Windows Registry Checker (I think) causing continuous reboot

[Guest J. P. Gilliver]

On a friend's PC, while booting (98), one of the boxes that pops up is

headed something like "Windows Registry Checker"; it says it has found a

problem (I can't remember the exact words) and needs to do a restart, after

which all will be OK; it has an OK button. If pressed, sure enough the PC

restarts, but the box comes up again, and we can go round the loop as often

as we like.

 

If, however, I Ctrl-Alt-Delete, it appears in the list of running

applications (usually as second line), and can be End Tasked; the "not

responding" box comes up, so I End Task that, and thereafter, the PC seems

to work perfectly happily!

 

What is most puzzling of all: for assorted reasons, the main one being that

Brother's Keeper (a genalogy program) for some reason wouldn't go into its

Edit screen (without which it's impossible to edit the database; the rest of

the prog. - assorted charts production - worked fine!), I'd rebuilt the

system from scratch - and I mean from scratch, even repartitioning the HD!

 

Any ideas what this "Registry Checker" (if I've remembered the name right)

is about? (Oh, it _seems_ to be part of the OS - I certainly hadn't loaded

any third-party registry cleaners, other than I might have loaded the one

that comes as part of EZ-Cleaner from Toni Helenius, which I was _not_

invoking.)

--

J. P. Gilliver

[Guest Gary S. Terhune]

Re: Windows Registry Checker (I think) causing continuous reboot

 

Boot to a Command Prompt Only boot. Then run the following:

SCANREG /OPT /FIX

 

Does that fix the problem?

 

--

Gary S. Terhune

MS-MVP Shell/User

http://www.grystmill.com

 

"J. P. Gilliver" <john.gilliver@baesystems.com> wrote in message

news:4833072a$1_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net...

> On a friend's PC, while booting (98), one of the boxes that pops up is

> headed something like "Windows Registry Checker"; it says it has found a

> problem (I can't remember the exact words) and needs to do a restart,

> after which all will be OK; it has an OK button. If pressed, sure enough

> the PC restarts, but the box comes up again, and we can go round the loop

> as often as we like.

>

> If, however, I Ctrl-Alt-Delete, it appears in the list of running

> applications (usually as second line), and can be End Tasked; the "not

> responding" box comes up, so I End Task that, and thereafter, the PC seems

> to work perfectly happily!

>

> What is most puzzling of all: for assorted reasons, the main one being

> that Brother's Keeper (a genalogy program) for some reason wouldn't go

> into its Edit screen (without which it's impossible to edit the database;

> the rest of the prog. - assorted charts production - worked fine!), I'd

> rebuilt the system from scratch - and I mean from scratch, even

> repartitioning the HD!

>

> Any ideas what this "Registry Checker" (if I've remembered the name right)

> is about? (Oh, it _seems_ to be part of the OS - I certainly hadn't loaded

> any third-party registry cleaners, other than I might have loaded the one

> that comes as part of EZ-Cleaner from Toni Helenius, which I was _not_

> invoking.)

> --

> J. P. Gilliver

>

[Guest Jeff Richards]

Re: Windows Registry Checker (I think) causing continuous reboot

 

A common reason for this problem is bad RAM. When the registry is loaded

it's checked, but the bad RAM causes a checking error. Loading a good copy

of the registry doesn't fix it because it wasn't bad in the first place.

This is usually associated with other odd errors or unexplained crashes.

Try a good RAM test.

--

Jeff Richards

MS MVP (Windows - Shell/User)

"J. P. Gilliver" <john.gilliver@baesystems.com> wrote in message

news:4833072a$1_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net...

> On a friend's PC, while booting (98), one of the boxes that pops up is

> headed something like "Windows Registry Checker"; it says it has found a

> problem (I can't remember the exact words) and needs to do a restart,

> after which all will be OK; it has an OK button. If pressed, sure enough

> the PC restarts, but the box comes up again, and we can go round the loop

> as often as we like.

