XP working not quite right.

[Edd Alexander]

I have XP Professional installed on my laptop. Windows
began behaving oddly last night and I'd like advice on
how to proceed to fix it. Most of XP seems to be
functioning properly, but certain things are not.


I had shut XP down properly the night before. Then when
I booted it yesterday, I immediately got an error
message, which said an error had been detected, but that
a backup had been successfully restored. The
word "registry" was somewhere in that message.

After clicking OK, a dialog box appeared saying that
VERITAS was attempting to install something. I hadn't
tried to install anything. Upon cancelling this, a box
appeared saying it wasn't able to install SGuard.msi.
Then Norton Anti-Virus gave me a warning message that it
wasn't able to load because a network resource was
unavailable.

At the time, I was able to connect to the Internet via
the AT&T wireless card in the laptop. I have been able
to surf the net without problem.

Most programs boot and operate normally, but some do not
boot, no matter whether I click an shortcut or use the
START menu. Word, Excel, IExplorer, Outlook, and others
work properly. WordPerfect, Quattro Pro only cause the
mouse pointer to change to an hourglass briefly then
return to the usual arrow. Nothing more happens.

XP's Search function doesn't work either. The
START|hELP&SUPPORT function doesn't fully work. I can
click to go to that screen, but searching doesn't not
produce any results. I went to Microsoft's support page
and attempted to ask for help there. Unfortunately, the
web page requires the Product ID number. I cannot obtain
my ID# because that requires searching in Help&Support.

I'm concerned that the registry was corrupted somehow. I
am unfamiliar with how to work with the registry. At
this point, I don't feel I can trust the computer to
function properly.


How do I proceed to diagnose and fix these things? Is
there a diagnostic or repair routine I can run? Should
I just re-install XP from the CD? If my registry is
corrupted, can I restore it, despite the message that it
has already done that? Must I re-install the programs
which don't boot now?

I would appreciate being pointed in some direction.


Thanks.

Edd

 

[Guest]

http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cach...forum/archive/t153394.html+"SGuard.msi"&hl=en

good info i hope

 

[Ron Martell]

I have XP Professional installed on my laptop. Windows
began behaving oddly last night and I'd like advice on
how to proceed to fix it. Most of XP seems to be
functioning properly, but certain things are not.


I had shut XP down properly the night before. Then when
I booted it yesterday, I immediately got an error
message, which said an error had been detected, but that
a backup had been successfully restored. The
word "registry" was somewhere in that message.

After clicking OK, a dialog box appeared saying that
VERITAS was attempting to install something. I hadn't
tried to install anything. Upon cancelling this, a box
appeared saying it wasn't able to install SGuard.msi.
Then Norton Anti-Virus gave me a warning message that it
wasn't able to load because a network resource was
unavailable.

At the time, I was able to connect to the Internet via
the AT&T wireless card in the laptop. I have been able
to surf the net without problem.

Most programs boot and operate normally, but some do not
boot, no matter whether I click an shortcut or use the
START menu. Word, Excel, IExplorer, Outlook, and others
work properly. WordPerfect, Quattro Pro only cause the
mouse pointer to change to an hourglass briefly then
return to the usual arrow. Nothing more happens.

XP's Search function doesn't work either. The
START|hELP&SUPPORT function doesn't fully work. I can
click to go to that screen, but searching doesn't not
produce any results. I went to Microsoft's support page
and attempted to ask for help there. Unfortunately, the
web page requires the Product ID number. I cannot obtain
my ID# because that requires searching in Help&Support.

I'm concerned that the registry was corrupted somehow. I
am unfamiliar with how to work with the registry. At
this point, I don't feel I can trust the computer to
function properly.


How do I proceed to diagnose and fix these things? Is
there a diagnostic or repair routine I can run? Should
I just re-install XP from the CD? If my registry is
corrupted, can I restore it, despite the message that it
has already done that? Must I re-install the programs
which don't boot now?

I would appreciate being pointed in some direction.

Hi Edd.

When dealing with these types of problems it is very helpful if you
can provide the complete *verbatim* text of the error messages. There
are hundreds of thousands (at least) of different possible error
messages that can be produced and quite often it is the presence or
the absence of a single word in the message text that is the essential
clue to identifying the underlying cause of the error. Comments such
as 'The word "registry" was somewhere in that message.' are really not
that useful in helping to diagnose these types of problems.

From what you have said I would suspect some sort of virus or spyware
as being the culprit.

Make certain that your antivirus software is completely up to date,
with the virus definitions not more than a week old, and do a complete
virus scan of the hard drive. Then get a "second opinion" by doing a
free online virus scan at http://housecall.trendmicro.com And if
your Norton Antivirus will not load properly on a normal startup try
booting the computer into Safe Mode and then launching the virus scan
manually. Note that in Safe Mode you will not be able to access the
Internet for virus definition updates etc. You might also want to
try downloading Stinger (free) from http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger and
running it to check for the most common of the current crop of
viruses. Stinger can be downloaded on any working computer and the
file then copied to a 3.5 inch diskette. Then you can boot the
problem computer into Safe Mode and run Stinger from the diskette.

