WINDOWS 98 SAYS I HAVE CORRUPT REGISTRY!!! *HELP*

[Gdawg2000]

I just installed a LEGAL new copy of Windows 98 on my other computer, and after the installation it boots up the computer for the first time, but right after it displays that window wallpaper while booting it goes to the blue scandisk screen and it says
"Repairing C:\Windows\System.dat"
Looking for vailid system registry keys
Checking system registry structure
Rebuilding system registy

and it displays a little status bar that goes to 100%. Then after it repairs it i restart the pc and this time it actually boots to the desktop, but then after everything loads up a warning window appears and says
"Windows Registry Checker"
Windows accountered an error accessing the system registry.
Windows will restart and repair the system registry for you.

Does anyone have any clue what the heck is going on and how do i fix this?!?!? I've installed it 3 times, and the same thing happens EVERYTIME

 

[zippy]

What are your system specs? Did you use any beta drivers?

It sounds to me like you have a virus- do you have Norton Antivirus? If so, pop the emergency disk in and run the antivirus program.

 

[MassMhz]

If you are overclocked,back it down if not how did you install it ,fresh or upgrade?

 

[Gdawg2000]

This was a fresh install, not an upgrade, and its a Gateway 2000 400mhz, 72mb ram, 20gb hard drive, running Win98 SE. I went to the microsoft site and it said its because i have corrupt memory. That may be why, but i think ill just disable the registry checker so it wont pop up ever again, i dont really care that much about it since its my bros pc for college which i wont use But doesn anyone else know what could be wrong?

(and no im not using any beta drivers, and it cant be a virus either, this was a clean fresh install of Win98, i dont think the cd could have a virus..but then again it is win98 *sigh*)

 

[zippy]

Some viruses are NOT wiped out by a format- they hide in the bootsector. Trust me, I've dealt with them before and they are no fun!

 

[Gdawg2000]

oh, well the prob is that i dont have a virus scan software that came with this pc...any way to scan viruses w/o a scan app?

 

[Gdawg2000]

what about scandisk? that detect it?

 

[hopefloats]

Try running the Windows System File Checker? go to Start/Run type in SFC ? you will be prompted for each file that needs repair. Browse D:\win98 and hit enter to pull the files from your cd. Write down each file it shows as corrupted, it may help you in any further troubleshooting. I ran this yesterday and it found 10 corrupt files. Does anyone know if you can run SFC in Safe Mode?

 

[Gdawg2000]

Ok, im gonna go try that, ill tell you if that works

 

[SaturnX]

Another possible suspect could be defective RAM, I recently had the same problem as you, every time Windows would boot up, I would get the same errors. I took out one of my 64MB Dimms, and everything worked well again. You should check to see if RAM is the problem.

--Mark

 

[Gdawg2000]

Yeah, i just went to microsoft and it said that it is likely due to defective ram, so all i did was just go to the system config utility and disabled the system from using Registry Checker on the startup, so now it wont even check anymore. I know that is not the best idea to do, but it works for, alteast i dont have to put up with that message anymore.

 

[zippy]

BTW, how do you have 72MB of RAM in a 400MHz machine? Is it a K6-2 400MHz on an old socket7 board with EDO RAM support?

 

[ninjazed]

Wow, talk about Deja Vu. My system was doing exactly the same thing with the registry checker screen and all. After viruses were excluded as a possibility I used the file checker too (start, accessories, system tools, system information then the tools tab). Things were OK for a while but then the problems came back, so bad that explorer wouldn't load on boot at all. I re-installed Windows and some assorted programs, updates and drivers that were somehow missing. Everything hums along very well now and I'm still not sure what the heck happened. The bad RAM theory sounds veru plausible to me. If the problem re-occurs, I'm going to yank the generic PC133 memory out and go with some quality name brand stuff. It's just weird that the RAM took almost a year to start dumping on me you know. I'd be curious to hear what others have to say about that dreaded "windows will repair your registry" screen. For me it seemed at that point things were toast already. I wouldn't recomennd disabling the checker though. If something awful happens to the system, it's a real easy fix to activate scanreg /restore in DOS and come back to the real world with a minimum amount of ag.

 

[ax57]

I would agree that it's probably flakey RAM that's causing the problem. If it's not the RAM, it could be either the L1 or L2 cache on the CPU. You could try reseating the RAM, changing the order of the SIMMs or DIMMs, remove the sticks of RAM one at a time, cleaning the contacts, etc. You can also go into the BIOS and temporarily disable the L1 and L2 cache to eliminate that as the culprit. (Your computer will be very slow when you do that.)

ax57

 

[etech]

Mcaffee and symantec both had a free limited time virus checker the last time I looked. The mcaffe was an on-line scan and the symantec was a large download.

Simmtester has a docmemory memory tester for free. Download from ZDnet to create a bootable floppy, run in burn in mode for a few hours.

Run a through scandisk and get the harddrive diagnostic from your harddrive manufactuer.

 

[Pocatello]

I had this problem back in win95 days, it was bad a bad RAM module, so I replaced it. Everything was fine after that.

 

[Blain]

I just got through a very similar problem.
Check these links and read about my journey

 

[hifimaster]

cheak out pcpitstop