Windows Update / Driver / Installation problems

Ugh, where to start. I'm running XP Pro on a Dell Latitude c640 laptop computer

I have been having nothing but problems here. It's a friend of mine's computer.

When I first got it it was freezing no matter what - even in safe mode, command prompt, etc. It would freeze the moment I tried doing something, so the only thing I could do was reinstall windows

Well, then it wouldn't format. I tried two different copies of windows and both would freeze at about 56%.. so I ended up just reinstalling windows over the current installation (Yeah, joy)

As it happens that sort of worked, I'm now in XP and a lot of stuff is working.. yet a lot of stuff isn't, either.

First problem: Windows Update won't update. I'm able to get to the site and download the updates, or download them through automatic updating, however they will not install. The installation of the downloaded updates merely fail and say the updates could not be installed. I've tried dial-a-fix which was recommended to me, no help.

Second problem: Drivers.. I've gotten drivers from Dell's site itself yet none of the install programs work, they all give me the "Setup could not run the installation" "class not registered" deal. Some of them I was able to just select manually, but others (Like the audio driver) give me a "Cyclic redundancy check" error when trying to update the driver.

I've tried various things to work around these to no avail, it seemed like the time to ask Tech Support Guy finally, you guys can usually set me straight.

 

For the Update problem, try Re-registering the Windows Update DLL with the commands below

Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
Type the following commands. Press ENTER after each command.


regsvr32 wuapi.dll
regsvr32 wuaueng.dll
regsvr32 atl.dll
regsvr32 wucltui.dll
regsvr32 wups.dll
regsvr32 wuaueng1.dll
regsvr32 wucltui.dll
regsvr32 wups.dll
regsvr32 wuweb.dll
regsvr32 wups2.dll
regsvr32 msxml.dll
regsvr32 msxml3.dll
regsvr32 msxml2.dll
regsvr32 qmgr.dll
regsvr32 qmgrprxy.dll

For the driver install problem, try downloading the Windows INstaller update