Clearing my desktop...

Ace · July 19, 2004, 10:00 hrs

Don't be alarmed; I know I'm not usually allowed in the tech areas. I'm not here to cause any damage; already accomplished that.

the setting I've got a Gigabyte dual Bios motherboard, 512 Corsair memory, XP1800+ chip, nVidia Ti4200 64 mb video. I've been having Links 2001 golf game (MS) crash the system, with memory dumps and page faults... I reset the virtual memory to 766 to match up with the physical, reinstalled the game, played with game settings. Was reading on web from user groups and MS that the Ti4200 might not be recognized at actual capability, plus how an AGP card can read as PCI. One advisor suggested to go into Bios to make sure card is set to AGP.

bad move In BIOS I saw there was a "performance" setting for video, so changed to that thinking that might be why I was running into game probs. On boot, I got a pop up "registry change made/it's ok" and OK'd it. Went through Windows splash and welcome, to a wallpaper-only desktop. No taskbar. No icons. Only means to access anything is through task manager. Since; I've booted safe, changed to fail safe settings in BIOS, triggered secondary BIOS, went to defaults... all manner of permutations of BIOS "corrections". No change. No ERD.

the non-cure Found two likely causes, online. One suggested Adware "sys.exe" with affiliated ddm string in Registry. Don't have it. (Never thought I would have wished FOR a virus..). Also the Windows "old dll file" theory of old shdocvw.dll causing problems, plus some possible others (browseui.dll, shell32.dll, setupapi.dll...) of which I've gone in, changed to "old" as instructed, no change.

partial salvation I've got no internet access; ISP doesn't recognize account... Have saved all docs (Word will work, but not WordPerfect). Have burned all photos. Even saved Diablo characters/games. So have everything of value saved.

Gigabyte wrote to suggest a Windows repair attempt. Figured that, but didn't want to do much more until I got everything saved off (yesterday) and confirmed. No response from Monarch computers as yet (thing's 2 years old now, so didn't expect them to jump on a service/help email). My guess is go with the Windows repair, but expect a possible Windows reinstall..? Any feedback at that or other solutions would naturally be appreciated.

Ace; It was effective in shutting me up, and down.

Chandler · July 19, 2004, 10:46 hrs

Can you start the computer in Safe Mode (F8 just before Windows starts to load)

Ace · July 19, 2004, 11:03 hrs

Yessir; that just gives a black screen that says "safe mode" which I can get to Task Manager (only). As I mentioned, I went to the BIOS default settings, plus manually reset options to the manual defaults, with no effect. Also did safe Boot ini from msconfig, as well as variations of booting from there (full, custom)...

Mark H · July 19, 2004, 11:20 hrs

Is this Windows XP? Have you tried going back to a prior restore point in Windows?

Ace · July 19, 2004, 11:26 hrs

Yes; guess I should have mentioned that. I can find no means through Task Manager to locate and perform a prior stage restore... Also, by the way, system restore (instead of entering safe mode) wouldn't do anything (couldn't fix itself by that means).

Neon · July 19, 2004, 12:27 hrs

Have you tested the memory yet, in case this is a hardware problem?

Do the event logs contain any clues about the problem?

Ace · July 19, 2004, 12:46 hrs

The memory is showing fine as far as the boot process... my guess is that it's functioning/intact. I did see that the BIOS settings tend to default to a 128 aperture (think that was in one of the "performance" modes) which would be problematic as mine's a 64 mb. card. I got a page fault screen on one of the thousand or so reboot attempts, probably due to that... How do you find/interpret the event log?

Chandler · July 19, 2004, 12:52 hrs

From Task Manager, you can call up System Restore with:

%SystemRoot%\System32\restore\rstrui.exe

Neon · July 19, 2004, 12:56 hrs

Test the memory with memtest86+, which is available from our downloads page.

