MrBurns
07-23-2004, 11:30 AM
First I have to say, that I am from Austria (Europe) and so my English maybe isnt perfect.
All program output is translated from German.
Because I had an increase of system crashes in the last few weeks, I decided to first make a scan and safe w/ scanreg in dos-mode and after this use scanreg /fix to fix the registry.
When I checked the registry w/ scanreg, it found no errors. So I satrted scanreg /fix. The check of the registry also worked w/o problem, but when the program tried to restore the registry, it crashed alread at the first file (system.dat). the first point (searching for valid registry keys) worked, but at the second point (checking structure of the registry) it always crashed, when it is at 0%. One of these things happened:
1. the pc just did a reboot
2. strange chars and colored rectangles appeared on the screen (see pic, the dark blue chars should be black) and the system didnt react anymore, only the reset button helped.
3. The same kind of chars appeared, but only very short, than the system rebooted.
4. strange colored chars appeared (see video), and after this the system rebooted
5. the picture just froze at 0%. again only the reset button helped.
The registry wasnt damaged by this, windows is running as good (or as bad) as before.
I only want to know, if this could be a sign for a damaged registry.
Thanks in advance.
Here is the pic of the strange chars (2.,3.; dark blue chars should be black):
http://members.chello.at/edith.matuskovics/Scanreg_klein.jpg
uncompressed version, original size (1.22MB) (http://members.chello.at/edith.matuskovics/Scanreg_unkomprimiert.jpg)
Video (4.):
avi, 5.12MB (http://members.chello.at/edith.matuskovics/scanreg_bunt.AVI)
I also have a few other videos, where you maybe dont see the colored chars of 4., or you dont see the reboot, but you can see other things better. So if someone has a problem w/ the quality of the video, just post where you have this problem and I will upload this video to my webspace an post a link. The other videos are between 2.25MB and 2.65MB big (yes, I uploaded the biggest one, but it is also the longest one w/ 20 sec.).
@everyone, who says I should upgrade to WinXP: I already have WinXP in dual boot. I cannot get rid of Win98 completely, because I need to use some programs, which run in Win98, but not in WinXP.
I also have tried a few things, that some people in other forums suggested:
I renamed all c:\windows\sysbckup\rb*.cab files in rb*.old. The only difference was, that I got a new version of the crash, but I think that this new version occured the first time when I disabled autoexec.bat and config.sys.
First the screen output looked normal, but than it became this:
http://members.chello.at/edith.matuskovics/Scanreg1_klein.jpg
uncompressed version, original size (792kB) (http://members.chello.at/edith.matuskovics/Scanreg1_unkomprimiert.jpg)
After this again only the reset button helped.
Also scandisk in DOS + Windows (including surface tests) didnt help. It only found one error. This error was, that the free memory of the partittion is wrong. In Win9x you get this error nearly every time you run scandisk. When I started scanreg /fix after this the same happened as after I renamed the .cab files (I renamed them back in .cab before I ran scandisk).
I also tried to start DOS w/o autoexec.bat and config.sys. However it didnt work w/o confg.sys, because scanreg needs himem.sys. So I only renamed autoexec.bat and in config.sys I wrote a rem at the beginning of each line except the himem.sys line.
The only difference this time was, that it didnt alwqays crash at 0%. On the 3 tries I made, it crashed one time at 3%, one time at 1% and one time at 0%.
Something else, I forgot to mention: When I go to DOS from windows, the floppy-LED is alway until I return to windows or reboot. But the floppy drive only makes a short sound when I exit windows, after this you dont hear it anymore. So it semms, like the LED is on all the time even when the drive isnt active.
When I strat dos by pressing f8 at boot and selecting command prompt only, the floppy-LED works normal.
When I had renamed my .cab files in .old I also ran scanreg /backup and scanreg /restore, bit both worked normal.
I also made a few virus checks:
Before you read my logfiles, you should know, that on my system Win98 is on C: and WinXP is on D: (dual boot).
about one week ago I found a few viruses w/ avg 6.0 free edition. logfile (http://members.chello.at/edith.matuskovics/avg.log.txt).
A few days ago I made a few scans again. I always tested all 3 partitions (also in the test I made one week ago).
First I ran the DOS-Version of Norton Anti Virus 2004 in DOS-mode, but I used a very old virus database form 11/2003 (because this was when my trial licence expired). NAV didnt find any viruses.
After this I made a scan w/the freeware program AntiVir in WinXP. The program only found viruses in backup files and in a uninstall program, but i think the virus in the uninstall program was a wrong alert, because the program is from a reliable vendor and also I had a wrong alert w/ this program once in the past (at this time the reason for the wrong alert was a defective ram). logfile (http://members.chello.at/edith.matuskovics/AVWIN.LOG.txt)
After this I made a scan w/ avg in Win98 (the setup program for avg doesnt work in XP). This time the program didnt find anything.
if anyone says, that I should reinstall Windows: this is too much work, because I would have to reinstall all the programs too. I will not reinstell Windows as long as everything I need is working.