>

> If, however, I Ctrl-Alt-Delete, it appears in the list of running

> applications (usually as second line), and can be End Tasked; the "not

> responding" box comes up, so I End Task that, and thereafter, the PC seems

> to work perfectly happily!

>

> What is most puzzling of all: for assorted reasons, the main one being

> that Brother's Keeper (a genalogy program) for some reason wouldn't go

> into its Edit screen (without which it's impossible to edit the database;

> the rest of the prog. - assorted charts production - worked fine!), I'd

> rebuilt the system from scratch - and I mean from scratch, even

> repartitioning the HD!

>

> Any ideas what this "Registry Checker" (if I've remembered the name right)

> is about? (Oh, it _seems_ to be part of the OS - I certainly hadn't loaded

> any third-party registry cleaners, other than I might have loaded the one

> that comes as part of EZ-Cleaner from Toni Helenius, which I was _not_

> invoking.)

> --

> J. P. Gilliver

>

[Guest PCR]

Re: Windows Registry Checker (I think) causing continuous reboot

 

J. P. Gilliver wrote:

| On a friend's PC, while booting (98), one of the boxes that pops up is

| headed something like "Windows Registry Checker"; it says it has

| found a problem (I can't remember the exact words) and needs to do a

| restart, after which all will be OK; it has an OK button. If pressed,

| sure enough the PC restarts, but the box comes up again, and we can

| go round the loop as often as we like.

|

| If, however, I Ctrl-Alt-Delete, it appears in the list of running

| applications (usually as second line), and can be End Tasked; the "not

| responding" box comes up, so I End Task that, and thereafter, the PC

| seems to work perfectly happily!

 

As Richards said...

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=186909

Registry Checker Continues to Detect Registry Damage

....better check the integrity of RAM (Memory), as that is often

suspect, when Windows does it's auto-/Restore of the Registry at boot...

http://www.simmtester.com/PAGE/products/doc/docinfo.asp RAM tester

http://www.memtest86.com/ RAM tester

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp RAM tester

 

In the event Windows finds a problem with the Registry at boot, it does

not attempt a "/Fix", unless there is no backup to "/Restore". It will

restore an earlier Registry from "C:\Windows\Sysbckup". So, to

investigate your Registry backups...

 

(1)

(a) "START button, Settings, Folder Options, View tab".

Bolt "Show all files" & UNcheck "Hide file extensions..."

 

(b) "START button, Find, F/F, RB???.cab".

Those are the Registry backups, in Sysbckup\. Are there five,

plus an RBbad? Are the dates consistent with each of the last five

days you've successfully boot? What is the date on RBbad?

 

(2) "START button, Programs, MS-DOS Prompt". Then...

(a) CD C:\Windows\Sysbckup

(b) DIR RB???.cab /od

© Use the "Mark" button, outline text with mouse, "Copy" & post for

inspection.

 

Here was mine on 09-22-05...

 

C:\>CD C:\Windows\Sysbckup

C:\WINDOWS\SYSBCKUP>dir rb???.cab /od /a

Directory of C:\WINDOWS\SYSBCKUP

RBBAD CAB 1,593,319 09-08-05 5:22p rbbad.cab

RB001 CAB 1,590,251 09-18-05 3:34p rb001.cab

RB002 CAB 1,589,811 09-19-05 9:15a rb002.cab

RB003 CAB 1,583,534 09-20-05 8:53a rb003.cab

RB004 CAB 1,583,487 09-21-05 10:01a rb004.cab

RB005 CAB 1,583,477 09-22-05 11:54a rb005.cab

6 file(s) 9,523,879 bytes

 

Note, on 9/8 I did a Scanreg /Fix, which created the RBbad. It is also

created when Windows decides on it's own to replace a Registry with one

of the backups. Then, the Registry that was replaced ends up in RBbad.

 

One is created at the first successful boot per day, when all is well.

So, check those dates. When Windows detects a Registry corruption at

boot, it will look for one of those backups to replace it with. If there

only is a very old one in there, it would explain a loss of recent

changes to settings at reboot.

