Author Topic: My laptop is now unreadable (Read 13252 times)

jmetz1 · « **on:** January 10, 2011, 01:29:44 PM »

My laptop, a Toshiba Satellite M45-S2693 Model PSM42U-01Q006 which is running XP Pro/SP3, has started doing strange things. Somehow, while running ccleaner.exe (a disk clean up tool), I unalertly (and stupidly, I might add) deleted a bunch of my font files. The system then did a prescheduled disk compress and my problem was made permanent. Upon reboot, every screen displays images properly, but all fonts are displayed as tall empty rectangles. Some text, however is rendered as special characters, except for the MS-DOS window. This window displays and functions normally. As best as I can tell, other than the font issue, the machine functions normally. I was able to reload (not reinstall) all of the deleted fonts through the MS-DOS window, without any noticeable effect on this problem. Considering the fact that I can't read any prompts, and don't know where a link might take me, how do I solve this problem? I can't even produce a configuration list or print screen for you to view. It's like looking at a foreign language film without any subtitles.

Allan · « **Reply #1 on:** January 10, 2011, 01:34:36 PM »

Four choices off the top of my head: you can either do a system restore to a date before the problem began, make sure the fonts you copied are now in the "fonts' folder (they do not need to be "installed"), run sfc /scannow or do a repair install. I am not 100% certain sfc /scannow will replace the missing fonts, but if they are part of the original system installation it should.

jmetz1 · « **Reply #2 on:** January 10, 2011, 02:13:45 PM »

How can I do a system restore when I can't read any of the prompts? Where can I do the sfc command from? The only window that is readable is the DOS window. Can I do it from there? I just tried it in the DOS window and got another window that's titled Windows File Protection, but I ca't read anything else. Lastly, how do I do a repair install? I put in the SP3 disk and did a reboot and absolutely nothing happened.

The replaced fonts are in the Windows\fonts directory.

Thanks for the suggestions.

jmetz1 · « **Reply #3 on:** January 10, 2011, 02:15:21 PM »

Reading my questions again, they sound kinda snarky. Believe me, they weren't meant that way. Just asking questions.

Allan · « **Reply #4 on:** January 10, 2011, 02:16:56 PM »

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304449

jmetz1 · « **Reply #5 on:** January 10, 2011, 02:28:39 PM »

Just read the link that you sent. One minor problem - I have never set a restore point. According to the link, I'm "SOL" - that's "out of luck" for the uninitiated.

Allan · « **Reply #6 on:** January 10, 2011, 02:31:34 PM »

I offered four options. System restore was only one. Also, what happens in safe mode?

jmetz1 · « **Reply #7 on:** January 10, 2011, 02:45:05 PM »

Brought up the system in Safe Mode. All of the drivers loaded and the system restore window popped up. Since I could read it, I closed it. Went to the DOS window and entered SFC /scannow. Received the return message :
Windows file protection could not initiate a scan of protected system files.
The specific error code is 0x000006ba [The RPC server is unavailable.]

I'm back at the c:\> now.

Allan · « **Reply #8 on:** January 10, 2011, 02:50:55 PM »

Are you in safe mode or at a command prompt? And sfc /scannow will only work if there is an XP CD in the drive.

Let's start again - what happens in safe mode?

jmetz1 · « **Reply #9 on:** January 10, 2011, 02:53:31 PM »

OK, I'm in safe mode, looking at a Windows style screen. Once again all of the prompts under the desktop icons are vertical boxes. What can I do now for ya?

jmetz1 · « **Reply #10 on:** January 11, 2011, 08:06:01 AM »

I'm back with ya. I booted in Safe Mode with a command prompt (perfectly normally even with no special character set). I put in the Windows XP Pro upgrade disk, as you mentioned last night, and ran the command sfc /scannow. I got the same error as I did yesterday (Windows file protection could not initiate a scan of protected system files).

I'm sure that I'm doing something incorrectly, but I don't know what. Any help that you have left over from yesterday would be sincerely appreciated. Thanks.

