Ugh... So I finally convince the wife to upgrade the old 486. A quick visit to BestBuy..a couple a bucks for Mr. Gates....and we're home with a brand new 'puter. Fancy. Shiny. Looks real good. Windows Multi Media Edition. We have not loaded any programs on the machine, except for the Earthlink dail up thing. (soon to be high-speed -- but lets sort out this problem first) We transfer pictures from the camera card to the "my pictures" folder. Double click on a pic...Windows Picture and Fax viewer opens...and CRASH. Every Time! "Explorer has performed an illegal operation" If I open the picture using the right-click and selecting the viewer -- it's OK. BUt a double click and....KABOOM. Not sometimes. Always. My technophobe wife is even more convinced my gadgets are a waste of time and money. What do I do?? Do I reinstal windows using the back up disks? Is there something else I can check? I'm stumped. A little poorer, with a big ol' paperweight taking up room in the den! So I turn to my bbs brethern. My all knowing techie sages. Help a brother out...World Series...First day of the NHL...and NBA around the corner...and me potentially without a computer . Any help greatly appreciated.
Ugh, there is your mistake. Whatever you do don't take it back up to let their idiots techs work on it. I gotta run, but I'll post some ideas when I get back if nobody else has.
I expected the well deserved shaming for BestBuy -- and the Apple guys are probably giggling their Dr. Peppers out of their noses...but i humbly ask for your wisdom here....
As Harrisment said, you should have stayed away from Best Buy... but too late for that. The first thing you need to do is make sure that your computer has all the latest drivers and Windows updates. For your systems drivers head to your computer manufacturers home page (ie www.hp.com or www.toshiba.com) and go to their support area and search for your model, you may be able to search by serial number and if you can use that. There should be a downloads area in their support somewhere, if you have any trouble finding it post up your machine make/type and serial number and we can help. After updating all of the drivers pop open Internet Explorer and go to the "Tools" drop down menu from the upper left corner and choose "Windows Update" and go through the update process and reboot, you may have to do this several times before you can install all of the updates. That's just the start of it, if that doesn't work let us know.
Also if you can, see if a Dr. Watson error log was created by the crash. Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Dr Watson. If there is a log it will be in the Dr Watson directory, double click Drwtsn32.log (if there is one) and then copy and past the errors here. A log may not have been created, but worth a shot. If you have trouble finding the file, do a search (Start->Search->Files & Folders) for Drwtsn32.log.
The problem may be your "double-click" default program. You mention that double-clicking performs an illegal operation. We must correct the double-clicking default program, then. Obviously this program is missing a component or is corrupted in some way. Here We GO: 1. Open the folder. Hold on, there, tiger... don't click anything. 2. Right-click on the picture. 3. Select "Open With >" then "Choose Program..." 4. From the Programs list, select another program, like PhotoEditor or "office Picture Manager" 5. Select Always use the selected program to open this kind of file. 6. Click OK. From now on, when you double-click it, it will open with the program you chose in step 4. To restore to the default, follow these steps: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;311425 EDIT: Please copy word by word what your "Illegal Operation" windows says. It will have some information about what file is causing the error or what you're missing. Windows Update could take DAYS if not hours on a dialup. If you don't care what you view your pictures with, my steps above should solve your problem.
Many thanks guys. Will try these when I get home. Updates etc are a bit of a pain with the dreadfully slow dial up...you'd think the geniuses who build these machines would ensure they work out of the box without needing drivers and updates....just how are people without net access supposed to use their machines???
Why is it too late too return it? Sounds like the perfect opportunity to get BestBuy the hell away from it. BestBuy sucks. I don't suggest wasting any time when these problems could return later. I'd return it (quit frankly). Look for the same pc on Buy.com.
What's the problem with Best Buy? I shop there because they have low prices and it's easy to return stuff. Don't tell me you think CompUSA, Circuit City or Frye's is any better.
You should never buy a PC from a retail store, if you buy direct from the manufacturer you get the most up to date products generally at the cheapest prices... and a lot of them will even throw in free shipping. Apple is probably the only exception to this rule because they don't update system specs weekly or even monthly.
Which manufacturers? Dell only sells direct and does not use retail stores. The ones that use retailers, like HP and most others, will not undersell the retailers. Are you saying to buy Dell? If not, name me one major PC brand who sells their product cheaper directly to the public than their resellers sell to the public.
It's easy to get bilked by retail stores if you don't know what you're looking for. Plus it isn't guaranteed that the parts inside are the best quality. For some people, it's worth that extra trouble to build their own.
Dell is the best in my opinion, and I've worked on them all... but that is just me. If you prefer other PC makes that is fine, but I'd suggest buying online rather then at a retail store such as buying off of buy.com because you'll save money since they don't have overhead and you'll also get newer products faster then the retail stores. If you go to online coupon deal communities such as Anandtech's Hot Deals you can save a crapload by stacking coupon codes, add-on codes (ie free printers) and other things to help improve the value of what you buy.
Install IrfanView. During the install tell it to manage all picture files. IrfanView is the best free picture viewer for windows. Easy to use and works the way it should.
And pay 3 times as much... don't get me wrong, I love Apple (and have owned a couple and plan on buying another soon) but until they decide that they want to compete with the big 3 PC makers they have no chance in getting the average customers money.
