BleepingComputer.com: Cannot open System Information and more

I've been having a lot of annoying little issues with my computer lately that I cannot seem to solve. I had to reinstall the OS at the start of June and I'm not sure if these issues had been happening before then or if it happened after, or if it's entirely unrelated.

I cannot open my System Information for one. The hourglass pops up like it's trying to open, but then it goes away and nothing happens.

My SD drive will not read anything. It doesn't even appear as existing on My Computer, and it doesn't pop up when something is inserted either.

And, I noticed all of this when I was trying to install a game (Sims 3) on the machine and it runs through everything, installs etc. But no program files have actually been downloaded, and nothing will open (just says there is an error). I tried three times and nothing. The disc works on another computer that I have, so I know it's something on my machine.

I'm wondering if it's driver related, perhaps something got wiped on the reinstall? Or it's in no way connected (to the OS reinstall or to each other).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

This post has been edited by sherlockelly: 21 June 2010 - 02:51 PM

When your System Information doesn't work, does "nothing happens" mean you get an empty white box with System Information in the title bar?

This post has been edited by joseibarra: 21 June 2010 - 04:02 PM

I ran a few virus scans again and it DOES open now. Other issues are still happening however.

That's good that SI is working now.

Now that it is, you can do this:

When the System Summary info appears, click Edit, Select All, Copy and then paste the information back here.

There will be some personal information (like System Name and User Name), and whatever appears to
be private information to you, just delete it from the pasted information.

This will minimize back and forth Q&A and eliminate guesswork.

Describe your current antivirus and malware situation. McAfee, Norton, Spybot, AVG, ZoneAlarm, etc.

If you are even suspicious that you have some malware, I would do this (it might take a while):

Perform some scans for malicious software, then fix any remaining issues:

Download, install, update and do a full scan with these free malware detection programs:

Malwarebytes (MBAM): http://malwarebytes.org/
SUPERAntiSpyware: (SAS): http://www.superantispyware.com/

They can be uninstalled later if desired.

Then we can feel better that your issues may not be related to malicious software. I would concentrate on removing any malicious software suspicions first, then work on fixing things.

I don't have experience with SD cards or Sims games, but somebody else might.

This post has been edited by joseibarra: 21 June 2010 - 06:15 PM

OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name
System Manufacturer TOSHIBA
System Model Satellite A105
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 13 Stepping 8 GenuineIntel ~1995 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date TOSHIBA Version 1.30, 1/17/2006
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.5512 (xpsp.080413-2111)"
User Name
Time Zone Pacific Daylight Time
Total Physical Memory 1,024.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 314.80 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 2.39 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys


For antivirus/malware I have McAffee, SUPERAntiSpyware, Malwarebytes, and Spybot. All run clean now, though I did delete a few trojans this morning after a scan, thinking that might be the issue, but there no improvements in the other problems I'm having.

That msinfo32 info looks good.

Has anyone tinkered with your paging file/virtual memory settings in XP?

So your remaining issues are:

Your SD card is not recognized
Your Sims game gives you an error (what is the exact wording of the error).

Since you had to reinstall XP I am thinking you should check on the Toshiba page and see if there are any specific Toshiba driver updates you need to install so it will recognize your SD card. It is unlikely that what comes with Windows is going to be everything you need so after a reinstall it is always goot to visit the manufacturers WWW site and see that the latest it.

If you go to their WWW page and make a few selections, you can get a list of XP drivers and compare what you have:

http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/su...sp?nav=download

My hope is that somebody will jump in here and try to help you with those things and I will learn something too.

This post has been edited by joseibarra: 22 June 2010 - 04:10 AM