Strange problems

[Bill Eversole]

Hello,

I've been working on a Dell computer for several days. Initially the
computer had a spyware infection. While cleaning it up I got a message
telling me some windows files had been changed and i needed to insert
the Windows XP CD to restore them.

Soon aftewards I got a message on reboot saying Windows had recovered
from a corrupt registry. I was going to do a SFC /scannow, but at some
point I was no longer able to reboot.

I did a repair install at the 2nd prompt. Later when reinstalling SP2,
the installation failed somewhere, and Windows automatically removed a
portion of SP2. This condition was totally unstable.

Next, I did a quick reformat and fresh install. Everything seemed
better until the old message came back, "Windows recovered from a
corrupt registry..." on a reboot after installing SP2 or one of the
other critical updates. Soon I was no longer able to log on to Windows
at all...no user names appeared in the logon screen...hit CTRL + ALT +
DEL twice and the old Windows 2000 sytle logon box appeared, but
Windows refused to let me logon under Administrator or the user name I
set up with blank passwords.

I ran the Maxtor Diagnostics test from floppy, and it found no problems
with the hard drive. I ran Windows Memory Diagnostics all night, but
it found no errors.

Right now I am doing a complete reformat and reinstall and hoping for
the best.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Bill

 

[John7]

Is the disk that holds the boot partition larger than 137GB?

Did you run Maxtor's short or long test?

Make sure BIOS is set for standard RAM voltage settings.
Try +0.1V later.

I've seen MS Memory Diagnostics fail to detect RAM flaws.
Go to www.simtester.com , get DocMem and run RAM Burn-in test
for 1 day + 1 night with full system setup and closed case.

HTH,
John7

 

[Bill Eversole]

John,

Thanks for your reply. The HD passed both the long and short Maxtor
test.
I will try DocMem tonight, and see if it finds anything.

Thanks again.

Bill

 

[Bill Eversole]

Here is an update:

Complete reformat and reinstall of Windows XP Home SP1 completed
successfully.

Ran Windows Update. First update installed 2 updates (Windows Installer
3.1 and one other)

Restarted successfully.

Ran Windows Update again. Installed 25 updates.

Restarted successfully.

Ran Windows Update again. Installed SP2.

Restarted, but system spontaneously rebooted before usual screen
appeared to enable automatic updates.

Ran Windows Update. 5 updates installed.

Restarted, but blue screen of death appeared briefly, and system
rebooted. Low screen resolution prompt after reboot.

So my latest theory is the instability of this computer is related to
SP2 and the last 5 updates.

Any suggestions for a cure?

Thanks in advance.

Bill

 

[Guest]

DID YOU CHECK IF YOUR VIDEO CARD DRIVERS ARE CORRECT BECAUSE IF YOU HAVE
WRONG ONES THAT COULD CAUSE IT TO REBOOT AND SHOW LOW RESOLUTIONS... AND IF
THAT DOESN'T WORK TRY BUYING A NEW XP HOME EDITION OR THE ONE THAT YOU HAVE
AND RESTART EVERYTHING....
TRY THOSE FOR NOW

 

[Bill Eversole]

Video driver is correct. Even temporarily swapped out the stock video
card for a totally different one, but no help.

Built a slipstreamed XP CD w/ SP2 and did complete format and install,
but no help.

Installed SP2 from MS SP2 CD in Safe Mode, but still have problems.

Most common error message after reboot is "Windows Registry
Recovery--One of the files containing the system's registry data had to
be recovered by use of a log or alternate copy. The recovery was
successful." If this error is seen, it will continue to occur after
each subsequent reboot as well.

Last error seen was "IE5.0 Per-User Install Utility--IE 5.0 Per-User
Install Utility has encountered a problem and needs to close..."

Any more ideas? Thanks in advance.

Bill

 

[John7]

Any results from DocMem yet?

John7