[KenPC]

hi ... looking for some help fixing/restoring Win XP Pro SP3 and IE8.

My laptop (IBM Intel pentium) was running kind of slow so I ran several iolo System Mechanic "clean-up" and "performance" functions (disk defrag, registery cleanup, internet optimize, junk file cleanup) with the hope of improving the performance. Well, it did not improve the performance (it still is kind of slow) and after rebooting (iolo SM did a bunch of "DOS" stuff during the reboot), all of these problems showed up.

The symptoms: the running applications do not show up on the desktop "botton" task bar; the "speaker" and "network connection" icons have disappeared from the lower right corner system tray (I was able to workaround the network connection through the wifi card icon though but had to respecify my SSID and WPA key), the file "copy" and "move" functions (both click-on commands and drag-n-drop) do not work, the device manager "system properties" does not work and IE8 will not startup (although mozilla firefox seems to work fine).

If any of the experts could provide some suggestions on how I can recover from this mess, I would greatly appreciate it. I scanned through the "reparing XP" sticky and some of the other posts that seemed related to fixing XP, but they did not seem to directly address my situation. I have the original Win XP Pro CD (does not include SP1, SP2 or SP3 though) and a separate SP2 CD

Thanks .. Ken

Edited by KenPC, 19 March 2010 - 08:38 PM.

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Hi and welcome.
To save me looking what was it you actually run.
If it was NOT the provided Windows and IE clean programs, you should not have run them, but that is too late advice now.
Please give me the name of the program and where you got it from.

[Macboatmaster]

Hi and welcome.
To save me looking what was it you actually run.
If it was NOT the provided Windows and IE clean programs, you should not have run them, but that is too late advice now.
Please give me the name of the program and where you got it from.

[123Runner]

What he ran is in his 1st sentence.

so I ran several iolo System Mechanic "clean-up" and "performance" functions (disk defrag, registery cleanup, internet optimize, junk file cleanup) with the hope of improving the performance.

What probably created the mess was the registry cleaner and the internet optimizer. Too late now, but they usually create more problems than they solve.

Does system mechanic create a backup? Most do. Have you tried that?
Also have you tried a system restore?

123runner

[Macboatmaster]

Thanks, I read his first sentence. I saw System Mechanic and immediately knew it was one he should not have run, I did not recognise the "iolo", and if it was anything like that Uniblue thing thats around OR
Security 2010, to name just two, then I was going to direct him to the Virus, Spyware and Malware forum.
If System restore works, I will be absolutely amazed.

Edited by Macboatmaster, 18 March 2010 - 06:02 PM.

[KenPC]

Thanks for the replies ...

"Does system mechanic create a backup? Most do. Have you tried that?" I'm not sure and I was kind of frustrated with iSM, so I uninstalled it before I posted my request for help here, so regarding a backup, I don't know what to do or how to do it ... perhaps try to reinstall iSM???

"Also have you tried a system restore?" I'm not familiar with the system restore procedure/process ... I also uninstalled IE8 before I posted here and tried to reinstall it but it failed with message: "Setup could not verify the integrity of the file update.inf. Make sure the Cryptographic Service is running on this computer"

Any suggestions as to what I could try to do next would be appreciated. Thanks, Ken

[123Runner]

How To Restore back to a earlier date.


To do a System Restore follow these steps:

· Click Start and then to All Programs
· Scroll to Accessories and then System Tools
· Click on System Restore
· A Welcome screen will come up and you need to click on Restore My Computer To A Earlier Date
· Then click on Next
· Now you will see in the window Select A Restore Point. From here select a date a couple of days before the problem started.
· Then click Next
· On the Confirm Restore Point Selection window verify the Restore Point you chose is correct.
· Close all open programs and click Next
· The computer will now automatically shut down and reboot. When it restarts you will see ”Restoration Complete” page and then click OK
· Once you have made sure that everything is now running correctly then please reply back with the results.

[KenPC]

thanks again for the reply ...

I tried to run system restore following your directions, however when I selected "system restore" from the menu list, it came back with the message: "System Restore is not able to protect your computer. Please restart your computer, and then run System Restore again [OK]"

So I did the restart and tried again ... same result and message. I'm thinking that this isn't looking very good

[Macboatmaster]

Create a Restore - Go back to where 123runner told you, but unstead of restore to earlier time, click to check create a restore point, see if you can so that.
If so create one and then come back.