Allan · « **Reply #11 on:** January 11, 2011, 08:15:52 AM »

Let's just do a repair install. At this point it's the easiest option:

1) Make sure the cd drive is the first device in the boot order in your bios
2) Boot to the XP CD
3) Choose the SECOND repair option (here are detailed instructions: http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/topic/138-how-to-repair-windows-xp/)
4) Done properly, all apps and preferences will remain intact
5) After you get back into the OS you'll need to go to Windows Update and download and install all updates

jmetz1 · « **Reply #12 on:** January 11, 2011, 08:19:36 AM »

Super. One last question (I hope) - how do I make the CD the boot disk? I was under the impression that putting in an upgrade disk and booting the system would take it to the CD first. Is this incorrect?

jmetz1 · « **Reply #13 on:** January 11, 2011, 08:23:03 AM »

Never mind. I downloaded your link and am reading it now. It tells me what to do. Hopefully, I'll let you know later how it went. Thanks so much for your patience with me.

jmetz1 · « **Reply #14 on:** January 11, 2011, 08:56:51 AM »

No joy. I did the repair exactly as noted in the article that you linked me to, and got the same result. Unless you can pull a rabbit out of a hat, this machine is destined for doorstophood.

BC_Programmer · « **Reply #15 on:** January 11, 2011, 09:43:49 AM »

Try this- with the windows disc inserted, enter the following command:

Code: [Select]

for %P in (E:\i386\*.tt_) do expand %P %windir%\fonts

I wasn't able to actually test that, so if it doesn't work you can try it with each individual font file; by default XP's font is Tahoma (for things like menus, title bars, buttons, et cetera) so you would expand the original tahoma file:

Code: [Select]

expand -R E:\i386\tahoma.tt_ %windir%\fonts\tahoma.ttf
expand -R E:\i386\tahomabd.tt_ %windir%\fonts\tahomabd.ttf

However, all that said, I don't think ccleaner actually deletes the font files, but manages to mess up the registry entries for fonts. In this case it could be that the font files are missing and/or the default font value is no longer valid (or points to something like Marlett which only has a handful of actual symbols; unknown symbols are drawn as the box which you noted).

In that case, you can reset the default font using this registry script:

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs_edits/defaultfont.reg

you can either mess about to get it started via the more readable command line (by say putting it on an external drive, using start G:\defaultfont.reg and then clicking OK (or pressing Alt+O or Alt+Y... I can't recall wether the actual message uses OK and Cancel or Yes and No).

at that point it will give you a message (that I imagine you wouldn't be able to read) so assume the best and try rebooting. I'd suggest copying the tahoma fonts using the earlier command prompt commands, then trying this method.

Another option would be to try High-Logic's Fix Font's Folder Tool; you would get this to run the same way as the registry script, but it's a program file. simply launch it by typing the path (for example, if you burn it to a CD and your CD-ROM is E: you would type E:\fifofo

The program will launch, and of course you won't be able to read a *censored* thing in the disclaimer thing. Anyway, dismiss that first dialog and the click the first toolbar button on the top left, which should fix any issues ccleaner may have introduced registry-wise that corrupted the display.

Hope this helps

Allan · « **Reply #16 on:** January 11, 2011, 09:45:29 AM »

BC's post looks right, but I simply don't understand why a repair install did not fix the problem. By definition it replaces ALL missing or altered system files - and that would include fonts.

BC_Programmer · « **Reply #17 on:** January 11, 2011, 09:49:44 AM »

Quote from: Allan on January 11, 2011, 09:45:29 AM

BC's post looks right, but I simply don't understand why a repair install did not fix the problem. By definition it replaces ALL missing or altered system files - and that would include fonts.

It might work also under the assumption that the various font preferences as stored in the registry (such as the default system font used) are "user preferences" and so preserves them as they were.

Allan · « **Reply #18 on:** January 11, 2011, 09:53:08 AM »

That would assume the user changed the default system font, but yes - that could be.

jmetz1 · « **Reply #19 on:** January 11, 2011, 09:58:48 AM »

I believe that you guys are right-on. When I restored the font files, as mentioned previously, the system would not let me restore three of them - vgaoem.fon, vgasys.fon, and marlett.ttf. It said the the system was currently using them and would not allow them to be overwritten. I will try your suggestion and let you know how it works. Thanks very much for your time and expertise!

BC_Programmer · « **Reply #20 on:** January 11, 2011, 10:06:56 AM »

Quote from: Allan on January 11, 2011, 09:53:08 AM

That would assume the user changed the default system font, but yes - that could be.