The event logs are in Control Panel --> Administrative Tools --> Event Viewer (in Windows 2000, which is the computer I'm at right now...too lazy to go over to the WinXP computer)

Ace · July 19, 2004, 13:13 hrs

Danke; I'll go in during lunch (home) to diagnose with those. I cannot find Control Panel through task manager... where is it? As yet I haven't happened upon it.

How do I download memtest at home, since I've got no web access...? Can it be put on a floppy and then run?

Nestor · July 19, 2004, 13:28 hrs

Have you tried a repair install from the XP CD? This might assist you. Additionally, If you have all the data backed up, a reinstall of XP over the top might be necessary.

I've never seen the video card you've mentioned, so I don't have any knowledge of any kind of problems associated with it. I'd suggest a reinstall of the drivers- have you tried booting with a different video card? Does Nvidia have any tech pages on this card at all?

Ace · July 19, 2004, 13:41 hrs

I reinstalled the original nVidia drivers... helped to at least bring back a nice crisp resolution of that pretty wallpaper photo I have up... I agree with the repair install; that was what Gigabyte suggested so will likely go that route. I'll report after, especially if I am running into a complete reinstall, for advice/guidance. I don't have any other card to boot except an ancient one from the Quantex... the card's been great, except for the Links game, so don't think it was getting touchy by itself.

Ace · July 19, 2004, 16:45 hrs

I shall now answer my last poast; hope I don't kill it, as I could use the help...

Since last we poasted, I hit home and tried the event viewer; found it. Pop up said "MMC failed to initialize as it was installed incorrectly or portion of the registry is corrupted." Did find the file, in place, in registry; mmcndmgr.dll.

Found system restore again; tried it, nada. Said it cannot protect computer (at this point).

Per Mark's suggestion; CAN one get to a restore point attempt through task manager? Like I said, I can't find anywhere that is located (I could find it if I had the normal visual links). Also; memory looked fine in the task manager link (with CPU usage, etc.). I'll figure I can't do the memtest 'cuz I can't GET it to that PC.

Appreciate all the quick and helpful help. At this point, I'll figure I'm headed for a windows repair attempt. Let me know if anyone has a different something to try.

Ace; if I get this fixed I promise never to come back. Here.

Neon · July 19, 2004, 18:37 hrs

Memtest runs from a floppy disk. You would need to download it to another PC, unzip the contents to floppy, then sneaker net it over to the stricken system.

It sounds like you should do a reinstall.

pat · July 19, 2004, 19:25 hrs

My suggestion (although late, been out of town) install new hard drive, format and install OS. Then you could slave the old one and copy all the contents over you want to the new one. After you have everything you want, you could then format the old one and use it for additional storage and back-up.

trav · July 19, 2004, 20:46 hrs

Quote from: pat on July 19, 2004, 19:25 hrs
After you have everything you want, you could then format the old one and use it for additional storage and back-up.

....unless the drive is failing... Could that be it?

trav; Geez, even Ace has computer problems :P

Igloo · July 20, 2004, 04:30 hrs

have you tried running the process explorer.exe in task manager? this could bump it back into giving you some, if not all visual back.

not sure if you have tried this, if you have, what did it do??

Igloo

travis, if the drive was failing, sureley the boot sector would have gone first of all?

meaning no boot into windows??

Ace · July 20, 2004, 08:39 hrs

I thought Pat was kidding there, for a minute... that would be plausible, though.

Iggy, I did do that I believe but I'll give it a go again. The only "fix" I can imagine without a repair or reinstall attempt would be a roll-back to an earlier state, but I'll continue to figure that can't be done under the circumstances since I can't "find" that feature. I'll see if I can do the memtest download and Nikenet it, Ne'. Thanks.

The (only) good thing is I was able to locate and save everything of value... it would just be the annoyance of having to reload everything. But I can live with that.

Any advice on things to do/beware of for:
1. Windows CD repair attempt?
2. (if failed) Windows reinstall?

