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PC won't boot


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#1
howarddan

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i ran Sypbot and AdAware on my kid's PC, which runs XP Home. now when I try to reboot, I get this error message: reg file failure - reg cant load the hive (file).systemroot/system32/config/software - it is corrupt, absent or not writable. this is on a blue screen. then it does a physical file dump. I cant even reinstall XP because I cant get past this screen.
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#2
xX dArKsKaTa Xx

xX dArKsKaTa Xx

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Have you tried to open the disc tray before you get to this screen? Reboot with the reinstall disc in the tray and see if that helps.
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#3
dsenette

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IF you can boot to the xp cd try going to the recovery console (by choosing the R option during setup) then type chkdsk /r and let that run till it's done without interupting it and see if that helps anything
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#4
howarddan

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Thanks. somehow just putting the XP disk in the tray caused it to boot up to the Welcome screen. Great! but now I still have the original problem that led me to run Spybot and AdAware--it runs unbelivably slowly. If I click on an icon like Word Perfect it takes several minutes to load; same with everything else. Also the bottom half on the screen is black. although you can see the icons, the wallpaper is gone. she only hsa 256 RAM; maybe she just needs more for XP?
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#5
gerryf

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more ram and a visit to the malware removal department down the hall and to the left....

(win xp will run on 256, but not well--you will see a significant improvement at 384mb and its real functional limit is 512mb)
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#6
howarddan

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OK, I added more RAM so it now has 512. I ran Microsoft Defender, AdAware and Spybot again. I did disk cleanup. It doesnt need to be defragged. But it still runs extremely slowly and the bottom half of the screen is still black. Now what!!
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#7
howarddan

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I forgot one thing: when I look at what processes are running, the big ones are Iexplore, which shows up 3 times, at 11K, 23K and 28 K, and PCMserrvice.exe at 11K.
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