What do I do when software is half uninstalled?

[Salvador]

I'm working in Windows 98SE. I was having problems with a missing .DLL file that I can't find information on ANYWHERE (FEREGCONFIG.DLL).

I went to uninstall some software and for some reason, it half uninstalled. The problem is that when I go to reinstall the software again, I get a message saying that the software is already installed and would I like to uninstall it. When I say yes, it says that it can't find the uninstall files. The software is also no longer in add/remove programs. It's still listed under start>programs, but when I click on the software or uninstall, it gives me the missing DLL error.

I'm basically stuck. I can't uninstall it all the way and I can't reinstall it the way it is. I tried going into safe mode and that didn't help.

BTW.. This is Netgear software for a MP101 music server. The whole reason why I tried uninstalling the software is that the software would work fine for me until I restarted the computer. When I restarted, I would get the missing DLL file error message and the software would not start again.

Any ideas?

TIA,

Sal

 

[madthumbs]

Registry First Aid

http://www.tucows.com/preview/231574.html

 

[Salvador]

I installed it and it didn't do anything for me. I hate software like this. They scan your computer and then tell you that you have to pay in order to get the software to supposedly correct the problem. I'll gladly pay if it works, but I'm not going to piss away money on something that I don't think will help.

I'm so frustrated with this. I'd reinstall Windows if I thought it would help.

Sal

 

[tk11]

You should check the netgear site for any info regarding the issue first. Reinstalling windows(clean install) would almost certainly allow you to install the software again. I'd try getting the dll first. Run the installer, the file may already be extracted at the point were you are prompted to uninstall the previously installed copy and sitting in a temporary folder on your hard drive somewhere. If you can't get a copy of the dll then look for a driver for the device in device manager and remove it(control panel>system>device manager). Then I'd delete the programs folder as well as any registry enrties I could find. If you haven't killed the system by deleting files or messing around in the registry then the program may install again. If it still wont install... reinstall windows... good luck

 

[helpmeout]

Do a search of your files and delete anything belonging to the program. D/L and run the free 30 day test of RegCrawler (just insert the program name in it's search box and it will bring up every reference to the program it finds in the registry). Delete what it finds and then reboot. I run RegCrawler after every uninstall, good or bad, to clean the registry of left behinds.

 

[Salvador]

You should check the netgear site for any info regarding the issue first. Reinstalling windows(clean install) would almost certainly allow you to install the software again. I'd try getting the dll first. Run the installer, the file may already be extracted at the point were you are prompted to uninstall the previously installed copy and sitting in a temporary folder on your hard drive somewhere. If you can't get a copy of the dll then look for a driver for the device in device manager and remove it(control panel>system>device manager). Then I'd delete the programs folder as well as any registry enrties I could find. If you haven't killed the system by deleting files or messing around in the registry then the program may install again. If it still wont install... reinstall windows... good luck

I'm trying to avoid a clean install of Windows. Just too much work unless I absolutely have to do it.

Netgear support is useless. I checked the site and called their tech support. They didn't tell me anything that I didn't know already.

I checked everywhere I know of for this missing DLL file including Netgear's site, google and Microsoft. I have no idea what this DLL file is.

I didn't think to go into Device Manager because the hardware is not physically hooked up to the system. I'll go check and delete anything in there.

I'll have to do a better search for the software files. I did delete some files already, but apparently, I didn't get the right ones.

Do a search of your files and delete anything belonging to the program. D/L and run the free 30 day test of RegCrawler (just insert the program name in it's search box and it will bring up every reference to the program it finds in the registry). Delete what it finds and then reboot. I run RegCrawler after every uninstall, good or bad, to clean the registry of left behinds.

I hope that it's not like Registry First Aid where it does this big scan and then tells you that you have to pay before it will fix anything. I'll check it out. Thanks!

Do you think that just reinstalling Windows (not a clean install) would do anything? If I do try and reinstall Windows on top of the old version, would it wipe out my current saved files?

Thanks again!

Sal

 

[helpmeout]

A reinstall of Windows now would be like shooting an ant with a 12 guage. If you do a good search for files and delete them and use regCrawler as I said above, I believe your problem will be solved. I've had the paid RegCrawler for several years, but the free trial used to do everything the paid version does.

 

[madthumbs]

Sorry that Registry First Aid didn't help without buying. I thought of registry repair software, and thought of the "best" instead of thinking "best for free". Didn't it offer 14 fixes per run?

 

[Fern]

Do you think that just reinstalling Windows (not a clean install) would do anything? If I do try and reinstall Windows on top of the old version, would it wipe out my current saved files?

No, it won't wipe out your current data.

 

[Salvador]

Sorry that Registry First Aid didn't help without buying. I thought of registry repair software, and thought of the "best" instead of thinking "best for free". Didn't it offer 14 fixes per run?