Their very problem is that the default system font is wrong- most likely set to Marlett. Wether the user or CCleaner changed it is not something that the repair install could possibly be expected to take into account. Marlett is the font that Windows 9x used to draw caption buttons. It's only used in XP when the theme is set to classic. basically it contains maybe 12 or 15 actual characters, but the rest are empty, and when they are used they are drawn as the "missing glyph" the black box of mystery.

vgaoem.fon and vgasys.fon are the default raster fonts that the command prompt uses; so there's a reason those are being used; but clearly marlett.ttf is being used for something as well; and while one could say "well, it's probably being used for the command prompt caption buttons" and you would be right- that probably is why it isn't possible to replace it. But at the same time if the system default font was not set to marlett the attempt to replace the "actual" default system font would show a similar error. Since no such error is shown, logic dictates that either vgasys,vgaoem, or marlett are being used as the default system font. Since vgasys and vgaoem contain visible glyphs for most alphabetic characters, they would be drawn properly, with only the occasional missing glyph. The large quantity of missing glyphs to the point that Windows is unnavigable leads me to believe that Marlett has somehow been set as the default font, the attempt to repair install while trying to replace a few font files preserves the setting for the default font and unfortunately because of that the setting is still using an unreadable font.

jmetz1 · « **Reply #21 on:** January 11, 2011, 10:58:32 AM »

OK, I copied the script from kellys-korner into a text editor and saved it onto a thumb drive as defaultfont.reg. When I tried to execute it via a SafeMode prompt, I got a message that says that the script is not a valid reg file. What might I be doing incorrectly?

BC_Programmer · « **Reply #22 on:** January 11, 2011, 11:36:49 AM »

instead of saving it via a text editor, try Downloading the file directly. (right-click Save As).

jmetz1 · « **Reply #23 on:** January 11, 2011, 12:00:44 PM »

No luck.

BC_Programmer · « **Reply #24 on:** January 11, 2011, 12:30:20 PM »

You must be doing something different then I.

I typed the content into notepad (couldn't copy paste into my VM) then selected Save As... and chose the name C:\testfont.reg and selected in Save As Type "All Files". Then in Command prompt I entered Start C:\testfont.reg and regedit prompted me to add the information in the reg file into the registry.

Computer_Commando · « **Reply #25 on:** January 11, 2011, 12:45:05 PM »

Quote from: jmetz1 on January 11, 2011, 10:58:32 AM

...I copied the script from kellys-korner into a text editor and saved it onto a thumb drive as defaultfont.reg....

Something is wrong with this. I suspect text editor modified filename to defaultfont.reg.txt

jmetz1 · « **Reply #26 on:** January 11, 2011, 01:09:17 PM »

Well, I just tried it again with the same results. I opened the link, right-clicked and selected Save Page As. I entered the name and selected Save As Type = All files. I rebooted the laptop into SafeMode with prompt, put the thumbdrive into the laptop, and executed "start e:\defaultfont.reg". At this point I got one messagebox that looked like it had a yes/no response (there were 3 boxes on one button and 2 on the other). I selected the three box button and I got an information window (an exclamation point icon) with one button that had two boxes on it. I selected that button and when I got another command prompt, I rebooted the laptop. No noticeable change. Am I doing things correctly?

By the way, the editor that I use is UltraEdit and at least on that occasion did not add a suffix to the reg file.

Computer_Commando · « **Reply #27 on:** January 11, 2011, 01:22:41 PM »

Quote from: jmetz1 on January 11, 2011, 01:09:17 PM

...I opened the link, right-clicked and selected Save Page As...

Save Target As...
Then select drive and'or folder location.

jmetz1 · « **Reply #28 on:** January 11, 2011, 01:27:14 PM »

Maybe it's Save Target As on XP, I don't recall. However this part of the procedure I'm doing on my Vista desktop.

patio · « **Reply #29 on:** January 11, 2011, 03:24:22 PM »

These have to be added on fonts...it's the only explanation of why a repair install did not work...
That's assuming the repair install was done correctly...

BC_Programmer · « **Reply #30 on:** January 11, 2011, 03:27:02 PM »

Quote from: patio on January 11, 2011, 03:24:22 PM

These have to be added on fonts

?

jmetz1 · « **Reply #31 on:** January 11, 2011, 04:08:47 PM »

With regard to Patio,

I'm not at all certain what you mean. Also, the repair didn't have a lot of choices for me to make. What is it that you think that I did incorrectly?

jmetz1 · « **Reply #32 on:** January 12, 2011, 12:34:15 PM »

To BC_Programmer...

I think what Patio means is that he believes that the fonts that could not be replaced are fonts that I added, not fonts that came with Windows. I'm still not sure what that means or has to with anything. I guess we await his response.

BC_Programmer · « **Reply #33 on:** January 12, 2011, 02:04:12 PM »

Quote from: jmetz1 on January 12, 2011, 12:34:15 PM

I think what Patio means is that he believes that the fonts that could not be replaced are fonts that I added, not fonts that came with Windows.