Also check for spyware by going to http://aumha.org/a/noads.htm and
doing the free online quick check. Follow that up with the Quick Fix
procedure at http://www.aumha.org/a/quickfix.htm

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

 

[Eldritch]

Ron Martell wrote:


I wanted to write back to thank you for your suggestions. When your
computer is going to hell, any kind word is greatly appreciated.

Hi Edd.

When dealing with these types of problems it is very helpful if you
can provide the complete *verbatim* text of the error messages. There
are hundreds of thousands (at least) of different possible error
messages that can be produced and quite often it is the presence or
the absence of a single word in the message text that is the essential
clue to identifying the underlying cause of the error. Comments such
as 'The word "registry" was somewhere in that message.' are really not
that useful in helping to diagnose these types of problems.

Right. I am aware of that. Unfortunately, when I read that the
restoration of the backup had been successful, my hand worked quicker
than my mind. I clicked OK before I could think to jot down the
particulars of the message. That particular message never repeated.
Had I any better inkling of the precise text, I would have cited it.

From what you have said I would suspect some sort of virus or spyware
as being the culprit.

Perhaps. Belatedly I installed and ran Ad-ware, SpyBlaster, and
Spybot. They found a lot of cookies and a handful of registry keys,
all of which have now been deleted.


Because my problem continued, my search for a solution came across
Registry Mechanic, which I've now run. It cleaned up many registry
keys, though I have no idea if those were related to my problem.

Make certain that your antivirus software is completely up to date,
with the virus definitions not more than a week old, and do a complete
virus scan of the hard drive. Then get a "second opinion" by doing a
free online virus scan at http://housecall.trendmicro.com

I found a number of programs no longer ran or functioned properly.
Norton Anti-virus fell in the latter category. It scanned but did not
report any results. The link you recommended to
http://housecall.trendmicro.com did not work. There seems to be a
problem at the web site. Fortunately, my anti-virus definitions were
likely up to date. After uninstalling and reinstalling NAV, and
downloading fresh definitions, it found no infections.



Frustratingly, after all this, my problem still persisted.
Eventually, I was able to link the error message mentioning VERITAS to
my backup program BackupMyPC. I'd forgotten VERITAS was the publisher
so I didn't recognize which program it worked with. After I unstalled
and re-installed the program, the computer seems to be functioning for
the most part, though it has a tendency to stop, dump memory and ask me
to restart. But that a much less frequent problem.


Thanks for the help.


E

 

[Ron Martell]

Frustratingly, after all this, my problem still persisted.
Eventually, I was able to link the error message mentioning VERITAS to
my backup program BackupMyPC. I'd forgotten VERITAS was the publisher
so I didn't recognize which program it worked with. After I unstalled
and re-installed the program, the computer seems to be functioning for
the most part, though it has a tendency to stop, dump memory and ask me
to restart. But that a much less frequent problem.


Thanks for the help.

Right-click on "My Computer" and select Manage.

Expand the Event Viewer category (click on the +) and browse through
each of the 3 subcategories looking for red-flagged error records
whose date/time stamps correspond to these errors.

Double click on an error record to see the details of that error.

Post the error record details back here if you need further advice or
assistance.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

 

[Eldritch]

Hi Edd.

When dealing with these types of problems it is very helpful if you
can provide the complete *verbatim* text of the error messages. There
are hundreds of thousands (at least) of different possible error
messages that can be produced and quite often it is the presence or
the absence of a single word in the message text that is the essential
clue to identifying the underlying cause of the error. Comments such
as 'The word "registry" was somewhere in that message.' are really not
that useful in helping to diagnose these types of problems.

I wanted to thank you for your advice. I appreciate your responding to
my post. I previously wrote a longer response to you, but it seems to
have gotten lost in the ether of the Internet. I've run ad-ware,
spyware and anti-virus programs. A lot of cookies and a few registry
keys were found, no viruses. Still having problems. the system seems
unstable. so it goes.


E

 

[Ron Martell]

I wanted to thank you for your advice. I appreciate your responding to
my post. I previously wrote a longer response to you, but it seems to
have gotten lost in the ether of the Internet. I've run ad-ware,
spyware and anti-virus programs. A lot of cookies and a few registry
keys were found, no viruses. Still having problems. the system seems
unstable. so it goes.


E

Here is the response that I sent to your previous message.

***
Right-click on "My Computer" and select Manage.

Expand the Event Viewer category (click on the +) and browse through
each of the 3 subcategories looking for red-flagged error records
whose date/time stamps correspond to these errors.

Double click on an error record to see the details of that error.

Post the error record details back here if you need further advice or
assistance.
***

Good luck
Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."