xp possible registry problem and change of settings

[etherfox]

I don't remember the exact model off hand, but I've got an MSI board with a VIA chipset of the AthlonXP flavour (I'll check at home and post it later). We'll see if this fixes other people's issue though, and hopefully they'll post thier success

Cheers

[etherfox]

Another question to those who have this problem, have any of you experienced BSODs coming back with the 0x8e code? If you do, this could affirm that it is a memory problem you're dealing with.

[vision]

Well I was able to solve the problem by simply reinstalling win xp. I didn't switch any hardware in my pc. This only proves that this particular problem occures because of lots of different reasons. It is tough to determine the definite cause for this. I never experienced any kind of difficulties with my RAM stick (I'm on single channel) and I always thought it's a software/driver issue in my case. It is interesting though, that the athlon/via combination seems to be affected. (For the record I have Athlon 1900+, VIA KT333 Chipset). It could very well be a RAM issue, as well as pretty much anything else . Who knows?

[dapht_punk]

Well, mbgeek, aren't you the IDIOT, for you see the problem is not a RAM problem, although it may help YOU to use new RAM.....

I have just reinstalled WinXP 3 times w/updates in the last day, each time comeing up with the same problem, & couldn't figure out why it was happening.

I did some searches & dug around in all kinds of forums, read TONS of posts. Then I stumbled on to the error reports section of "computer management" & found the "popup window" entries.
Well this entry explains that it IS indeed a driver problem.
I did not have this problem before I reinstalled windows, but somehow came up with it after the first re-install (& man it pissed me off, I don't like to see errors popup before I even log into windows).

So I did some more searching, after back tracing it to after I installed the NEWEST nvidia driver (& some recent ones as well), & finally found an older one that worked for me.

I have 3 reboots, & not a sign of our friend the "Windows - Registry Recovery" popup. Now it may not be the nvidia driver giving you all the problem, but I would gamble my left nut on the fact it is a DRIVER that you have installed. (TURN OFF AUTOUPDATE IN WINDOWS, to those that say "well I haven't installed any new drivers.)

[fistral13]

Joining a long list of sufferers may be a heartrending decision, but it seems to be the best way of hammering out a solution.

I run 3 computers with Windows XP Home Edition. Two of them do not have this Registry problem.

The one I am concerned about is a Compaq Laptop 2190US. That is United States, not the US related to state of something.

Has anyone tried writing a logic diagram defining the steps to take in checking out our problem?

On booting up the laptop I sometimes get the dreaded blue screen. Is this a symptom of the same problem? Then I send an error message to Microsoft, but that dies on me.

Another symptom may be inability to instal XP SP2.

[fistral13]

After another blue screen, I got a reply pointing to the following articles in Microsoft Knowledge Base:


• How to Troubleshoot Hardware and Software Driver Problems in Windows XP (Q322205)

307852 HOW TO: Start Your Computer by Using the Last Known Good Configuration Feature in Windows XP

So I am now going through their comments.

Anybody tried these?

[roadvision]

We have found that the problem was caused by MicroSoft update KB840987 as when we removed it the problem went away, Now the way I figure it for the rest of you that reinstalled XP is the problem went away until you re-installed this update and the problem cam back. try deleting it. (it will come back until you block it) There is one problem with removing it as it causes a minor problem with DeltaView if you use it.

After not finding the answer under the error message I searched on KB840987 and found other problems caused but this update. There was another update KB887811 would fix some different problems caused by this update.

SEE: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/887811

So even though it did not mention my problem I ran the fix update anyway and guess what! no error message after 2 boots and it was happening everytime for me.

So check and see if KB840987 is on your system, if it is you probably do not have KB887811 on you system. try it, you'll like it...

Let me know if this works for you..

[jroy]

I just wanted to thank everyone here for posting their problems and what they did to fix them. I have been getting memory errors for as long as I can remember (my computer is 2 years old) but the computer still ran fine so I didn't pay them much attention. My computer also restarts every now and then, more often when I restart my computer, its as if the power went out or some one pulled the plug, it didn't go through the shutdown process. I couldn't figure out what was causing it. When I went to install a new hard drive I started getting the error "One or more files containing the systems registry data..." and the computer would just restart every time it started and I got a few memory errors. So I removed the new hard drive and tried to start the computer but I still got the same errors. So after looking on the internet and finding this thread, I read that one person fixed it by removing all but one stick of memory (I have 2x256mb sticks). So I thought about it and it seemed that most of the errors could be caused by the memory. So I removed one of the sticks of ram and started the computer and it works ok now. It said it can't find the video drive but thats not a big deal. Removing all but one sticks of ram seems to be the easiest and most harmless thing you can try to solve this problem. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the memory but atleast its working.

Thanks again,
Josh

[switchead]

I have the same error, I also tried a repair install. From this this time my system video controller went haywire. I had to do a clean install. I found in msconfig that spybot teatimer seems to have been the cause of my error. I am researching the teatimer settings to see if its control of registry changes is the root. If I can find that maybe we can get that out and give a solid correction to this issue. At least as far as teatimer goes.

Thanks for the answer, it is a good suggestion for so many problems that have popped up since starting to use xp pro and office xp pro in 2001 as a top ten universities desktop support tech, hardware and software hands on customer support.

Curt

[shinomen]

If you have already restored the registry and you continue to recieve this problem, then give the following a try

The problem:

I think this problem has something to do with file permissions for the ntuser.dat file or the directory it is located under. (typically located at c:\Documents and Settings\(username)\ntuser.dat) Ntuser.dat is the user specific registry file for HKEY Current User under regedit.



My fix for this:

**Note: You must enable hidden files and folders under tools folder options**

1. Create a new user account with administrative rights on the affected machine. Navigate to the affected user's profile directory and copy ntuser.dat to a folder named backup on your C: drive.

(example for a user named dave: copy c:\Documents and Settings\dave\ntuser.dat to c:\backup)


2. Once you have backed up the ntuser.dat file, overwrite it with the one located in c:\windows\repair\

(example for a user named dave: copy c:\windows\repair\ntuser.dat to c:\Documents and Settings\dave\ )


3. Log off the temporary account you have created and login to the affected user account and let windows fully load up. This will create a new ntuser.dat file under the user's profile.


4. Once windows has fully loaded up, log back out of the affected user's account and log back into the temporary account you made earlier.


5. Copy the ntuser.dat file you backed up earlier to the user's profile directory overwriting the new file that was created.

(example for a user named dave: copy c:\backup\ntuser.dat to c:\Documents and Settings\dave\ )


6. Log out of the temporary account and log back into the computer under the affected account and see if the problem is fixed.


Hope this work for you like it did me.