Hi --
I recently set up my computer after a couple years' absence in Africa. It's a Dell, 80 gig HD, 128 m RAM, P3 1 gig CPU running Win ME. It was working fine except for some slowness (probably just owing to lack of resources) and an occasional weird sound issue when playing Baldur's Gate 2.
I used msconfig's STARTUP tab to disable certain start-up programs, but only ones I knew or had verified online could be removed (things like HP camera Internet access and a couple of background auto-updaters). I'd also d/l'ed and run Lavasoft Ad-Aware's latest version, which quarantined a few items -- mostly cookies but also a few registry items (again, all ones that it said were identified spyware).
I rebooted the computer and said there was a problem and gave me the option to boot in Safe Mode, Logged Mode, Regular Mode or Step-by-Step. I picked Safe Mode, the default option, and it told me there'd been a problem with the Registry and to use SCANREG to fix it. So it boots up in Safe Mode and I run SCANREG from the Run menu -- which says something about "checking status" and then does nothing (I let it sit for 30 minutes). I decided to reboot and try again... no luck -- in fact, this time, when it gets to Safe Mode, rather than going to a functioning Desktop, it shows the "arrow and hourglass" icon and just sits there. The background graphic is there, but the various desktop items never come up and I can't do anything.
I've poked around online and tried a few solutions, but can't get anything to work. I have a Win 98 boot floppy that I've used (as microsoft.com says) to get to a DOS: prompt and, from there, I've tried to create an ME boot disk (doesn't work -- can't get the "format" command to work... says something about an invalid MS-DOS version) and to run SCANREG and "SCANREG /restore", hoping to just be able to restore my Registry to an earlier version. In both cases, SCANREG doesn't do anything... pulls up a blue program screen and says something like "Checking Registry Status..." and then sits there... the HD light whirs for a minute or two and then goes off, but nothing happens -- I've left it on like that over night and still no results from the Registry Status Check.
Does anyone have any advice? I was going to try using the Win ME System Restore function but can't get to the Desktop to run it from the Run menu, and SCANREG doesn't seem to do anything.
Are there any programs I can run that might help solve or at least diagnose the problem?
Should I just reinstall Win ME (assuming I can find my disks, which I packed away somewhere before leaving for Africa but can't seem to find) or just buy an Upgrade copy of Win XP and install it? I didn't get a chance to back up the hard drive (Bad Idea, I know). I may be getting another computer at some point anyways, since this one is old, but I'd like to get it running 'til I get money for a new one and, in any case, I'd like to get pictures and documents off the hard drive. Would re-installing ME/installing XP require reformatting the hard drive? Anyway to get the Registry working or do a new install while leaving the data intact?
Sorry for rambling a bit... just wanted to give a full picture of what I've tried already. Any advice would be greatly appreciated -- after two years in an African village thinking about finally getting back to my computer, to crash it a couple days after I got back has been pretty annoying!
Thanks,
Jonathan
I recently set up my computer after a couple years' absence in Africa. It's a Dell, 80 gig HD, 128 m RAM, P3 1 gig CPU running Win ME. It was working fine except for some slowness (probably just owing to lack of resources) and an occasional weird sound issue when playing Baldur's Gate 2.
I used msconfig's STARTUP tab to disable certain start-up programs, but only ones I knew or had verified online could be removed (things like HP camera Internet access and a couple of background auto-updaters). I'd also d/l'ed and run Lavasoft Ad-Aware's latest version, which quarantined a few items -- mostly cookies but also a few registry items (again, all ones that it said were identified spyware).
I rebooted the computer and said there was a problem and gave me the option to boot in Safe Mode, Logged Mode, Regular Mode or Step-by-Step. I picked Safe Mode, the default option, and it told me there'd been a problem with the Registry and to use SCANREG to fix it. So it boots up in Safe Mode and I run SCANREG from the Run menu -- which says something about "checking status" and then does nothing (I let it sit for 30 minutes). I decided to reboot and try again... no luck -- in fact, this time, when it gets to Safe Mode, rather than going to a functioning Desktop, it shows the "arrow and hourglass" icon and just sits there. The background graphic is there, but the various desktop items never come up and I can't do anything.
I've poked around online and tried a few solutions, but can't get anything to work. I have a Win 98 boot floppy that I've used (as microsoft.com says) to get to a DOS: prompt and, from there, I've tried to create an ME boot disk (doesn't work -- can't get the "format" command to work... says something about an invalid MS-DOS version) and to run SCANREG and "SCANREG /restore", hoping to just be able to restore my Registry to an earlier version. In both cases, SCANREG doesn't do anything... pulls up a blue program screen and says something like "Checking Registry Status..." and then sits there... the HD light whirs for a minute or two and then goes off, but nothing happens -- I've left it on like that over night and still no results from the Registry Status Check.
Does anyone have any advice? I was going to try using the Win ME System Restore function but can't get to the Desktop to run it from the Run menu, and SCANREG doesn't seem to do anything.
Are there any programs I can run that might help solve or at least diagnose the problem?
Should I just reinstall Win ME (assuming I can find my disks, which I packed away somewhere before leaving for Africa but can't seem to find) or just buy an Upgrade copy of Win XP and install it? I didn't get a chance to back up the hard drive (Bad Idea, I know). I may be getting another computer at some point anyways, since this one is old, but I'd like to get it running 'til I get money for a new one and, in any case, I'd like to get pictures and documents off the hard drive. Would re-installing ME/installing XP require reformatting the hard drive? Anyway to get the Registry working or do a new install while leaving the data intact?
Sorry for rambling a bit... just wanted to give a full picture of what I've tried already. Any advice would be greatly appreciated -- after two years in an African village thinking about finally getting back to my computer, to crash it a couple days after I got back has been pretty annoying!
Thanks,
Jonathan
