tomorrow).

How screwed am I? Sad

I run windows 7 ultimate 64-bit.
NVidia GTX 250
8GB DDR2 RAM
Quad core processor (I can't remember which but again, I can check tomorrow).

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
Here's what I'd do
Dec 29, 2012 11:30AM PST

Obviously some things are screwed up in your system. The safest thing to do would be to back up any data you don't want to lose and restore your computer to factory settings. Of course if you had recent full system backups, you could just restore from one of them, but I'm assuming you don't have any of those.

When you've gotten your system back like you want it, I urge you to get yourself an external hard drive and a good 3rd party backup program. You can set it up to do everything automagically at the time and frequency of your choice. 1 TB external hard drives are about $70 these days and a really good FREE backup program is the Easeus todo backup free which you can download from
http://www.todo-backup.com/products/home/free-backup-software.htm . That can save you a lot of time and frustration the next time something like this happens. Sooner or later it happens to all computers for one reason or another.

Good luck.

- Collapse -
Re: here's what I'd do
Dec 29, 2012 8:49PM PST

Okay assuming I do a full reinstall, how do I activate windows. I upgraded years ago from windows XP to windows 7 basic then onto windows 7 professional. I have the serials for basic and professional, but not XP anymore.

- Collapse -
Time messed up
Dec 29, 2012 9:11PM PST

Just realised why the security certificates are messed up. My clock is set to the year 2082 and syncing with a clock online still leaves it at 2082 lol

- Collapse -
When you burn your bridges,...
Dec 30, 2012 4:10AM PST

...you have to face the consequences. If you can find a version of XP and get it installed (doesn't have to be activated), you can reinstall Windows 7. Otherwise you'll have to buy a full Windows 7 license. Last I looked Amazon had used XP discs for $75. If this doesn't teach you the value of full system backups, I don't know what will.

Good luck.

- Collapse -
Buying a new bridge. Windows 8 OEM?
Dec 30, 2012 4:14AM PST

The new OEM license for 8 is under 99 bucks I see and MSFT changed the terms to allow us to buy it and use it on our own PCs. (gee, thanks?)

It's an OEM version so no support and maybe won't move to the next PC?

At least we can add a start button for free now. (thanks?)
Bob

- Collapse -
Bridges are being built!!
Dec 30, 2012 5:12AM PST

I have an XP CD in the cupboard somewhere, just not in it's original case. So I can install this and then upgrade without actually activating it?

And I can sell this CD for a ridiculous price you say? :-p

- Collapse -
Answer
There's a report of a hacked Ultimate 7 that does that.
Dec 30, 2012 2:16AM PST

No one really cares about those hacked versions but the hack blocks some things and date is whacked out.

We all now the fix.
Bob