 

| What is most puzzling of all: for assorted reasons, the main one

| being that Brother's Keeper (a genalogy program) for some reason

| wouldn't go into its Edit screen (without which it's impossible to

| edit the database; the rest of the prog. - assorted charts production

| - worked fine!), I'd rebuilt the system from scratch - and I mean

| from scratch, even repartitioning the HD!

|

| Any ideas what this "Registry Checker" (if I've remembered the name

| right) is about? (Oh, it _seems_ to be part of the OS - I certainly

| hadn't loaded any third-party registry cleaners, other than I might

| have loaded the one that comes as part of EZ-Cleaner from Toni

| Helenius, which I was _not_ invoking.)

| --

| J. P. Gilliver

 

--

Thanks or Good Luck,

There may be humor in this post, and,

Naturally, you will not sue,

Should things get worse after this,

PCR

pcrrcp@netzero.net

[Guest J. P. Gilliver]

Re: Windows Registry Checker (I think) causing continuous reboot

 

Jeff Richards wrote:

> A common reason for this problem is bad RAM. When the registry is

> loaded it's checked, but the bad RAM causes a checking error. Loading a

> good copy of the registry doesn't fix it because it wasn't

> bad in the first place. This is usually associated with other odd

> errors or unexplained crashes. Try a good RAM test.

[]

Sounds plausible, but I don't _think_ it's the problem: I'm pretty sure I

rang the changes with the RAM modules (it has 4 × 32M = 128M, of the sort

that had to be loaded in pairs - I'm pretty sure I had it down to 64M, both

halves individually) when trying to sort the Brother's Keeper problem.

--

J. P. Gilliver

[Guest J. P. Gilliver]

Re: Windows Registry Checker (I think) causing continuous reboot

 

Gary S. Terhune wrote:

> Boot to a Command Prompt Only boot. Then run the following:

> SCANREG /OPT /FIX

>

> Does that fix the problem?

>

>

> "J. P. Gilliver" <john.gilliver@baesystems.com> wrote in message

> news:4833072a$1_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net...

>> On a friend's PC, while booting (98), one of the boxes that pops up

>> is headed something like "Windows Registry Checker"; it says it has

[]

>> production - worked fine!), I'd rebuilt the system from scratch -

>> and I mean from scratch, even repartitioning the HD!

[]

Thanks for that. I will try it next time I visit John.

 

(If it just reloads an earlier registry [or whatever], it won't help - the

problem appeared right after OS installation, and hasn't gone away since.

[Actually it was there before the rebuild-including-repartitioning.] The

strange thing is that, once the process is killed, the PC seems fine.)

--

J. P. Gilliver

[Guest Gary S. Terhune]

Re: Windows Registry Checker (I think) causing continuous reboot

 

Nothing funny about it, nor strange, either. Something about the Registry

makes it corrupt, or at least appear corrupt. Since that "thing" is in all

the Registry backups that are available, there's no where to go but in

circles. That is, IF any backups *are* available, since I believe few if any

backups have been made during the life of the system. The daily backup isn't

created until the Registry is tested OK, which it apparently hasn't been

doing for a long, long time.

 

I would definitely try the /Opt /Fix procedure, but if it doesn't work, I'd

just disable ScanRegistry (which is how it's named in MSCONFIG and the

Registry Run key it loads from.) If it was me, I'd then write a little

program to create my own daily backups.

 

Hmm... Long, long shot, but try running SCANREGW from the Start>Run box.

(Note the W at the end.) What happens?

 

--

Gary S. Terhune

MS-MVP Shell/User

http://www.grystmill.com

 

 

"J. P. Gilliver" <john.gilliver@baesystems.com> wrote in message

news:4835a6d9_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net...

> Gary S. Terhune wrote:

>> Boot to a Command Prompt Only boot. Then run the following:

>> SCANREG /OPT /FIX

>>

>> Does that fix the problem?

>>

>>

>> "J. P. Gilliver" <john.gilliver@baesystems.com> wrote in message

>> news:4833072a$1_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net...