All program output is translated from German.
Because I had an increase of system crashes in the last few weeks, I decided to first make a scan and safe w/ scanreg in dos-mode and after this use scanreg /fix to fix the registry.
When I checked the registry w/ scanreg, it found no errors. So I satrted scanreg /fix. The check of the registry also worked w/o problem, but when the program tried to restore the registry, it crashed alread at the first file (system.dat). the first point (searching for valid registry keys) worked, but at the second point (checking structure of the registry) it always crashed, when it is at 0%. One of these things happened:
1. the pc just did a reboot
2. strange chars and colored rectangles appeared on the screen (see pic, the dark blue chars should be black) and the system didnt react anymore, only the reset button helped.
3. The same kind of chars appeared, but only very short, than the system rebooted.
4. strange colored chars appeared (see video), and after this the system rebooted
5. the picture just froze at 0%. again only the reset button helped.
The registry wasnt damaged by this, windows is running as good (or as bad) as before.
I only want to know, if this could be a sign for a damaged registry.
Thanks in advance.
Here is the pic of the strange chars (2.,3.; dark blue chars should be black):
http://members.chello.at/edith.matuskovics/Scanreg_klein.jpg
uncompressed version, original size (1.22MB) (http://members.chello.at/edith.matuskovics/Scanreg_unkomprimiert.jpg)
Video (4.):
avi, 5.12MB (http://members.chello.at/edith.matuskovics/scanreg_bunt.AVI)
I also have a few other videos, where you maybe dont see the colored chars of 4., or you dont see the reboot, but you can see other things better. So if someone has a problem w/ the quality of the video, just post where you have this problem and I will upload this video to my webspace an post a link. The other videos are between 2.25MB and 2.65MB big (yes, I uploaded the biggest one, but it is also the longest one w/ 20 sec.).
@everyone, who says I should upgrade to WinXP: I already have WinXP in dual boot. I cannot get rid of Win98 completely, because I need to use some programs, which run in Win98, but not in WinXP.
I also have tried a few things, that some people in other forums suggested:
I renamed all c:\windows\sysbckup\rb*.cab files in rb*.old. The only difference was, that I got a new version of the crash, but I think that this new version occured the first time when I disabled autoexec.bat and config.sys.
First the screen output looked normal, but than it became this:
http://members.chello.at/edith.matuskovics/Scanreg1_klein.jpg
uncompressed version, original size (792kB) (http://members.chello.at/edith.matuskovics/Scanreg1_unkomprimiert.jpg)
After this again only the reset button helped.
Also scandisk in DOS + Windows (including surface tests) didnt help. It only found one error. This error was, that the free memory of the partittion is wrong. In Win9x you get this error nearly every time you run scandisk. When I started scanreg /fix after this the same happened as after I renamed the .cab files (I renamed them back in .cab before I ran scandisk).
I also tried to start DOS w/o autoexec.bat and config.sys. However it didnt work w/o confg.sys, because scanreg needs himem.sys. So I only renamed autoexec.bat and in config.sys I wrote a rem at the beginning of each line except the himem.sys line.
The only difference this time was, that it didnt alwqays crash at 0%. On the 3 tries I made, it crashed one time at 3%, one time at 1% and one time at 0%.
Something else, I forgot to mention: When I go to DOS from windows, the floppy-LED is alway until I return to windows or reboot. But the floppy drive only makes a short sound when I exit windows, after this you dont hear it anymore. So it semms, like the LED is on all the time even when the drive isnt active.
When I strat dos by pressing f8 at boot and selecting command prompt only, the floppy-LED works normal.
When I had renamed my .cab files in .old I also ran scanreg /backup and scanreg /restore, bit both worked normal.
I also made a few virus checks:
Before you read my logfiles, you should know, that on my system Win98 is on C: and WinXP is on D: (dual boot).
about one week ago I found a few viruses w/ avg 6.0 free edition. logfile (http://members.chello.at/edith.matuskovics/avg.log.txt).
A few days ago I made a few scans again. I always tested all 3 partitions (also in the test I made one week ago).
First I ran the DOS-Version of Norton Anti Virus 2004 in DOS-mode, but I used a very old virus database form 11/2003 (because this was when my trial licence expired). NAV didnt find any viruses.
After this I made a scan w/the freeware program AntiVir in WinXP. The program only found viruses in backup files and in a uninstall program, but i think the virus in the uninstall program was a wrong alert, because the program is from a reliable vendor and also I had a wrong alert w/ this program once in the past (at this time the reason for the wrong alert was a defective ram). logfile (http://members.chello.at/edith.matuskovics/AVWIN.LOG.txt)
After this I made a scan w/ avg in Win98 (the setup program for avg doesnt work in XP). This time the program didnt find anything.
if anyone says, that I should reinstall Windows: this is too much work, because I would have to reinstall all the programs too. I will not reinstell Windows as long as everything I need is working.