Well, the Windows repair wouldn't be trying to replace them in the first place had they not come with windows.

jmetz1 · « **Reply #34 on:** January 12, 2011, 02:29:24 PM »

BC_Programmer:
Do you have any ideas as to why the Registry "poke" didn't work? Or what else I might try? I believe that you are definitely barking up the right tree, I'm not at all sure how to proceed.

BC_Programmer · « **Reply #35 on:** January 12, 2011, 02:36:58 PM »

Quote from: jmetz1 on January 12, 2011, 02:29:24 PM

BC_Programmer:
Do you have any ideas as to why the Registry "poke" didn't work? Or what else I might try? I believe that you are definitely barking up the right tree, I'm not at all sure how to proceed.

I have no idea why it wouldn't work. I tried it on my virtual Machine first to make sure it would import. From the sounds of it you did manage to get the registry data imported, (the first dialog would ask wether you wanted to merge it, the second would indicate success doing so) so it might be something else.

Have you tried the Fix Font's Folder Tool?

jmetz1 · « **Reply #36 on:** January 13, 2011, 10:36:09 AM »

Just downloaded and executed the FiFoFo.exe that you sent me. No luck. It was certainly interesting to watch, but still boxes.

I have an upgrade XPPro disk. At this point I'm willing to take the nuclear option and reinstall Windows, if you feel that it will solve my problem.

BC_Programmer · « **Reply #37 on:** January 13, 2011, 10:51:35 AM »

Quote from: jmetz1 on January 13, 2011, 10:36:09 AM

Just downloaded and executed the FiFoFo.exe that you sent me. No luck. It was certainly interesting to watch, but still boxes.

Did you only start the application, or did you refer to the instructions I gave some time ago on actually running it without being able to read anything:

Quote

The program will launch, and of course you won't be able to read a *censored* thing in the disclaimer thing. Anyway, dismiss that first dialog and the click the first toolbar button on the top left,

jmetz1 · « **Reply #38 on:** January 13, 2011, 11:05:54 AM »

I ran it exactly like you specified in your post of 1/11 at 09:43. I did put it onto a thumbdrive rather than a CD, but otherwise, I followed your instructions to the letter! It ran and ran, updating many lines of boxes in the lower frame of the application window. When it was done I canceled out of the program and rebooted. BTW, I ran this from the safe mode with prompt. Did I do it right?

BC_Programmer · « **Reply #39 on:** January 13, 2011, 11:16:08 AM »

Well, I have to say, I'm stumped on this one.

jmetz1 · « **Reply #40 on:** January 13, 2011, 11:26:19 AM »

What do you think of my nuclear option?

Allan · « **Reply #41 on:** January 13, 2011, 11:33:53 AM »

Nothing to think about. Format and reinstall is always an option for anyone - though one we prefer to leave as an absolute last resort. If you're willing, feel free.

jmetz1 · « **Reply #42 on:** January 13, 2011, 11:36:09 AM »

Have you got any resorts other than the last?

Allan · « **Reply #43 on:** January 13, 2011, 11:44:41 AM »

As I said earlier, the repair install should have worked. There is absolutely no reason for it not to that I can think of. But you say you followed the instructions and it didn't so no, I have no other thoughts. Sorry.

jmetz1 · « **Reply #44 on:** January 13, 2011, 11:52:34 AM »

Well, I thank you all for the time and energy that you put in to help me. I just pushed the button on the reformat, so I'll be back to square one in a few hours.

BTW, I'm putting together a web site for my business (I do photo restorations). May I link to your site as a resource?

Allan · « **Reply #45 on:** January 13, 2011, 11:57:52 AM »

Sorry we couldn't be of more assistance. And sure, thanks for asking. Here you go: http://www.computerhope.com/hope.htm

jmetz1 · « **Reply #46 on:** January 13, 2011, 12:02:25 PM »

Actually, you folks were super. This actually might be the best thing for this machine. I finally can clean up years of garbage that I don't need or want any more. Thanks again and adios.

Allan · « **Reply #47 on:** January 13, 2011, 01:08:02 PM »

You're most welcome and you are a delight to deal with. We're here if you run into any issues. REMEMBER to install all drivers as soon as you do the new installation - starting with the chipset driver. Then install an antivirus utility. The rest is up to you

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Author Topic: My laptop is now unreadable (Read 13252 times)

jmetz1

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