I'M WRITING THIS MESSAGE BECAUSE I AM UNBELIEVABLY PISSED OFF. (YES I DO KNOW I'M TYPING IN CAPITALS).
TIP 1 ON HOW NOT TO GET INTO THIS SITU.
NEVER INSTALL PROGRAMS FROM THE INTERNET YOU AREN'T COMPLETELY SURE WILL WORK.
TIP 2
DON'T UNINSTALL LOADS OF STUFF AT ONCE
Here's the story:
I had a hard drive full of crap. I decided to uninstall a lot of pointless programs that I never used (mainly downloaded). I uninstalled them in one job lot. Restarted and to my horror, I cannot access the internet! Winsock is corrupt! I don't know which program did the deed. I panic. I try to reinstall as many programs as I can hoping one of them will fix Winsock, nothing works. I replace the DLLs with those from the Windows CD, try again... Sh*t! It still doesn't work. Uninstall and Reinstall TCP/IP. Internet is still no go. All my programs use Winsock. I cannot communicate with the world outside my small town! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
"Okay, be calm" I say. I'll just reinstall Windows over the installation I've got. No Luck. I am @ my wits end, I write to a magazine (UK) called PC Utilities, pleading and begging for help. Thos Bast*rds didn't reply anywhere, by post, in the mag, by phone. I had waited a month for them to reply. Right I say. ***** it all. I back up all my docs, MP3s, saved games etc. and type those words we hope we'll all never have to type at the DOS prompt:
format c:
20 mins later I've got 10Gb of Jack Sh*t. I reinstall Windows 98 and restore my backed up files. reinstall my programs, drivers etc. Now Windows doesn't recognise my modem. I have to d*ck about with drivers until finally, today about 1 hour ago I get online. And now I'm bitching about it to anyone who's bothered to read this far down the thread. God that feels good to get off my chest.
If anyone knows what happened I'd appreciate it so I don't ***** up my PC in the future. Ta.