XP Problems

My windows xp machine is starting to act weird on me. I wanna do a complete reinstall but I lost the littlebooklet which has the windows serial assigned to my cd. Is there a way of finding that serial before I delete everything? Maybe in some windows system folder or something? Or am I going to have to call technical support? I'm not too familiar with windows xp.

Another thing, I was trying to change my machines local ip addy and i remember in win2k you could do this from the command line. it was something like winipcfg...what's with xp? That didn't work. For some reason I lost my inet connection. I restarted my router, one of my machines rebooted the network config fine, but this xp box just kept popping some message saying I needed to reassign an ip to it. Meanwhile I have it on automatic. Well, it gave me some stupid wizard and in the middle of it , it failed.

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My windows xp machine is starting to act weird on me. I wanna do a complete reinstall but I lost the littlebooklet which has the windows serial assigned to my cd. Is there a way of finding that serial before I delete everything? Maybe in some windows system folder or something? Or am I going to have to call technical support? I'm not too familiar with windows xp.

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sounds like you're going to have to call tech support... I think back in the days of win95, the key was stored unencrypyted in the registry, but I think they fixed that now...

plus, you should really define what you mean by "it's starting to act weird".

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Another thing, I was trying to change my machines local ip addy and i remember in win2k you could do this from the command line. it was something like winipcfg...what's with xp? That didn't work. For some reason I lost my inet connection. I restarted my router, one of my machines rebooted the network config fine, but this xp box just kept popping some message saying I needed to reassign an ip to it. Meanwhile I have it on automatic. Well, it gave me some stupid wizard and in the middle of it , it failed.

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winipcfg used to be in win95 and 98. In w2k and xp (NT class OSes) use ipconfig. In the command prompt, type ipconfig ? and check the parameters. You should be able to figure out how to configure your card. Also, you can check the windows help file (start --> help). I use it all the time for commands I don't know or am not sure.

Finally, what is this mystery message you're getting and what is the wizard? We really need a little more information, a screen shot or two might be useful, but really just some more information on the wizard, message, and weird behaviour.

hope this helps,
-ik

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I think back in the days of win95, the key was stored unencrypyted in the registry, but I think they fixed that now...

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I find that the more these Operating system "evolute" , the more complicated with nonsense they become.

Machine acting weird: like what i said about losing Inet connection and not being able to restore it. For a sec there I thought my network card had burned, but then i saw that device manager had it working fine. My other box was able to restore it fine. I even disconencted the router and made a straight connection between my cable modem and this box...it wouldn't find it.

More information that you requested: When you go to view your current network connection, you go to support tab, there was a message saying that my network had failed to connect due to a loss in ip address. Repair, i clicked on repair, it said windows was unable to reassign a new ip to this machine, check with your administrator. I mean, who came up with these "intelligent" error messages??? In the middle of chaos it just drives you mad! Shouldn't that be an error message only on the professional version of xp? Who has an admin at home?
Urgh, microsoft.

hehe, believe me, I often get frustrated just the same.

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Who has an admin at home? Urgh, microsoft.

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BRILLIANT~!! hahah

so, back to the issue here. It sounds like your computer is not obtaining a valid ip address from your router (I assume the router is running a dhcp service). Check the ip address by typing ipconfig at the command prompt. What is it?

Also, try typing the following two commands:

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew

This will /release your current ip address and /renew will try to get a valid ip address... (this is usually the first thing I try, and usually, I have the least success with it).

Let me know the results.
-ik

First.. I suspect SE here..

When a system is built with XP installed.. the Product key Should not be on the Book.. it should be stuck to the side of the PC..

now if you have managed to lose the key, if you had done a google on "Find WinXP product Key"

you would have found this link as the first on the list

http://www.mvps.org/marksxp/WindowsXP/prodkey.php

run that little baby and knock yourself out..

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Urgh, microsoft.

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dunno.. read some **** about networking.. you could easily have the same problem in *nix if you dont understand how the whole show works..

the XP Box is obviously setup on "Auto Assign IP" right ?
So was the router also the DHCP Server? or is the Cable Modem?
How is the DNS setup? ..
What services have you disabled on the problem machine
HAve you cleared the DNS cache?
certainly waht happens when you try Iron-Kurton's advice?

can you list your problems rather than jumble them in a single sentence...please..