windows has detected a registry/configuration error!

[bacillus]

working on an old 166MHZ pc with win95 & 16MB of ram.
original problem was reported as problems with external modem connection. the pc was reported to be working ok apart from that. booted up to desktop,only to be greeted by a dialogue box telling me that windows encountered an error accessing the system registry & that I should restore the registry & restart. this is done & I get to a working desktop.
within 2 reboots,I get the message " windows has detected a registry/configuration error" & the previous dialogue box reappears so again I click to restore registry & restart. now, can't even start up & get to desktop in safe mode as the same dialogue box keeps reappearing.
haven't changed anything in the pc!
I've tried scanreg/fix but it keeps giving me a bad command error.
all cables are good & even tried using different ones with no change!
anyone have any ideas short of a reformat & reinstall as the win95 cd not available!

 

[ax57]

Bad RAM will cause the problem you're describing. Try either reseating the RAM or substitute some different RAM to see if that fixes the problem. If there's a heavy accumulation of dust in the SIMM slots you might want to vauum that out too.

 

[jasonlee123]

I have never heard of an error message being caused by unseated RAM especially a registry error message. I really dont think its that. I am almost 90% positive that to fix this problem you will need your Windows 95 disk. Sorry for the bad news.

 

[Quickfingerz]

This can happen when you overclock your ram your system bus too high. When I see this error, and i'm sure it's because of overclocking i immediately turn the system.

 

[bacillus]

Quickfingerz, thanks for the thought but this puppy is running at its rated speed without any o/clocking!
I've tried restoring the registry from command prompt in safe mode but still no go! looks like I need to get that win95disk somehow.
the other option is to load win98 but with only 16Mb of ram(it's not sdram), the machine will run at a snail's pace!

 

[Hardnut2K]

You should never use any vacuum cleaner on a computer, use compressed air in a can to clean away any dust instead, just in case you lose any jumpers.

Talking of jumpers you could probably get away with taking his baby to 200 MHz without any problems, but use a fan/heat sink combo instead of the standard heat sink.