After the Crash and burn

[repoman1122]

Hi all!

My pc crashed when a downloaded program file locked it up halfway thru the installation part. Powered it down......when I rebooted, Windows XP (Home) refused to load...lock-up again. After several attempt, it came back up, but with a half dozen bugs and malfunctioning programs. I have most all of it working again, But here is my last unsolvable problems: I have to do the turn-off twice to get it to shut down....the first turn off drops off some, but not all of my taskbar's program icons.

So, I'm asking if anyone has had this experience, or has any suggestions for me.....Thanks!

- Repoman

[redwudz]

I would do a complete antivirus/malware scan first, best in 'Safe Mode'. It sounds like that program may have done some damage or installed some trojans. You might try Trend Micro's free scan: http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ What anti-malware programs do you have installed at present?

Have you tried to do a restore to a earlier time before you ran the file? If that's not possible, it sounds bad enough to consider a reinstall of the OS if you can't get it all working again.

And welcome to our forums.

[SLK001]

You sound like you have a program that didn't properly load and thus cannot be shutdown. First, check your EVENT VIEWER to see if there are any problems flagged every time you start. Second, I would install Sysinternal's (now part of MS) Process Explorer - it is a substitute for Task Manager (it starts up to my system tray). It will show you all the programs that are running at the time of shutdown. As the PC shuts down programs, they will show up in red. Just watch for the one that "stays red".

Also, what program caused the ultimate "crash"? redwudz might be on to something with the virus/malware issue. Some program may be trying to connect to the internet prior to shutting down and can't, thus holding up the shutdown process until it finishes its connection.

There is also the possibility that the program damaged your video driver (or even your card) by trying to switch to modes not available to it.

[ranchhand]

If you have corrupted system files, a repair reinstall is easy to do and will overwrite critical system files but will not overwrite your programs and data. Only thing is that you will need is a standalone system disk.

[aedipuss]

If you have corrupted system files, a repair reinstall is easy to do and will overwrite critical system files but will not overwrite your programs and data. Only thing is that you will need is a standalone system disk.

and you will need to redo all the microsoft os updates including sp2 if needed......

[repoman1122]

Hi again - I have the WinXP install/repair disk, and a repair job finally did the trick, but it now takes longer (a lot longer) to get everything loaded. Sometimes the start-up programs show up on the task bar, sometimes not.
I have run AVG antivirus, AVG Rootkit, AVG Spyware, McCafee, Windows Defender, PC Safe, RegCure, CCleaner, and FreeRegistryFix, re-installed IE7, (with all 87 updates) - all to no avail - Oh, I was installing a new version of PCTools "Spyware Doctor when it locked up on me. My first version of this software, I had absolutely no trouble....but a newer verson came out, and it was bad news....it was causing IE7 to run very, very slow - like ten minutes to pull up a web site....put the ist version back on - all ok - but as you know, the 3rd version was the killer -
I haven't found anything specific in the system management logs except "application failed" for whatever reason.....
So what should I do? I definitely don't want to re-install my OS unless all effort has been made...as I say, I have found and fixed several problems so far...I'm hoping for a small miracle - Repoman

[redwudz]

A couple of things to check. Watch your hard drive indicator light while loading IE and see if you seem to have more than usual activity. Same with startup, though it's harder to tell there. Also open Task Manager and monitor your CPU and memory usages.

The reason I mention those, is something is slowing down the operations. You have a lot of anti-malware programs. That can be good, or they may be trying to scan everything at once. You could unplug from the internet and use msconfig to disable some of the start up programs and see if it's one particular one, or just all of them. (Type ' msconfig ' into a 'Run....' window.)

I would also run chkdsk on your hard drive and defrag the drive. You can do both in the HDD 'Properties>Tools.'

I would keep my fingers crossed that it's something simple.

[repoman1122]

Hey Redwudz!

I finally got up the kahonies to re-install my OS as you suggested.......I'm running fine now, and didn't lose any thing, everything is intact! "Haleluyah brother, you're my own personal saviour" - The Matrix

Many thank yous are due for a happy ending!

- Repoman

[redwudz]

Unfortunately, many times a full reinstall of the OS is the best. It cleans out all the 'junk' and gives you a fresh start when things all go 'wrong'.

For future problems, you might look into a program like Acronis True Image or similar. Once you get your system set up, you make a clone of it. Then if the worst happens, it's fairly easy and quick to restore it all back and you don't need the OS disc or any driver or program installs. Just use it once and you will see how valuable it is.

A backup reinstall takes less than 1/2 hour and it's basically automatic. There are freeware programs that do the same thing, but True Image is not that much, considering. And you may find older versions highly discounted.

But I'm glad you got it all going again.

[repoman1122]

Good morning Redwudz!

Let me give you an update on my progress......The OS re-install restored the loading and speediness of my pc, but I started getting a Windows Installer box that was trying to install "PhotoGallery" but couldn't find the file called PhotoGallery.msi
I did a Google search, and the web site called Help2Go.com advised that I put my HP software disk (I have an HP digital camera) in the cd drive, and reboot my pc.......sure enough, when Windows Installer popped up on my screen, it sucessfully completed the install, and all is well again. I also had a problem installing the 87 Windows updates - I went to the microsoft web site, and was told that the WinXP repair operation leaves intact a file called Wups2.dll, but the registry files that correspond to this files are missing! Go to run, cmd, net stop wuauser2.dll <enter>(this stops the Automatic Updates service). Type in ' regsvr32 %windir%\system32\wups2.dll ' <enter>; then net start wuauserv <enter>.

So, I'm out of the woods for now, I hope this information is helpful to anyone else having these kinds of problems -
I'll keep you all posted if other problems pop up that I need help with...Thanks very much to all! - Repoman