Identity Threats, XP Repair and Regedit – help please

[whathim]

Dell Vostro running Windows XP Pro Service Pack 3


This morning some of my usual software was playing up.  Then AVG alerted many “Identity Threats” and prompted me to quarantine them, which I did for each one.  Then it said it needed to reboot, which I did.  But the computer failed to boot.  It got past the Dell logo screen to the Advanced Boot Options page and I tried all the options, including Safe Mode, but it just cycles round again.

I recall a lot of the so-called Identity Threats that AVG flagged were in the Windows\System32 directory and some in Windows\System32\drivers.  I figured a Windows XP repair was needed.

I booted to the “Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3” Reinstallation CD that Dell supplied with the computer and attempted a repair.  It copied some files across and all seemed to be going well until it got past the text based part to the screen shown here: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/operatingsystems/ss/instxprepair1_9.htm

Trouble is, I get an error box on the screen saying:

"Files Needed:  The file ‘asms’ on Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 CD is needed.  Type the path where the file is located, and then click OK."

I tried clicking OK on the path suggested, “GLOBALROOT\DEVICE\CDROM0\I386”, but nothing happened.  Then I tried “D:\I386” but again nothing.  The CD drive doesn’t even whir when I click OK.

It’s like the Computer isn’t attempting to communicate with the CD, which led me to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311755.  I’ve been trying to follow the instructions they give for my NTFS system as follows.

1.   When you receive the error message, press SHIFT+F10 to start a command session.
2.   Type regedit.exe, and then press ENTER.
3.   Click HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
4.   On the File menu, click Load Hive, and then load %Windir%\System32\Config\System.sav.
5.   When you are prompted to specify a name, type Test.
6.   Locate and then click the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Test\ControlSet1\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
7.   Delete the UPPERFILTERS and LOWERFILTERS registry keys.
8.   Repeat steps 6 and 7 for the other ControlSet# keys under the Test hive.
9.   Click File, and then click Exit to quit Registry Editor.
10.   If the path in the error message is the correct drive letter for the CD-ROM drive, click OK to continue the Setup program.
11.   If you receive the error message again, the Setup program cannot correctly read from the CD-ROM drive, or the path information is incorrect. In this case, restart your computer and let the Setup program resume.

I managed to get to step 6 and located the key.  Now I’m a bit stumped: I can see a LowerFilters entry in the right hand pane of regedit but no UpperFilters.  Also I have no idea what step 8 means:  what are the other ControlSet# keys?

I’ve never used regedit before so am frightened to continue.  Last thing I want is to mess things up and have to do a complete reinstall.  I’m hoping some kind soul can give me a guiding hand here.

Keith

[hartbeatmr]

Good afternoon whathim and welcome to CH

    I must give you kudos for what you have attempted so far. Please don't take this he wrong way and I am not being a wise guy if you are not familiar working your way through the registry you should not attempt it ever the PC can be very unstable or worse unusable.

    If windows will not install correct files it needs during a repair or installation the issue will end up being a couple of different things.

#1... The CD may have scratches or imperfections so the CD drive can not read the information to finish the install.
#2... The CD drive it self is failing and needs to be replaced. < a lot of times this can be the issue if the disc if self looks OK.
#3... One of the sticks of memory are in need of replacment. The reason for this the information is taken from the the cd and goes through the memory to the hard drive and if one of the sticks has a bad bank data corruption will happen.
#4... The hard drive it self may have some bad sectors.

I would run a test on the memory  http://www.memtest86.com/. Just download memtest and burn it to an ISO.   download memtest (http://memtest.org/). Burn it to a cd using a dedicated .iso burning utility (http://www.petri.co.il/how_to_write_iso_files_to_cd.htm), make sure the cd drive is at the top of the boot order in bios, then boot to the newly created cd and run the utility. 

I don't know who your hard drive manufacture otherwise we could give you the link for that one. Please let us know what hard drive you have like western digital, maxtor etc. Plus what model vostro PC is this?

Hope to hear from you soon, Mike         

[whathim]

Mike, thank you so much for replying.  It is such a relief to have some guidance.

The computer is a Dell Vostro 430.  I don’t know the hard drive manufacturer (is there an easy way to find out?).  On the invoice, it simply says “Hard Drive 500 GB Serial ATA non Raid (7200 rpm)”.

I downloaded Memtest86+ V4.20 Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO and burnt it to a CD with ISO Recorder Power Toy.  I booted troubled machine from this CD and Memtest86 ran automatically.  It ran for well over an hour and then I found on the web site, “Memtest86 executes indefinitely. The pass counter increments each time that all of the selected tests have been run”.  I exited after 2 complete passes with no errors found.

Must admit I’m a bit sceptical of items 1 and 2 on your list of possible faults.  When I ran the Reinstallation CD, the repair seemed to be going fine and a load of files were clearly being read and copied successfully right up to the point where one gets the graphic interface for the install.  That’s when the error message box appeared and there was no response at all from the CD – no whiring, no retries, nothing.  Like I say, it seems like the Computer loses communication with the CD just at this point.  On the Microsoft page (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311755) they say, regarding the error message, “This issue may occur if the Setup program cannot communicate with the CD-ROM drive” – but it clearly was communicating prior to this point.  Puzzled.

I’ve subsequently looked at the CD from my laptop and I can see there is a \I386\ASMS folder on it.

Don’t know what to do now.

Keith

[hartbeatmr]

Good evening whathim and welcome back to CH

I very happy to hear that the memory passed.