>>> On a friend's PC, while booting (98), one of the boxes that pops up

>>> is headed something like "Windows Registry Checker"; it says it has

> []

>>> production - worked fine!), I'd rebuilt the system from scratch -

>>> and I mean from scratch, even repartitioning the HD!

> []

> Thanks for that. I will try it next time I visit John.

>

> (If it just reloads an earlier registry [or whatever], it won't help - the

> problem appeared right after OS installation, and hasn't gone away since.

> [Actually it was there before the rebuild-including-repartitioning.] The

> strange thing is that, once the process is killed, the PC seems fine.)

> --

> J. P. Gilliver

>

[Guest J. P. Gilliver]

Re: Windows Registry Checker (I think) causing continuous reboot

 

Gary S. Terhune wrote:

[]

> where to go but in circles. That is, IF any backups *are* available,

> since I believe few if any backups have been made during the life of

> the system. The daily backup isn't created until the Registry is

> tested OK, which it apparently hasn't been doing for a long, long

> time.

 

Since build, in this case. (Only a few weeks ago.)

>

> I would definitely try the /Opt /Fix procedure, but if it doesn't

> work, I'd just disable ScanRegistry (which is how it's named in

> MSCONFIG and the Registry Run key it loads from.) If it was me, I'd

 

Yes, I've printed out the KB article.

> then write a little program to create my own daily backups.

 

I use ERU fairly frequently - more or less whenever I change anything. Since

I very much don't think John ever makes any changes when I'm not there - he

only uses the genealogy prog., IrfanView (for his camera pics), Word, and

the Pegasus email client, I'm pretty sure he doesn't even use the web. ERU

(from Windows 95) doesn't save everything (as I've found before, most

recently when using soporific's AutoPatcher [against all your advice]), but

for John's system, I'm pretty sure it will save all that's necessary.

>

> Hmm... Long, long shot, but try running SCANREGW from the Start>Run

> box. (Note the W at the end.) What happens?

>

Noted, and I'll try it next time I visit.

[]

--

J. P. Gilliver

[Guest Gary S. Terhune]

Re: Windows Registry Checker (I think) causing continuous reboot

 

Oh well. If it were me and I couldn't get it fixed, I'd flatten it and start

over. Sounds like it was a bad install from the git-go. (But don't forget to

run a couple of different RAM testers for a couple of days, just in case.)

 

--

Gary S. Terhune

MS-MVP Shell/User

http://www.grystmill.com

 

"J. P. Gilliver" <john.gilliver@baesystems.com> wrote in message

news:4836ff84$1_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net...

> Gary S. Terhune wrote:

> []

>> where to go but in circles. That is, IF any backups *are* available,

>> since I believe few if any backups have been made during the life of

>> the system. The daily backup isn't created until the Registry is

>> tested OK, which it apparently hasn't been doing for a long, long

>> time.

>

> Since build, in this case. (Only a few weeks ago.)

>>

>> I would definitely try the /Opt /Fix procedure, but if it doesn't

>> work, I'd just disable ScanRegistry (which is how it's named in

>> MSCONFIG and the Registry Run key it loads from.) If it was me, I'd

>

> Yes, I've printed out the KB article.

>

>> then write a little program to create my own daily backups.

>

> I use ERU fairly frequently - more or less whenever I change anything.

> Since I very much don't think John ever makes any changes when I'm not

> there - he only uses the genealogy prog., IrfanView (for his camera pics),

> Word, and the Pegasus email client, I'm pretty sure he doesn't even use

> the web. ERU (from Windows 95) doesn't save everything (as I've found

> before, most recently when using soporific's AutoPatcher [against all your

> advice]), but for John's system, I'm pretty sure it will save all that's

> necessary.

>>

>> Hmm... Long, long shot, but try running SCANREGW from the Start>Run

>> box. (Note the W at the end.) What happens?

>>

> Noted, and I'll try it next time I visit.

> []

> --

> J. P. Gilliver

>