Apparently, I have a lot more than 14 problems.

I guess I don't mind paying the $21 if it's going to work. I'm a little fearful of deleting registry files though.

Sal

 

[helpmeout]

Any good registry cleaner will make backups of the entries that it deletes.

 

[Salvador]

Any good registry cleaner will make backups of the entries that it deletes.

I was looking at that because after I deleted the 14 bad entries, the system was acting a little flakey. I couldn't figure out how to restore the registry entries. Luckily, the system is acting fine now, so I didn't have to do anything, but it makes me leery to try it again.

Sal

 

[Pretty Cool]

Have a 2nd computer with Windows 98SE or can build one? How about creating another partition with Windows 98SE? You get the idea. Anyway, there are programs called uninstallers that should work. What you could do is monitor the installation on another computer and then manually remove everything in your current machine. It is probably better just to move the files rather than delete them. After you are done, you should be able to reinstall the music software. There is a freebie called Total Uninstall(http://www.martau.com) that might work. If not, a commercial program might be the answer such as Your Uninstaller! 2004(http://www.ursoftware.com/) or the abandoned Remove-It.

 

[Xtremist]

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/filemon.shtml

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/source/regmon.shtml

Those will tell you what the installer or uninstaller is trying to access. It meets your requirements for what you'd like to do as far as I can tell.

 

[boomerang]

I'm at work right now, but I used to use Reg Cleaner on 98 systems.

This is if my memory serves me right. It was free and still apears to be free. I hate to suggest another registry cleaning program with all the trouble you're having with other ones.

If it doesn't do the job, don't shoot the messenger. This is from memory.

 

[Medea]

Originally posted by: boomerang
I'm at work right now, but I used to use Reg Cleaner on 98 systems.

This is if my memory serves me right. It was free and still apears to be free. I hate to suggest another registry cleaning program with all the trouble you're having with other ones.

If it doesn't do the job, don't shoot the messenger. This is from memory.

I was going to suggest RegCleaner. It's still free. I use it on both my Win98se and on my Win2k systems whenever I delete a program. Seems like there's often a reg entry that's missed when deleting a program. You can also d/l it from here.

Try it & see if it helps.

 

[Salvador]

I tried everything and nothing has worked. The problem is that I can't find the files that are telling the software installer that I have a previous version of the software on my system. I don't know what to search for. I've deleted everything that has the known words in it.

Any other ideas?

Sal

 

[imported_Phil]

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall - delete anything in there relating to the offending program. Check the hex-code entries towards the top though, as they only display the program name in the right-hand task pane.

[Edit] You might also want to delete the program directories and Start Menu entries.

Hope this helps.

 

[ScrapSilicon]

Originally posted by: Salvador
I tried everything and nothing has worked. The problem is that I can't find the files that are telling the software installer that I have a previous version of the software on my system. I don't know what to search for. I've deleted everything that has the known words in it.

Any other ideas?

Sal

From the 11th til the 21st..? You know you could have setup a fresh install on another harddrive by now.

 

[Salvador]

Thanks Dopefriend. I'll try it.

From the 11th til the 21st..? You know you could have setup a fresh install on another harddrive by now

I know you're kidding Scrappy. I haven't been working on it the whole time. I was so frustrated before that I just gave up on it until now. Reinstalling Windows from scratch at this point would be my last choice because I have a lot of software to put back on the machine. Plus, if it happened to another Windows 98 machine, how do I know that it won't happen again after a fresh install of Windows 98?

Sal

 

[Salvador]

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall - delete anything in there relating to the offending program. Check the hex-code entries towards the top though, as they only display the program name in the right-hand task pane.

Of everything I tried, that worked. Well.. Sort of. I didn't find any traces under the path that you mentioned, but I did find the software under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\"offending software". I deleted it and then I couldn't right click on the start button without getting an illegal operation error. I tried to restore the files, but they were nowhere to be found. I was about to reinstall Windows when out of curiousity, I thought that check to see if I wiped out the software. It did. I was able to reinstall the software (finally). Once the software was reinstalled, the system was back to normal. Very weird to say the least.

Thanks again!

Happy Holidays!

Sal

 

[imported_Phil]

Originally posted by: Salvador

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall - delete anything in there relating to the offending program. Check the hex-code entries towards the top though, as they only display the program name in the right-hand task pane.

Of everything I tried, that worked. Well.. Sort of. I didn't find any traces under the path that you mentioned, but I did find the software under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\"offending software". I deleted it and then I couldn't right click on the start button without getting an illegal operation error. I tried to restore the files, but they were nowhere to be found. I was about to reinstall Windows when out of curiousity, I thought that check to see if I wiped out the software. It did. I was able to reinstall the software (finally). Once the software was reinstalled, the system was back to normal. Very weird to say the least.

Thanks again!

Happy Holidays!

Sal

No problemo