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I periodically get the error "windows registry is damaged, Windows will restart and try to fix the problem". (My system stats are down below) Usually it runs ok after one or 2 reboots. Today, I started getting some .dll errors in various programs (like IE explorer and Word), and it prompted me to restart...then I got the registry error and had to reboot again. I don't know if these .dll errors are related to the registry.
I've updated Norton 2001 and the virus definitions...scan says no viruses. I keep the definitions updated regularly.
I've read that this problem could be due to bad ram. I don't have another chip to try, how else can I tell if my ram is bad before I go buy one?
Are there some other diagnostic checks I can do on my system?
Don't know if this is relevant...I recently increased the MinSP settings because I was getting a message saying to increase the stack pages. I was having the registry problem before I changed the MinSP's. I haven't gotten the stack page error since I changed the MinSP's however.
Thank you for any help,
My system is:
Win ME 4.90.3000
AMD 1.33 gHz athlon
asus A7V133 board
256 SDRAM PC133
Maxtor 30 gig ata100
Riva TNT video card
SBlive Pt soundcard
MAudio 2496 soundcard
Acer cd-rw
The first things I would do if I were you is:
1. Make sure I knew what every piece of software was on my box and that I knew none of it was malicious. Check start>>run>>msconfig>>startup tab, add/remove programs, ctrl+alt+del, and run a virus scan.
2. Run a thorough scandisk including the surface scan. If the registry (system.dat, user.dat, and classes.dat) is sitting on a bad cluster on the hard drive, you will get the Registry is damaged error as the system cannot load the registry into memory. Bad clusters will also cause random DLL errors.
3. Check your RAM or have it checked by someone else. If your memory is bad, when the system attempts to expand the registry into your RAM, and cannot, you will get the same type of error. Bad RAM will aslo cause random DLL errors, especially in kernel32.dll.
I believe there are places on the internet that you can download tools to check your RAM. I do not have any experience with them, but I believe there was a recent post about them here. I will try to find it for you.
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from:
http://www.easydesksoftware.com/tips.htmNeed a new Registry?
Try this undocumented Setup switch:
Typing Setup /p f (use a space between "p" and "f" ) deletes the existing settings in the Registry and install a new one during the installation of Windows. This switch is very useful if your Registry is corrupted and you cannot fix it with a backup.
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EC - That will break every program you have installed. You might as well format.
And it does not work with Windows ME.
... just FYI....
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I cannot find the post I was thinking of... but these sites look like they may be of help for testing memory:
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You can goMajor geeks and look at what kind of software downloads for memory they have. I noticed they do have some for testing your RAM. Good luck!!
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Make sure your swapfile is large enough too, and that it is located on a partition with sufficient empty space.
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Yes, it mentions that it has to reinstall Windows. May be useful it all else fails at some point, but I hope he does not have to resort to that.
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Thanks for all the responses especially so quickly.
I haven't looked into the ram software yet but i did do a couple things: I checked all my programs (ctrl-alt-del, startup, add/remove) and nothing there looks unusual. Also I updated and ran Norton AV 2001, no viruses found.
Then I ran a full scandisk with surface scan. I got a FAT error that said something like "there was a backup of the FAT that should be the same as the current but isn't...". It corrected that and finished ok with no bad clusters.
I ran a standard scandisk and I again got the same FAT error plus some lost chains...it corrected those and finished ok.
I have been getting some random .dll errors. I wrote down the last couple: IE error in MSHTML.dll and Winword error in HPFWIN16.dll. I recall getting kernell32.dll errors but not recently.
thanks
pete
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Thanks again for the help. At simmtester.com there's a program called Docmemory. I downloaded and ran 3 "quick tests" on my ram.
It failed all 3 tests. The specific tests that failed were March C-, March B, burst, and checkerboard if anyone knows what they mean. The manual is over my head but it mentions coupling inversion faults, address decoder faults, stuck at faults, transition faults...the checkerboard test apparently writes to memory and reads back and checks if it's the same. I guess it seems to make sense based on the symptoms of my problem.
Regards,
Pete
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I just downloaded both of them. Neither of the software items I linked to have Gator or any other spyware.
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I downloaded the files from both sites I gave you. Gator was not installed. No spyware was installed at all. Really. You're ok.
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look I'm no computer wiz but I think if you run " scanreg /? " it will most likely tell you that you can repair the registry by running " scanreg /fix " or something similar.
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Kaz,
interesting you should mention scanreg. THere's a document on the Win ME Microsoft support pages about my problem with the reg. I don't have the link here. It says something to the effect that scanreg done from a command prompt won't detect an error...the error is due to the registry in memory. Something like that but it's a bit over my head. But I try scanreg from c:\ prompt and there are no errors. Regardless the key is that the problem kept recurring, even though windows would fix it each time.By the way has anyone else used Docmemory on their memory?
My errors seem to be related to when things are written to memory and read back, they differ. Maybe that explains why the registry changes are picked up and changes in the FAT too?
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If you go to START->RUN->msconfig and select the advance button, you can limit your memory to ??MB. Start at your max and work down until you don't generate any more errors and then note how much good memory you have left. If the remaining memory is next to nothing, or the error falls towards the middle of RAM, then order a new stick.
With the memtest, you should get the memory location that is failing the tests.
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That might give me somewhat of a workaround until my new Corsair 512 MB simm arrives. Docmemory reported errors at 92 and 162 MB if I remember right. When I ran memtest, I couldn't tell where the errors occured, but they were reported so frequently that I could barely press the "ok" button fast enough.
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