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big problems from msconfig

Started by MSconfigBitMe2 , Oct 23 2009 08:52 AM

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#1
MSconfigBitMe2
Posted 23 October 2009 - 08:52 AM

MSconfigBitMe2

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I just wanted to allow my wife's pc to boot faster, and unchecked some "simple" items in the msconfig startup list, and now all sort of things do not work. :)

System:
Dell Dimension 4600
Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.00 GHz
2.50 GB RAM (seems like an odd number?)
111 GB hard drive (less than 50% used)
Linksys Wireless G PCI adaptor
WIN XP Professional (SP1 CD)

This pc has been having some problems recently, including periods of noisy chatter that sound like the hard drive. I concluded that the drive was about to go, and just ordered a replacement, and planning on a Seagate Replica for easy backups. (too late now!)

I was still running sp1, and saw that I would need sp2 for the replica. Made backup copies of all user files on an external drive. Then I installed sp2, which seemed go OK, until the "clean up" part, which seemed to have stopped. Eventually I got an error message that sp2 had run into a problem, and terminated. I thought it had failed. Then I was asked to install a media player security upgrade, which I did, but I had not rebooted after the sp2 upgrade. When I looked, the system was still sp1. It took a few reboots for the system to behave normally, and then it told me I had sp2. Great! I was ready to install the replica when I got it.

Not smart enough to wait for my backup device and install the new drive, I thought I'd address my wife's complaint that startup was slow. With "help" from Google, I found some suggestions that I could use msconfig to remove some things from the startup. THAT was a mistake!

I wish I had seen the September 10 post about msconfig problems from killedmypc222!

"All I did" was uncheck a few items in the msconfig startup tab. They were
- AOL tray icon
- Quicken startup
- Billminder
- HP digital imaging
- Google toolbar notifier
- OneTouch
Immediately there were problems. I got a warning that I was not authorized to make these changes, but I am in the administrator group. I think this lead to a series of random steps as I tried to get out of the mess, reboots with selective startup and diagnostic startup, and I am now back to normal startup, with all the items rechecked in startup and services. BUT there is nothing normal about the startup - the taskbar and windows that open are white, not their usual colors. McAfee usually does not start by itself, and I have to go into program files to connect to my wireless and the internet. Quite a few microsoft services are stopped, but I see on my laptop that this is not totally unusual. I suspect that some critical services are not running.

I did not discover System Restore until I was in trouble, and there was no earlier restore point!

I never saw the outcome for killedmypc222 What happened there?
I did see the How-to repair Windows XP item before the forum topics.
Do I have any good options other than the XP repair? That will roll me back to sp1. :)

Sorry this is so long, but I tried to be complete.
Looking forward to suggestions.
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#2
The Skeptic
Posted 23 October 2009 - 10:55 AM

The Skeptic

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The problems are not msconfig related but result from the unsuccessful installation of SP-2, a common occurance when SP-2 or SP-3 are installed on program loaded, long running computer.

You can try to uninstall sp-2 in Control Panel > Add/Remove programs. Alternatively you can try Windows repair. I doubt if it's going to help but no harm trying. If not successful then I guess your only other realistic option is to format and reinstall windows.
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#3
MSconfigBitMe2
Posted 23 October 2009 - 07:52 PM

MSconfigBitMe2

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The problems are not msconfig related but result from the unsuccessful installation of SP-2, a common occurance when SP-2 or SP-3 are installed on program loaded, long running computer.

You can try to uninstall sp-2 in Control Panel > Add/Remove programs. Alternatively you can try Windows repair. I doubt if it's going to help but no harm trying. If not successful then I guess your only other realistic option is to format and reinstall windows.

I started the uninstall, and was warned that security fixes to media player and another one may not work if sp2 is uninstalled. I aborted that for now, but I don't really see much to be lost if I do it. Reinstalling XP is one thing, but I did not want to have to reinstall and configure all the applications. OTOH, nothing else has worked, and some critical services are not running. I can do a few things on that pc, but it is pretty useless to my wife.

I'll get back to that when I have a good block of time. I ordered a new drive, which I'll have next week. I found that my XP reinstall disk has SP1a, which means I can go directly to SP3. I downloaded a copy of that on my laptop, and put it on a cd.

So the game plan is to try the uninstall. If that fails, try the repair. If either works, I'll install updates and sp3. If not, wait for the new drive and start over.

Thanks for your comments.
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