Last Known Good Configuration issue

[Jeff]

Suddenly my pc will only start up using Last Known Cood
Configuration. During every start up, it stops during the Windows XP
scrolling blue thing window and won't proceed. So I shut down the power
switch and when it comes to life I get a screen offering to start in Safe
Mode, Last Known Good Configuration or in Normal Mode. Normal Mode does not
work. So when I choose Last Known Good Configuration, it starts up Windows
and my pc is alive.
I'm not sure what changes that I may have made that messed it up or when it
first occurred.
My WinXP cd is old. It is service pack 1 and I am now SP3.
What can I do so it starts up each time without this going on?

 

[Jeff]

Hi. Just saw your posting. THANKS. I am not sure what I did, if I did it,
that caused the issue. I installed a trial of Office 2007 and I have been
working to get my cell phone to ActiveSync. I also have installed Microsoft
Security Essentials and uninstalled OneCare and another antivirus that I had
called ResolutionMSP.
I will try the Safe Mode thing and look in System log for errors....

 

[Jeff]

Could you teach me how to go to Event Viewer and look in the System log? And
please give me any other advice that I will need to take this step.
I did start in normal Safe mode, using F8 on Startup

 

[Shenan Stanley]

<snipped>

Could you teach me how to go to Event Viewer and look in the System
log?

<snipped>

Start Button --> Run --> type in:
eventvwr.msc /s
--> Click OK.

Left side, choose "System"...

 

[Jeff]

I don't seem to get emailed of replies for this even though I check the box. Hm
Anyway, it seems to have fixed itself. Even with a shutdown, wait and start.
It does boot up kinda slow but I haven't had the "Last Known Good Config ..."
issue afer several restarts.
I do have this tablet run cCleaner at StartUp, which I assume only does the
Windows Cleaner portion of that program. So weekly I open cCleaner and run
the Applications scan/clean and the Registry scan/fix/backup/fix all.
Here are my notes on how to look in Event Viewer in the future if it happens
again:
o start in Safe Mode using F8 during boot up
o goto Start > Run and enter eventvwr /r
o look on left side and choose System
I just looked in Event Viewer in normal mode and I see lots of Errors the
last couple of days 12-12 and 13 called Source : IFXTPM and also some Source:
DCOM.
o look for info about events that may have caused the issue

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I don't seem to get emailed of replies for this even though I check
the box. Hm Anyway, it seems to have fixed itself. Even with a
shutdown, wait and start. It does boot up kinda slow but I haven't
had the "Last Known Good Config ..." issue afer several restarts.
I do have this tablet run cCleaner at StartUp, which I assume only
does the Windows Cleaner portion of that program. So weekly I open
cCleaner and run the Applications scan/clean and the Registry
scan/fix/backup/fix all.
Here are my notes on how to look in Event Viewer in the future if
it happens again:
o start in Safe Mode using F8 during boot up
o goto Start > Run and enter eventvwr /r
o look on left side and choose System
I just looked in Event Viewer in normal mode and I see lots of
Errors the last couple of days 12-12 and 13 called Source : IFXTPM
and also some Source: DCOM.
o look for info about events that may have caused the issue

You must be using the web interface for the actual newsgroups - horrible and
unreliable - at best.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I don't seem to get emailed of replies for this even though I check the box. Hm

Very few, if any, people here will send you e-mail replies. If you
post a message here in this newsgroup, come back to the newsgroup to
find and read replies.

Anyway, it seems to have fixed itself. Even with a shutdown, wait and start.
It does boot up kinda slow but I haven't had the "Last Known Good Config ..."
issue afer several restarts.
I do have this tablet run cCleaner at StartUp, which I assume only does the
Windows Cleaner portion of that program. So weekly I open cCleaner and run
the Applications scan/clean and the Registry scan/fix/backup/fix all.

Ugh! You are looking for trouble if you run *any* registry cleaner.
Registry cleaning programs are *all* snake oil. Cleaning of the
registry isn't needed and is dangerous. Leave the registry alone and
don't use any registry cleaner. Despite what many people think, and
what vendors of registry cleaning software try to convince you of,
having unused registry entries doesn't really hurt you.

The risk of a serious problem caused by a registry cleaner erroneously
removing an entry you need is far greater than any potential benefit
it may have.

Read http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000643.html

 

[Jeff]

Hi Ken. Do you think that the whole idea of running cCleaner is shaky, or
just the Registry cleaner section of it? I am learning and sure don't want
future issues that I caused. There are enough issues without my help!

 

[Jeff]

Another posting on this same board sends me emails automatically every time
someone has replied to my posting, like I am subscribed. That is what I was
referring to...

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hi Ken. Do you think that the whole idea of running cCleaner is shaky, or
just the Registry cleaner section of it? I am learning and sure don't want
future issues that I caused. There are enough issues without my help!

No, just its registry cleaning function. In its other respects
CCleaner is a good program.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Another posting on this same board sends me emails automatically every time
someone has replied to my posting, like I am subscribed. That is what I was
referring to...

Ah, I now see that you are using the awful web interface to
participate in this newsgroup (you call it a "board," but it's a
newsgroup)--it's the slowest, clunkiest, most error-prone method of
using the newsgroups there is. Do yourself a favor and switch to a
newsreader, such as Outlook Express, which comes with Windows XP, or
Windows Mail, which comes with Vista. See
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

 

[Jose]

Could you teach me how to go to Event Viewer and look in the System log? And
please give me any other advice that I will need to take this step.
I did start in normal Safe mode, using F8 on Startup

Here is a method to post the specific information about individual
events.

To see the Event Viewer logs, click Start, Settings, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, Event Viewer.

A shortcut to Event Viewer is to click Start, Run and in the box
enter:

%SystemRoot%\system32\eventvwr.msc /s

Click OK to launch the Event Viewer.

The most interesting logs are usually the Application and System.
Some logs may be almost or completely empty.
Not every event is a problem, some are informational messages that
things are working okay and some are warnings.
No event should defy reasonable explanation.

Each event is sorted by Date and Time. Errors will have red Xs,
Warnings will have yellow !s.
Information messages have white is. Not every Error or Warning event
means there is a serious issue.
Some are excusable at startup time when Windows is booting. Try to
find just the events at the date
and time around your problem.

If you double click an event, it will open a Properties windows with
more information. On the right are
black up and down arrow buttons to scroll through the open events. The
third button that looks like
two pages on top of each other is used to copy the event details to
your Windows clipboard.

When you find an interesting event that occurred around the time of
your issue, click the third button
under the up and down arrows to copy the details and then you can
paste the details (right click, Paste
or CTRL-V) the detail text back here for analysis.

To get a fresh start on any Event Viewer log, you can choose to clear
the log (backing up the log is offered),
then reproduce your issue, then look at just the events around the
time of your issue.

 

[Jeff]

Thanks for help guys. My pc is good now. I'm bailing ...