I am not very conversant with system level details of windows
installation.

Here is the problem I am facing --

Windows ME started giving trouble in that the USB mouse started
freezing occasionally.  Over a short period of time  started getting
error messages at boot time that one or more of EXPLORER, KERNEL32,
LOADQM or some other file caused an error in WININET.DLL.  With these
errors the machine could not be used for web browsing, or reading mail
etc. (cable modem connection), or even start explorer.


AT this point of time I decided install OS  upgrade to Windows XP Home
Edition.
As the upgrade program was just keeping quiet (not hung) I decided to
see if I can replace the file WININET.DLL in case it is corrupted. I
could find a copy downloaded a copy of WININET.DLL (probably an older
version, was also smaller in size) from the net and copied it into
C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. After this replacement the XP upgrade
program started making progress.

After examining my existing setup the XP upgrade determined that I
need to uninstall Nortel Extranet Adaptor (used to connect to my
employer's intranet through VPN. Similarly I needed to uninstall a CD
emulator software and a driver for 3Com HomeConnect USB camera (no
longer installed).  After this change an error message started
appearing that Cmdninst caused an error in WININET.DLL.

From the name WININET.DLL I guessed may be this file has to do with
network connection in which case I can install the network connection
after the upgrade. With this line of thought I decided to eliminate
WININET.DLL from the system director altogether and see if it improves
anything.  Surprisingly even after removing WININET.DLL  the error
"Cmdninst caused an error in WININET.DLL" continued and the system
continued to freeze. After that I uninstall the entire  networking
services with no use.

That is pretty much the mess. 

I think my floppy drive is not working (haven't used it in a few
years) and I don't seem to find the bootable floppy.  This may pose
some difficulties in the diagnostics and hence thought I will mention
it.  I was replacing the files in my trial and error (actually error
and error:-) process by booting from a Linux installation on the
system -- which is how I am posting this message.

System Config --

AMD Athlon XP 2100
ECS K7S5A motherboard
512 MB DDR Memory (recently replaced 256 MB SDRAM when trying to
upgrade to XP)
13 GB Samsung HD (WindowsME/Linux installs), 80 GB (Maxtor hard drive)
Pioneer DVD/CD drive, Iomega ZIPCD-RW (IDE interface on PCI Ultra DMA
card)
ATI RAge Fury

As far as possible I want to keep all the program installs etc and not
do a full install of XP.

Let me know if you need any more details.  

As this machine is at home, I may not be able to respond or carry out
any suggested actions during day time when I am away at work.

I hope this may not take a lot of time for someone who knows "where to
hit the hammer".  Please let me know if $15 is not reasonable
compensation for your time.

Thanks in advance.
ckkrish_real


Thanks in advance.




I am sure there are a lot of Windows experts out there and would like
to know if anyone can help me overcome the problem causing these error
messages and install Windows XP.