Resolved Questions about XP-Home System Restore

OK, I've done the search, but nothing in there answers my two basic questions. There are a lot of "System Restore" postings, but most are quite old. I hope this posting doesn't get me another "watch it!" message.

I'm running XP Home Edition with SP3.

Firstly, is there a time constraint on how far you can go back in one swell foop? I have a problem resulting from some optional MS updates that I installed on 02 Nov and I'm trying to return to just beofre I did that. When I tried to go directly the other day (11/21 to 11/1), it refused to reset. I then tried going back a couple of days at a time and that seemed to work. Unfortunately, bedtime came along when I'd gone back from the 21st to the 13th and I did what I usually do at bedtime and shut the system down. It looks like I may have to start over.

Secondly, if you engage Safe Mode to initiate the Restore, do you need to keep hitting F8 when the box re-boots so that the re-boot is also in safe mode?

The reason I'm going through this heartburn is that I installed two "optional" Microsoft updates concerning the all-in-one printer I have (a Lexmark X5650) and they seem to have disabled three of the four functions (scan, copy and fax) that persuaded me to buy that particular printer in the first place (it still prints). I'm trying to get back to the day before I installed those updates.

It really ticks me off that MS can say they no longer "support" XP Home Edition, but keep churning out updates, many of which cause major problems. When you have problems as a result of the updates, there's no help available from MS Customer Support.

I may end up turning the Lexmark into a dinghy anchor and getting a new printer. I'll sure check whether a new one is compatible with XP Home!

Any ideas, folks?

 

Hi fdamp,

The updates are supposed to create a restore point when they're installed so when they cause a problem, you can uninstall and restore. Do you know what the updates were and can you uninstall them? Then try sysrestore on the 2nd? It's possible the updates may be causing the problem.

As far as doing sysrestore incrementally instead of "pick-'n-click ", I'm afraid I don't have an answer because I've been able to go back a month and a half with no problem. Like I said, it may be the updates.

How many drives do you have? If you tap the F8 key with more than one drive, you'll get a window asking which HDD (0, 1, 2 etc.). Hit the ▼ arrow to the drive you want to safe boot to and then your choices will come up. Arrow to the drive, hit Enter and tap the F8 key and then you'll get the "What do you want to do?" menu.

If you're a single drive, just keep tapping the F8 key until you get the menu for "Normal, Command Prompt, Safe Mode ", etc. You shouldn't have to keep tapping it after you get the choices menu.

I'd suggest in the future, if you're going to be installing anything to first manually create a restore point (it only takes about 20 seconds) then do your thing. If something goes wrong, your covered.

As far as turning your printer into an anchor, first uninstall everything Lexmark from everywhere in your computer "” even the registry "” then uninstall the MS updates and try installing the printer from scratch and see if that works. Or, you do realize that some stuff comes out-of-the-box bad to begin with? If you do try the above and it still doesn't work, pack it up and exchange it. My sister bought a Lexmark all-in-one and when she returned it, there were several people in line returning theirs. They had a built-in factory defect so you don't have to worry about it breaking.

However you always have the option to load up the printer with cherry bombs "” however, don't do this at home; go next door because they're gone most of the day.

 

I have done most of the things you suggest, jpChris. The way my system is working, it does a restore point every day automatically, in addition to those that occur after new installations, downloads and updates.

I've posted elsewhere about my problems with the printer, so I won't go through that again. The printer is about 12 months old, so I'm past the point where I could return it. It had worked flawlessly until Nov 2. A bunch of MS updates at the same time also caused Office 2003 to crash and ******* up my Adobe Pro. November hasn't been a good month!

 

Hi Frank,

Two things:
1) You did uninstall the updates, correct?
2) You did uninstall the printer from everywhere including the registry, correct?
3) You did reinstall, correct?

 

Chris:

I wasn't aware that there was an "uninstall" feature for MS-supplied updates. I was trying to use Syatem Restore to accomplish that task.

I did completely uninstall the printer, several times. I was a bit ticked off at Lexmark to find that their downloadable driver didn't include the scan/copy/fax part of the printer's repertoire. They sent me an "updated" CD, which had the same part number as my original one and I managed one re-install from that CD where I got Fax, but not scan or copy. I'm back to print only right now, but I'm not getting the transfer monitor diagnostic at boot up any longer.

I can run the scan/copy/fax routines from the printer's front panel, but that's a pain, particularly if I'm working from DW's netbook in the living room, and the multi-functional capability was why I bought the thing in the first place.

I'm going to try a sequential series of System Restorations tomorrow. I tried a Nov 24th to Nov 2nd today, both in regular operation and in safe mode and they both failed. I did manage to get back from the 22nd to the 15th, going in 2 or 3 day steps. I then did a new restore point in that Nov 15th configuration. I'm hoping that I can start from there and continue back to just before the MS "optional" updates for Lexmark went in, then re-install the printer and get all its funtionality back.

If you have a procedure for uninstalling MS updates, I'd love to have it. FYI, the one I think blew me out of the water didn't have a KB number identification.

 

Hi Frank,

In Add\Remove Programs, at the top, make sure that "Show Updates" is ticked. It'll show what was\is installed.

Or, in Explorer\Windows, if you click the + in front of the Windows folder you'll see "$hf_mig$" and "$NTUninstallKBxxxxxxx ". If your View is set to Details, check the Modified Date and try to track down the ones you installed. You'll have to click on each one, unfortunately. As far as the update not having a KB number, I'm not aware of any MS update not having a KB number.

Or, you could do a *.* search and in the When Was It Modified box, set the parameters to the day before and to the day after you DL'ed the updates.

I'm sorry, but I just can't wrap my head around cleaning out everything Lexmark on your computer — including the registry — and not having it behave with a clean install. Is there anything listed in "Waiting to Print "?

Have you tried CCleaner?

 

Chris:

yesterday, I did another uninstall of Lexmark, then removed a couple of items still in the add/remove list. Followed that with a registry clean-up using Registry Mechanic, then went back into regedit and found there were still about 80 keys with the Lexmark name attached.

A "eureka" moment, I thought. I deleted them all, rebooted, made a new restore point and the re-installed Lexmark from the current CD. The installation hung up just like before, during the inastallation of the scanner section of the program. I got the same two diagnostic messages (Printer Transfer Card Monitor and Printing Application "encountered a problem and must shut down ").
The rest of the installation finished.

On re-boot, the "Printer Transfer" diagnostic came up (still does, every time) and only the print function of the machine works. The Productivity Studio, where scan, copy and fax functions reside can't be accessed.

I also discovered that System Restore can't go back to the new restore point, created just 6 hours earlier.

Time to give up, I think. I did notice, earlier in the saga, that Lexmark now provides the same software (by program name) for both XP and Vista and I'm wondering whether the Vista compatibility causes the XP installation to fail.

I'm now considering this to be a closed issue, having spent far more time on it than the $80 cost of a replacement printer really justifies! I will be getting either a Canon MP560 or a Hewlett Packard F4480 to replace the Lexmark.

Thanks for your help. Incidentally, I've marked the thread as "resolved" though really, I'm just giving up!