Win XP Hanges on startup, registry run key is corrupted

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Guest

I'm trying to fix a friends system. Its a dell running XP SP2. I can get it
to boot in safe mode, barely as F8 works 1 out of 10 times. Anyway adaware
hangs on the registry key
HKEY_Local_Machine\software\microsoft\windows\current version\run. So I
tried looking at it with regedt32 and get no response when I click on the Run
key. Restore only gives me todays date to play with, and hitting back in the
calender doesn't do anything.

I've seen articles # 307545, 307973, and 307654. Sounds like my OEM XP
disks aren't going to cut it on the Dell box running SP2? I've spent about 4
hours hunting around. And I have an older 98 system that barely runs a
printer, so I've about had it. But I'ld try anything right now to keep from
throwing things. I also haven't seen what to do with the recover program, or
how to find the program that is hanging up the startup.

Any help is really appreciated.
 
Kurt M. Sanger said:
I'm trying to fix a friends system. Its a dell running XP SP2. I can get
it
to boot in safe mode, barely as F8 works 1 out of 10 times. Anyway
adaware
hangs on the registry key
HKEY_Local_Machine\software\microsoft\windows\current version\run. So I
tried looking at it with regedt32 and get no response when I click on the
Run
key. Restore only gives me todays date to play with, and hitting back in
the
calender doesn't do anything.

I've seen articles # 307545, 307973, and 307654. Sounds like my OEM XP
disks aren't going to cut it on the Dell box running SP2? I've spent
about 4
hours hunting around. And I have an older 98 system that barely runs a
printer, so I've about had it. But I'ld try anything right now to keep
from
throwing things. I also haven't seen what to do with the recover program,
or
how to find the program that is hanging up the startup.

Any help is really appreciated.
Click to expand...

Do a process of elimination. Boot into Safe Mode with Command Prompt. Type
msconfig.exe and press Enter. If it can not find it then boot back to Safe
Mode again to a normal desktop, use Windows Explorer (Start | Programs |
Accessories) to find where it is (OEM's tend to put it in their own Help
folder, the jerks). Boot again to Safe Mode with Command prompt.and run
msconfig.exe, now that you know where it is. On the services tab, hide all
Microsoft entries (it's an option) and deselect whatever is left. On the
General tab, deselect the Load Startup items. Reboot normal. Use MS Config
to turn on services that you turned off, one by one and rebooting each time
until problem reappears. If it doesn't, then do the same for Startup items
(the MSConfig Startup tab). Make sure your system clock is set for the
correct time, date, and year (else updates might not get applied). Do all
Microsoft website provided updates (do them using the Custom installation)
after you've run updated antivirus, uninstalled old versions and then
installed Ad-awareSE and updated it and used it, and ditto for Spybot v1.3.
Make sure only one antivirus utility is running, multiple ones can fight
each other and cause weirdness.

Best wishes, and Happy Holidays.

Winguy
 
Winguy; Thanks, I can do this. Regedt32 did finally display the run command
showing a huge amount of the same program being called. I delected all the
keys and its booting now. Somehow the antivirus program was trying to
startup too many times and hung the system. Now its not shutting down
properly. But your debug process may help. Thanks again.
 
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