[Bansaw]

Hey folks... A friend of mine's comp got overrun with some bad stuff so she had her friend do a complete reinstall. Well, after sweeping the system clean they realized she did not have a copy of windows XP to reinstall! So, he installed a copy from the military base he works at. Here are the two problems that resulted.

She now has no sound at all. I tried all the normal things like volume, speakers and that type of thing. All the device checks come up good so I'm assuming it's a driver problem. Is this a pretty safe assumption?

Next, when I try to download drivers I'm getting a message asking for a password to continue. My guess is this has something to do with the military version of XP he installed. Is there a way to reset the password so I can download drivers or is she just better off biting the bullet and buying a new version of XP?

Thanks in advance for any help!

bah.. I meant to put this in the XP forum. My apologies.

[ekim68]

She'll need a legal copy of XP to get help here. That being said, a lot of computer makers, such as Dell, H.P., and a few others will send her a restore CD if she gets in touch with them. She needs the model number and sometimes a serial number.

[Bansaw]

Sorry, I should have been more clear. He is one of the IT guys for the base and used a leftover legit copy of XP that they had. He is now deployed in Iraq so she can't get any help from him and that's the reason I'm trying to help her out.

She was given the comp by her parents a couple of years ago as a christmas present and they set it up for her at her apartment to suprise her and everyones best guess is they either threw away the back up disk package or she lost it herself.

[DoubleHelix]

I can't imagine what kind of password protection would be installed from a plain Windows installation disk that would block the installation of other applications. I'd have to see a screen shot of the prompt. If the military does indeed have some special Windows installation, I seriously doubt they condoned someone other than military personnel to take and install a copy at home.

The best solution would be to order the restore disks for the computer. Contact the manufacturer, and see what they can do.

[Bansaw]

I figured he set up some kind of admin rights when installing the OS and that's why it was asking for a password. Anyways, I told her that she should just pick up a new copy of XP and just start fresh. I would think that would probably be the easiest thing for her to do.

Thanks for the imput folks.