East Asian Language Pack problem on Windows XP

Fluffy918

Ok, so I know this is help/advice forum, but I hope that extends to technical PC problems, not just relationship stuff and pets... I recently reformatted (think that is right word) my hard drive cause it had too much clutter on it, but I forgot to install the extra language packs when I did it again. I figured out how to add em even after installing Windows XP, but problems ensue...

I go to control panel > regional/language options > languages > install files for East Asian languages (with my Windows XP copy in the cd drive), and this happens after 10 mins of loading nothing.

Why is this happening/what can I do to fix it? Thanks PA!

Reiten

If you have MS Office, you can try it from that as well, I believe.

Fluffy918

I don't believe I have MS Office unless it comes with Windows XP. Thanks anyways..

finalflight89

That file that is missing is a compressed help file. Does clicking cancel continue with the installation?

Fluffy918

I click cancel and it goes back to loading for 15 mins before this pops up...

After some more waiting this one pops up next...

Chanus

MS Office is separately purchased... Would Open Office have anything?


www.openoffice.org

It's basically a freeware version of all the Office programs.

Fluffy918

Im downloading Open Office now to see if it will work.

I gave up my previous plan of waiting for it to load one file for 15 minutes, hitting cancel, waiting for the next one, hitting cancel, etc... it was the third time waiting after those 2 images I posted and my screen saver came on, I waved my mouse to get out of it and the loader froze and then everything else stopped responding so I had to manually restart. Hopefully open office will do it instead, I cant keep doing these waiting periods of like 20 mins in between error messages.

finalflight89

Okay, so it looks like its actually not loading correctly. Any chance you can try doing a repair install of Windows? It shouldn't be taking 15 minutes for the next dialog to appear. Either that, or try finding where those files are located on your Windows CD. But it looks like it's looking in the correct spot... Is this an original XP CD?

Fluffy918

Yes it is a legit copy of Windows XP Professional. Will a repair install just reinstall Windows and not touch the stuff on my hard drive? Also... how do you do a repair installation? Do you have to boot from CD?

finalflight89

A repair install doesn't touch any of your installed programs, it will just rewrite the system files. You'll have to boot from CD and run the install again. Basically, follow these instructions and you shouldn't have a problem. After installation, you will have to re-download all of the Windows updates, but hopefully this should solve the problem with the language packs.

Fluffy918

I'm kind of frightened to go through all the stuff to do a Windows Repair after just getting a new clean install of it. I found this guys video and maybe his file will work...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eQHEDZUfsg

Reiten

Open Office does not contain the language pack. You can only get it from Windows or MS Office these days. Just try a repair install, then try to add the language pack again.

Fluffy918

I did the repair and during the part where I install the east asian language pack it did the same thing. It did nothing for 15 mins then told me it couldnt find the file it is looking for. Why is this so difficult?!

Reiten

Poke around the official MS forums. You might be able to manually point it to the files it needs.