     Sorry I was not being a wise guy  I will try to re-explain my self. With being skeptical on #1 and #2 I can only speculate as I can not see the CD but if the CD is scratched or ware marks etc it will interfere with the windows installation. CD's are like a old record player but they read the information the opposite way direction (records read music from outside in and CD / DVD's are read from the inside out).  The information / data is read from the inside on out to the edge of a CD. So when the installation is starting it will pull info from the inside of the CD and as the installation continues then go further out on the CD until the OS is installed. If the inside of the disk is OK but say the out side of the disk is scratched up it will not be able to read any data from that section of the disk. Windows continues to pull info / data off the CD until you are at the desktop and logged into the PC. So yes this can interfere even when you are at the GUI part that you showed us here on CH. 

    For figuring out what Hard drive you have just go into the device manager open the drive by clicking on the + and in there will be something like "Fujitsu MHY2250BH ATA hard drive" etc

    This is just an example of a CD drive "A Plextor PX-760a has a MTBF of 60 000h. So you can leave it on for 60,000 hours before they think the drive will die. Typically duty is about 10%, so figure 6,000 hours of writing before that drive is supposed to die. That's if you're lucky. Then they usually give you a figure about how many times you can open the disc tray before that fails" The life of a CD drive is total on time as well as burning CD/DVD's just one year is over 8,700 hours no granted most people do not leave there PC on 24x7 but you can see how fast it add up.

    For an example I have seen DVD drives that when they get older will only read CD and not read DVD's but that is just one example. I am not saying that your DVD drive is bad but I have seen this time after time.

Hope this help you some more, Mike

PS Please let us know how you make out.         

[whathim]

Thanks for the info Mike.  Things have moved on a bit.

I was staring at the computer still stuck on that error message.  From the Dos box (Shift – F10) I can see all my hard drive directories – all looks to be there ok.  I closed the dos box and just out of a whim (also this http://forums.techguy.org/all-other-software/547086-file-asms-windows-xp-professional.html) I entered c:\i386 as the path to search for the needed file.  It worked, but the same error message kept reappearing with a different file needed.  I kept entering c:\i386  - did this about 20 or so times – they were all *.cat files, and one dll.  Then it got the Regional and Language Options popup – accepted that.  Then it gave some more error messages for files needed and this time I entered d:\i386 – the CD kept whiring and the setup continued.  Finally it got to a point where it was removing temporary files and said just 1 minute left.

Screen went black.  Then a boot options page appeared, Windows XP or Recovery Console.  I selected XP.  The Windows XP logo screen has now appeared – it says please wait, but it seems to be waiting forever.  Infuriating – so near yet so far.

Waited ages, then turned machine off.  Waited few seconds, then started it.  Got same XP vs. Console option page but this time it has booted into XP.  I have my familiar desktop back – great relief.

Really must get some sleep now.  Will explore tomorrow what things have been messed up – bound to be some.

Keith

[hartbeatmr]

Good evening whathim and welcome back

    I am happy to hear that you may be OK.
But you may not be aware of this some files on the CD are compressed / zipped so when windows pulls the files off the CD (or attempts too) then they are put on the hard drive and then uncompressed (temp file) then windows puts them on the hard drive where they are needed. So when you keep on getting a prompts like 20x than that means the files / data was not successively pulled off the CD. So this is where either the CD or CD drive may be the culprit for all of your issue.

    Also if at any time when those boxes pop up and you hit cancel you will possibly run to a improperly installed OS and then have nothing but problems.

Well hope to hear from you soon, Mike 

     

[whathim]

Hi Mike.  I do take your point about the CD and files.  It bothers me somewhat that I got Setup to proceed by giving the path c:\i386 so that it pulled the files off C drive and these might well be corrupted by the original trouble.

Anyway, here is a progress report, and some queries that I would be very grateful for your thoughts.

Startup (this morning):

On startup the computer shows a bootup options page:

Windows XP Professional
Recovery Console

This page always appears now when I reboot.  Any idea how to get rid of it?

My familiar XP desktop is back  and I have Internet connectivity – Google Chrome works, IE does not.  None of my Internet shortcuts work (I use a lot in various folders).  They all show a default icon and when I right-click to Properties I see there is a General tab but no URL tab.

Internet Explorer:

This http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917964 says, “If you performed a repair installation of Windows XP but did not uninstall any later version of Internet Explorer, Internet Explorer will not run. To troubleshoot this issue, follow these steps”.

Followed these instructions, I rebooted and tried to start into Recovery Console via the bootup options page.  I got a blue screen of death.

Rebooted into Recovery Console using the XP CD as here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307654#howtouserc.  Successfully did the following commands to uninstall IE8:

CD ie8\spuninst
batch Spuninst.txt

Surely, I could have done that from Start > Run.  Still, it’s done now.  I restarted into XP, downloaded IE 8 and installed.  IE now works and my Internet shortcuts are back and working.

Updates:

Did IE > Tools > Windows Update.  It checked my system for updates and gave me a long list of 116 “High-priority updates”.  I clicked Install Updates.

It downloaded and installed all 116 and said done for each one and then prompted for reboot.  It took a very long time installing two of them:

Security Update for Microsoft .NET Framework 4 on XP, Server 2003, Vista, Windows 7, Server 2008 x86 (KB2656368) and (KB2686827).

After reboot the yellow Updates shield appears in the tray.  When I click this it again installs KB2656368 and KB2686827, taking ages just as before and says done.  When I reboot, the yellow shield is back for the same updates.  I’ve had this persistent problem from way before the recent trouble.  Never been able to find a solution to it.  Any suggestion here would be welcome.

Other issues:

There are several other issues I’m working on now.  I wont bother you with them until I can be more specific.

Thanks for the help and support.
Keith