System Restore Problem

K

kaine.grigg

I am currently running WinXP Home Edition Version 2002 with Service Pack 3 on
an ASUSTeK laptop with 1.5GHz and 504MB of RAM and had some recent problems
after installing AVG anti virus. I decided to restore my system to an earlier
point when I had Norton Anti-Virus software installed and the system was
still running smoothly. When I tried to restore the system, the system
crashed and I had to turn off the laptop and restart manually. I have since
been unable to run System Restore to undo the restoration or choose another
restore point (it will not open no matter how I try to access it - i.e.,
through Start --> System Restore or through Run or in safe mode with command
prompt - and just freezes with a blank white window titled System Restore. I
have checked the log files and it states that the "system was restored
successfully", although the system was restored apparently without any
anti-virus software installed - so there must have beena problem. I have
tried to reinstall system restore via sr.inf, but this does not help and
system restore continues to hang the system when I try to run it. I have
uninstalled the Service Pack 3 and reinstalled, but this does not help. I
have checked all posts related to this problem and have tried everything -
please help :)
 
L

LD55ZRA

Forget about system restore. It is not for what you think it is for. I
suggest wipe the HDD and start all over again. Please start backing up
your data first then when you come back here, tell us whether you have
an OS disk or is it just a recovery disk. The instructions will vary
with these types of disks.

System restore never works in cases where you were affected by viruses.

hth
 
J

Jose

I am currently running WinXP Home Edition Version 2002 with Service Pack 3 on
an ASUSTeK laptop with 1.5GHz and 504MB of RAM and had some recent problems
after installing AVG anti virus. I decided to restore my system to an earlier
point when I had Norton Anti-Virus software installed and the system was
still running smoothly. When I tried to restore the system, the system
crashed and I had to turn off the laptop and restart manually. I have since
been unable to run System Restore to undo the restoration or choose another
restore point (it will not open no matter how I try to access it  - i.e..,
through Start --> System Restore or through Run or in safe mode with command
prompt - and just freezes with a blank white window titled System Restore..  I
have checked the log files and it states that the "system was restored
successfully", although the system was restored apparently without any
anti-virus software installed - so there must have beena problem. I have
tried to reinstall system restore via sr.inf, but this does not help and
system restore continues to hang the system when I try to run it. I have
uninstalled the Service Pack 3 and reinstalled, but this does not help. I
have checked all posts related to this problem and have tried everything -
please help :)

You are digging yourself a deep hole by trying things. You need to
fix things.

SR is a popular malware target and will try to trick you into thinking
you need to reinstall XP.

I would first scan with some reputable scanning tools, attempt to fix
SR and failing the fix, reinstall SR.

Download, install, update and do a full scan with these free malware
detection programs:

Malwarebytes (MBAM): http://malwarebytes.org/
SUPERAntiSpyware: (SAS): http://www.superantispyware.com/

They can be uninstalled later if desired.

To fix your empty SR calendar, after the scans run clean it may also
be necessary to reregister some DLLs.

Reregistering the DLLs is okay even if they do not need
reregistering. You can also reregister the DLLs before the scans
which may fix the empty SR calendar issue, but the scans are still
recommended.

Click Start, Run and in the box enter the following commands one at a
time. Click the OK button to execute each command:

regsvr32 jscript
regsvr32 vbscript
regsvr32 /i mshtml

The last command for mshtml will load the DLL but may also contain a
harmless warning message depending on your environment.

To reinstall SR on a cleaned up system:

Reinstalling System Restore will delete all existing Restore Points.

Click Start, Run and type %Windir%\INF or browse to c:\windows\inf

Locate the SR.INF file.

If you have configured Windows Explorer to hide known file extensions,
the file may show up as SR. To see the file extensions for all file
types on the Tools menu click Folder Options.

Click the View tab.

Clear the Hide extensions for known file types check box.

Right-click the SR.INF file, and then click Install

Windows will now attempt to reinstall System Restore, and may prompt
you for the Windows installation source path. Point to %Windir%
\ServicePackFiles folder, or insert your slipstreamed Windows XP
(matching the Service Pack level of your system).

System Restore core files will be reinstalled.