[KenPC]

Seems like I can not do anything related to System Restore ... I did the following: [start] >> "All Programs" > "Accessories" > "System Tools" > "System Restore" (I click on "System Restore") and I then get the meaasage I noted above.

[123Runner]

You have a messed up system. (as if you haven't guessed).

Lets try a couple things. 1 at a time though.

Go to

Start and then to Run
Type in Chkdsk /r Note the space between k and /
Click Enter ...It will probably ask if you want to do this on the next reboot...click Y
[/list]If the window doesn't shutdown on its own then reboot the system manually. On reboot the system will start the chkdsk operation
This one will take longer then chkdsk /f

Note... there are 5 stages...
It may appear to hang at a certain percent for a hour or more or even back up and go over the same area...this is normal...
DO NOT SHUT YOUR COMPUTER DOWN WHILE CHKDSK IS RUNNING OR YOU CAN HAVE SEVERE PROBLEMS
This can take several hours to complete.
When completed it will boot the system back into windows.

Let me know if this fixes the problem

123runner

[KenPC]

I did the "CHKDSK /R" as you suggested ... took about 20 minutes ... it seems to have only run on the C: drive, about 20GB (there are 2 other partitions D: and E: about 60 GB each which are only data files).

all 5 stages completed without issues, it restarted after that by itself, then provided message "volume is clean", then it presented Windows Log-on box. I logged on, tried "System restore" again, still got the same message as previously, restarted (took 3 attempts to shutdown as it was having problems closing WindowsSearch.e), restarted again and tried "system restore" again ... still same message as previously (i.e. it still does not work).

I appreciate your assist and patience ... what is the next step? Thanks, Ken

[Macboatmaster]

When you get to system restore. Instead of selecting Create or Restore. Click the System Restore settings. Check it is turned ON.
You can also get there by Start, My Computer Right click on that, Click Properties, click the System Restore tab and check it is turned ON

Edited by Macboatmaster, 19 March 2010 - 06:07 PM.

[KenPC]

hi ... in response to: "You can also get there by Start, My Computer Right click on that, Click Properties, click the System Restore tab and check it is turned ON" ... I'm assuming system restore is in fact turned ON because the check box for [ ] "Turn off System Restore on all drives" is NOT checked.

What I am experiencing with system restore is that when I try to select it (at its highest menu level) it does not seem to start, but rather very quickly give me the "error" message I have noted earlier. So I really don't have the opportunity to select any of the system restore "options" discussed thus far. Still holding out hope, but it is very frustrating.

[123Runner]

Now we will have to check the system files. You will most likely need your XP cd for this.
You can try it without the CD, might if it asks for it, then it means there is corrupted files.

Do you have a valid XP CD?

If so, place it in your CD ROM drive and follow the instructions below:

• Click on Start and select Run... type sfc /scannow (note the space) (Let this run undisturbed until the window with the blue progress bar goes away)

SFC - Which stands for System File Checker, retrieves the correct version of the file from %Systemroot%\System32\Dllcache or the Windows installation source files, and then replaces the incorrect file.
If you want to see what was replaced, right-click My Computer and click on Manage. In the new window that appears, expand the Event Viewer (by clicking on the + symbol next to it) and then click on System.

[KenPC]

hi ... I am back and now able to work on this again ... hope you can continue to assist me.

I booted the laptop and after the desktop was "painted" I inserted the XP CD (note this is the initial version of XP w/o SP1, SP2 or SP3). I then did the "run" "sfc /scannow" which opened a box "Windows File Protection - Verifying protected Windows files are intact and original version". That ran for about 2 hours and then just closed by itself. After that, I did the right click on "my computer", then "manage", then "event viewer", then "system". There were hundreds of 64020, 64021 and 64004 events type=Information, Source=Windows File Protection, but that was all there was for today's date ... there were other events including some type=error from other dates.

I then did a restart, but it seems like there has not been any positive change: Cntl-c, Cntl-v; copy, move, speakers/volume, etc. still don't seem to work; none of the running applications show up in the system tray, so I am not sure what I should do next.