[Praetor]

Okay, as you can see I have serious problems. My PC was working perfectly until Saturday. I downloaded and tried to run Perfect Disk 8 with no success. To be able to run it I had to correct some registry problems I had in the DCOM and RPC services.

Once I had corrected these, I ran Perfect Disk 8 and defragmented the entire drive, asking a person at my lab to turn off the PC once it was done.

When I turned on the PC today, it has a LOT of problems.

1-I cannot copy or paste files in windows. Copying and pasting from a DOS command line (from within Windows) works perfectly though...

2-IE7 and Firefox both close down inmediately after I open them (by having the Task manager open at the moment I try to run any of the two, I can´t even see them come up in task manager).

3-When I minimize any window it does not appear in the task bar, it just dissapears but is available through ALT+TAB. However, when in Safe Mode, they do minimize to small boxes.

4-Minor rpoblem. The system does not assign a DRIVE LETTER (ex. I to a connected USB drive, although it does detect it perfectly.

Since I cannot open any browsers, I cannot run online antivirus. Nevertheless, I booted up Safe Mode and ran updated Spybot, Adaware and NOD32 with absolutely nothing detected.

When I run services.msc in the extended tab I just get a blank screen, though the standard tab works okay.

Nevertheless, I have a problem with this PC and it is that the Windows Instller service never initiates automatically. I need to start it manually each time I want to uninstall or install something.

When I tried to start Windows Installer 3.1 service to remove Perfect Disk and see if that was the problem (though I have it running in my PC at home with no problems) I recieved a 1068 The dependency service or group failed to start error.

Also, I have run a full scan with AVG Antispyware 7.5 and Superantispyware with no effect (nothing detected) and I have also tried all the Repairs included in Superantispyware with no effect.

I REALLY need some help!

PS: My system specifications are in my profile.


Okay, I posted this in other forums (PCPISTOP) and I got the advice of trying a repair install. I tried it, and everything went fine untill the PC rebooted and the windows xp install program began. Then I got a fatal error and the install can't continue...

"An error has been found that does not allow the installation program to continue.

The installation program cannot install product catalogs. This is a fatal error. The installation registry files should contain more information. Click OK to see the event registry of the installation program"

When I click OK, I get a small windows that is titled "Installation event log" or something like that>

in the window i see:

"ERROR:

The signature for Windows XP Proffesional is not valid. The error code is 426.

The service has not been initiated.


***

Fatal error:

The installation program cannot install program catalogs. This is a fatal error. The installation registry files should contain more information.

***

ERROR:

The signature for Windows XP Proffesional is not valid. The error code is 426.

The service has not been initiated.


***

Fatal error:

The installation program cannot install program catalogs. This is a fatal error. The installation registry files should contain more information.

***

ERROR:

The signature for Windows XP Proffesional is not valid. The error code is 426.

The service has not been initiated.


***

Fatal error:

The installation program cannot install program catalogs. This is a fatal error. The installation registry files should contain more information.

*** "


Please help! I can't even boot my PC!

[Advertisements]

looks to me as if your system is so corrupted now that there is not much that you can do besides taking the HD off and install it on another computer, approach it with the other computer's operating system and try to back up your data if this is still possible. I doubt if there is anything that you can do besides clean format and reinstallation of the entire system.

[The Skeptic]

looks to me as if your system is so corrupted now that there is not much that you can do besides taking the HD off and install it on another computer, approach it with the other computer's operating system and try to back up your data if this is still possible. I doubt if there is anything that you can do besides clean format and reinstallation of the entire system.

[Whiskeyman]

Did you use the correct WinXP disk to do the repair? Is the disk dirty or scratched? Have you cleaned the CD-Rom's laser? Checked the IDE cable to the optical drive?

Read these;

“Failed To Install Product Catalog” Error Message When You Install Windows XP

XP repair install won't finish

[wannabe1]

Hi Praetor...

I assume you have the XP installation cd as you tried the repair. Do you have files on the machine you need to recover?

Can you link me to the topic at PCPitstop so I can look that over, too?

wannabe1

[Praetor]

First of all, this is the link:

http://forums.pcpits...w...=136198&hl=

Secondly, I installed windows in a new directory (windows2) without formatting, and recovered data that needed saving. This fresh install works great. Nevertheless, I would like to avoid formatting. Is there a way to repair the old installation or uninstall the old installation and move the new one to the "windows" directory?

[wannabe1]

Perfect! You did just what I was going to suggest...a parallel install.

Yes, we can get rid of the old directory and modify the boot.ini file to reflect the change. I would, however, recommend leaving the new directory as it is...name and all. Less chance of mistake or corruption and it's won't make any difference in the way the machine operates.

In Control Panel, double click on the "System" icon. Under the "Advanced" tab, in the "Startup and Recovery" section, click the "Settings" button. In the window that opens, click the "Edit" button. A notepad window will open (boot.ini)...copy and paste the contents of that window here for me.

Once I have that, we'll remove the old directory.

[Praetor]

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS2
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS2="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

In the few minutes (alright, it was a couple hours ) it took me to download all the windows updates, I caught lsasss, but luckily it was deteced and deleted by NOD32.

I am posting a hijackthis log just in case, but I ran Spybot, AdAware and AVG 7.5 with nothing detected, and the log looks clean also.

 HiJackThis_log.txt   3.91KB   71 downloads

[wannabe1]

Open the boot.ini file as you did before and remove the line of text shown in red below. Then click "File" on the toolbar and choose "Save"...close the boot.ini window.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS2
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS2="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Open "Local Disk C:", right click on the old WINDOWS folder and choose "Delete"...accept the deletion. Reboot.

It should boot straight to the new directory without a prompt and the space taken by the old directory should now be free.

Let me know how it goes.