Troubleshooting in Safe Mode

[Guest]

I'm running XP Pro and each time I launch Rossetta Stone I get the message
Macromedia Projector has encountered a problem and needs to close. After
following all the suggestions from their tech support I still have the
problem. I even encounter this error when I boot in safe mode. The
interesting thing is that I have 2 copies of XP loaded on my computer. The
other version I boot up to when I want to play video games. This version of
XP does not have stuff such as Virus protection, startup progams, etc. Its
just barebones to give me the most amount of memory free to play games. I
installed Rosetta Stone on this version of XP and it boots up fine, even in
Safe mode. So, my impression of safe mode is that it is a minimal loading of
just essential drivers should be my starting point for figuring out the
conflict I'm having. How can I compare the safe mode startup configurations
of the two versions of XP to find out where my Macromedia conflict might be?
thanks for your input.

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi,

You could perform a clean boot on the problem OS to troubleshoot.

How to perform a clean boot in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353

How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316434

How to troubleshoot by using the System Configuration utility in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310560

Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org
Member: http://dts-l.org

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

You could perform a clean boot on the problem OS to troubleshoot.

How to perform a clean boot in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353

How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316434

How to troubleshoot by using the System Configuration utility in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310560

These are great for this state chart...

OK Safe Mode
Fail Normal Boot

....but less so for this one:

Fail Safe Mode
Fail Normal Boot

If Safe fails, then whatever's integrated (or otherwise causing
problems, such as "DLL hell", settings, corruption or infection within
code files, etc.) is still present in Safe Mode.

Try Safe Mode Command Prompt Only, and run your application from the
command prompt, without running the shell. If that works, then it's
something integrated into the shell, i.e. Windows Explorer +- IE. You
can use the following tools to pin that down:
- IE, Tools, Options, Programs, Add-Ins
- Nirsoft's Shell Extensions Viewer
- Nirsoft's Multimedia Manager

Get Nirsoft's free tools from www.nirsoft.net (not the .com squatter!)

If no joy, consider services and drivers, and compare the "old" (i.e.
not updated after installation) files that make up the app and <ahem>
relevant code. The command line FC tool is good for that.

If you find a code file that has the same version tab in Properties,
but fails FC (i.e. the one from one installation is not the same as
the other) then make backup copies of both, and swap them.

You may want to scan for malware, from the "fresh" installation in
Safe Cmd Only, perhaps. Also; how are the two installations hidden
from each other? MS is weak on that separation...

 

[Bert Kinney]

These are great for this state chart...

OK Safe Mode
Fail Normal Boot

...but less so for this one:

Fail Safe Mode
Fail Normal Boot

If Safe fails, then whatever's integrated (or otherwise causing
problems, such as "DLL hell", settings, corruption or infection within
code files, etc.) is still present in Safe Mode.

Try Safe Mode Command Prompt Only, and run your application from the
command prompt, without running the shell. If that works, then it's
something integrated into the shell, i.e. Windows Explorer +- IE. You
can use the following tools to pin that down:
- IE, Tools, Options, Programs, Add-Ins
- Nirsoft's Shell Extensions Viewer
- Nirsoft's Multimedia Manager

Get Nirsoft's free tools from www.nirsoft.net (not the .com squatter!)

If no joy, consider services and drivers, and compare the "old" (i.e.
not updated after installation) files that make up the app and <ahem>
relevant code. The command line FC tool is good for that.

If you find a code file that has the same version tab in Properties,
but fails FC (i.e. the one from one installation is not the same as
the other) then make backup copies of both, and swap them.

You may want to scan for malware, from the "fresh" installation in
Safe Cmd Only, perhaps. Also; how are the two installations hidden
from each other? MS is weak on that separation...

Good next step(s) Chris.