hundreds of levels of empty registry keys

[Bruce]

R. McCarty ([email protected])

Can you provide a sample of Key names ? & how does it
refuse to take SP2 ? Is it a desktop or notebook.
Generalized questions are really hard to diagnose and don't
really give enough insight to work with.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\\\\\\\.....\\\\\\Adobe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\\\\\\\.....\\\\\\Ahead
..
..

lots like the above and then we get the proper structure

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Adobe
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Ahead
..
..
..

Everything that was under the Software Key was duplicated in the empty
key structure

It was on a HP P4 2 GHz desktop m/c about 2 yo. HP has it as a known
problem with this machine and not being able to put SP2 on it.

When an attempt was made to remove these empty keys, RegEdit did a
crash and burn. Logged out of the user in question and windows then
could not bring up the list of configured users.

I hope this is the detail you are looking for.

regards

Bruce

It is the empty key value between \\ that is concerning me. I have
never seen anything like it before.

 

[R. McCarty]

Thanks for the details. First off, it's interesting that HP says the
particular model has issue(s) with Service Pack 2. From your
CPU speed rating, it seems like it should be recent enough to
handle SP2. I would assume the HP is setup as a ACPI PC in
the Computer Device category of Device Manager.

The Keys you describe would certainly need to be removed.
Have you tried to boot the PC to Safe Mode, login to the
Administrator account and attempt to remove them that way ?
This problem you're describing resulted after your recent fresh
install ? If the Safe Mode attempt fails - try using Add/Remove
programs to take out all Ahead (Nero) and Adobe (Reader)
programs, reboot and then try to nick the errant keys again.

Perhaps unrelated, but HP Pavilions sometimes need BIOS
flash updates to handle XP correctly - but I wouldn't think it
would apply in your case. Can you repost one more bit of
information, the actual model # ?

If you can get the Registry issues cleared, I would try to get
SP2 installed while running in Safe Mode.

Very unusual problem to say the least.