I was thinking to myself this will be an easy buck when my customer called and said he could get to the XP logon screen and then the XP would just hang.
I followed what you guys recommended to remove MSSE and was done in a flash. Then he boots the PC and tries to scan from a Dell printer and it doesn't go. Couldn't even print a test page from Windows. After about 1.5 hours I took it back to my bench.
After another few hours I gave up and figured I'd just nuke it even though I hate admitting defeat. After troubleshooting for a while I realized my LAN was hosed. No internet access, IP or DNS, on any PC. Rebooted cable modem, router and restarted the DNS Client service and all was well.
After XP loaded I figured I install his printer before wasting endless hours updating Windows to make sure it printed and scanned. So far, so good.
WTF! No internet access again. Do the dance again and all is well.
A few hours into applying the endless array of updates my UPS's started to beep in protest. I lost AC power to my house. Someone hit a pole and took out the power. This call is really starting to suck.
Power is back, rig is updating and my LAN takes another dirt nap. Now I'm thinking about wielding an ax and really breaking stuff.
After more hours than I care to admit I finally find it. His embedded NIC is jabbering very intermittently and hosing my LAN. I toss in a PCI based NIC and all is well.
Oh yeah, no more MSSE. I installed his ISP's free security package and backed up about 10 GB's of data to a couple of DVD's for a little more coin.
I'm walking out the door with a big fat check and I hear his wife yell "wait, I can't log on my employers secure web site." I installed Firefox since IE 8 is so old and vulnerable. I had her try IE and she logged on successfully. I didn't bother to delve into why but I'd guess FF doesn't support ActiveX and this Website apparently needed that.
I ran out the door, turned off my phone and headed to the nearest watering hole for a 16 ounce cool one...or two!