Restart Windows when prompted.
 
K

Ken Blake, MVP

I am currently running WinXP Home Edition Version 2002 with Service Pack 3 on
an ASUSTeK laptop with 1.5GHz and 504MB of RAM and had some recent problems
after installing AVG anti virus. I decided to restore my system to an earlier
point when I had Norton Anti-Virus software installed and the system was
still running smoothly.


What were the problems? Why did you elect to use System Restore to try
to solve them? Just in case you didn't realize it, System Restore did
*not* have the capability to remove AVG and put NAV back. It restore
the operating system, not the programs you've installed.

When I tried to restore the system, the system
crashed and I had to turn off the laptop and restart manually. I have since
been unable to run System Restore to undo the restoration or choose another
restore point (it will not open no matter how I try to access it - i.e.,
through Start --> System Restore or through Run or in safe mode with command
prompt - and just freezes with a blank white window titled System Restore. I
have checked the log files and it states that the "system was restored
successfully", although the system was restored apparently without any
anti-virus software installed - so there must have beena problem. I have
tried to reinstall system restore via sr.inf, but this does not help and
system restore continues to hang the system when I try to run it. I have
uninstalled the Service Pack 3 and reinstalled, but this does not help. I
have checked all posts related to this problem and have tried everything -
please help :)


You used System Restore? How far back was the restore point you
restored to? My recommendation is never to try to go back more than a
week or two with System Restore, since it can result in getting things
out of synch with each other.

Also note that System Restore does nothing but restore the operating
system (mostly the registry). It does nothing for your data, installed
programs, etc.

You can try Jose's recommendations, but I wouldn't be surprised if at
this point, things are so badly screwed up that you will need to do a
clean reinstallation of Windows.
 
D

db

it's likely that you have
two anti virus programs
running.

what you might try is to
test the performance of
windows in safe mode.

if you see a notable
difference in safe mode,

then I suggest initiating
a clean boot for starting
up normal mode.

--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces
- Microsoft Partner
- @hotmail.com
~~~~~~~~~~"share the nirvana" - dbZen
 
G

glee

kaine.grigg said:
I am currently running WinXP Home Edition Version 2002 with Service
Pack 3 on
an ASUSTeK laptop with 1.5GHz and 504MB of RAM and had some recent
problems
after installing AVG anti virus. I decided to restore my system to an
earlier
point when I had Norton Anti-Virus software installed and the system
was
still running smoothly. When I tried to restore the system, the system
crashed and I had to turn off the laptop and restart manually. I have
since
been unable to run System Restore to undo the restoration or choose
another
restore point (it will not open no matter how I try to access it -
i.e.,
through Start --> System Restore or through Run or in safe mode with
command
prompt - and just freezes with a blank white window titled System
Restore. I
have checked the log files and it states that the "system was restored
successfully", although the system was restored apparently without any
anti-virus software installed - so there must have beena problem. I
have
tried to reinstall system restore via sr.inf, but this does not help
and
system restore continues to hang the system when I try to run it. I
have
uninstalled the Service Pack 3 and reinstalled, but this does not
help. I
have checked all posts related to this problem and have tried
everything -
please help :)

Jose is correct IMHO....you are digging a deeper hole. His instructions
for registering three files should fix your System Restore blank screen
issue.

You will still have other issues from using the restore point you used.
You had AVG installed but restore to a time when you had Norton AV. Now
you likely have the registry entries for Norton but not the program
files, and the program files for AVG but not the registry entries. So
neither anti-virus will now work.

Follow Jose's instructions to try and fix System Restore and scan for
malware.

To fix your anti-virus issues, you will have to use the respective
removal tools to remove all remnants of both Norton and AVG, then
install the one you want cleanly.

Go to Add or Remove Programs and attempt to uninstall Norton and/or AVG,
whichever are shown, and reboot if prompted.
When done with those attempts, whether successful or not, run both the
AVG and the Norton removal tools, rebooting whenever prompted to do so,
then download and install ONE anti-virus app.

AVG Remover:
http://www.avg.com/us-en/download-tools

Norton Removal Tool:
http://service1.symantec.com/Support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/2005033108162039
 

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