I presume upon reinstall everything's gone (and any need to do anything to BIOS beforehand..?). Guess I'm wondering if the BIOS gets "fixed" (or at least registry) upon reinstall. Besides my general ignorance, it's an area I don't delve into (guess why). Last time I had to fix any registry things was about 3 years ago, when I was trying to clean out remnants of prior video card after a switch. Never installed Windows or needed to (till now..?).

Thanks again for words of wisdom; I'll kill this when it's back to life.

Chandler · July 20, 2004, 08:44 hrs

From Task Manager, can you start System Restore by going to File, New Task, Run and entering:

%SystemRoot%\System32\restore\rstrui.exe

Upon reinstallation of Windows XP, it deletes the Documents and Settings and Windows directories, along with Program Files I think.

Ace · July 20, 2004, 09:03 hrs

That I did, Chandler, after you offered that tip earlier. Said "system restore cannot protect your computer..." and wouldn't work. I tried that from a number of angles (command, safe boot option..). Is there another way to reset to a prior (stable) configuration besides system restore, or is that "it"? I know when I did reset it after a video driver prob I got a screen where I could pick a date for it to go back to... That's what I was thinking of, for a restoration.

Chandler · July 20, 2004, 09:10 hrs

I think reinstalling is your only option. The only other possibility would be "Last Known Good Configuration" in the F8 boot menu.

Alternatively, boot from your Windows XP CD-ROM and go through the normal installation procedure, and at one point it will ask if you want to Repair an existing installation (not Recovery Console)

Ace · July 20, 2004, 09:44 hrs

Ok; thanks Chandler. That's what I understood it to say and do. I'll give it a go later today. I did the F8 "last good config" choice and that also didn't change anything. I'm thinking I've exhausted all "quick" fixes (I know I'm exhausted..).

pat · July 20, 2004, 18:18 hrs

Well, no, I wasn?t kidding around. Me, kid around, you must be thinking of someone else.

I just figured you could start out fresh with a new drive. They are relatively inexpensive these days; give you a chance to start out with a fresh install. Then you could just transfer the old info over at your leisure. Give you time to make sure you have everything that you wanted to save.
Then you?d have an extra hard drive to play around with. You may one day want to keyboard out the Ace chronicles, which I?m sure will take up an 80-gig drive all by its own.

Do be sure to enable a firewall before connecting to the internet, even to be sure your AV is up to date. Even with a repair install you will most likely have a long list of security updates to install from Windows Update.

Ace · July 21, 2004, 08:49 hrs

It appears I'm back. It's back. Your back, if not my back.

I did the Windows repair this AM; took longer than I thought since it hung up... so all I had time to do was reset screen resolution (criminy, I hate 800x600 and big things in my face) and confirm my ISP has lost me... so no internet until I call them to get re-identified.

The thing hung with a VIA USB2.0 concern, that it wasn't WinXP compatible (for cryin' out loud..) and to contact the mfg. for "safe" software. Told it to go ahead anyway and then it wanted a Via sys file. All I could tell it to get it from was "D:" since I could only put in the sys disk from Monarch and hope it was on there somewhere.. no idea of the path and no way to view it, during an install. Sat there dormant for awhile; couldn't bail out of the repair with any keystrokes. Finally got it to get going by inserting the Windows disk a couple times. Desktop is back; got an ExperTool error (nVidia) but figured that could be due to driver reinstall or who knows what, so no big deal.

Will do on the Firewall trigger; that would be prudent. Thanks to all for your help and advice and guidance; can't wait to get back to the BIOS and start messing around again.

Ace; kidding. Really.

Igloo · July 21, 2004, 09:24 hrs

:P glad its all working, now remove yourself and your pointy shoes from the techy areas, thank ye

Chandler · July 21, 2004, 10:03 hrs

Ace, regarding USB 2.0; if you install Service Pack 1 it should work.

Ace · July 21, 2004, 10:32 hrs

Iggy; I agree.

Chandler; I never went with Service Pack 1 after hearing horror stories of it (in its entirety). Will try it this time.

Ace; alright I'm outta here. I'll get the door.

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