Dumb and Dumber, crashed puter

Hi All!!

This may take some time. Over a week ago, I d/l'd some progs, got some on-line scans for viruii(?), various other scans because my computer was going so slow(512 Ram), it would take literally 2-3 minutes to download a letter!
I sent a couple of HJT's to here and another forum, no one noticed anything wrong. Spybot kept sending me notices that McAfee was changing their registry, I denied them, cuz wouldn't they let us know? Finally, exasperated, I allowed one .But, I had an idea to go into Services and stop some things I didn't need(?). The next time I booted, McAfee Privacy was down, slowly everthing else started to quit working, I tried to burn a back up, puter said it did, 98 'chine says nothing on disk, System Restore wouldn't work, Last Good Config, wouldn't go, it shut down. I ran Dell Diagnostics and all that is OK. Spent days trolling 'net and M$ for answer, did I disable something? or is it a virus? Should've come here, but, I felt dumb. Now, ALL I want is my puter back! Finally got Recovery Console to work and got services list, I got command prompt, and figured how to start the services again, started a few, but, the list is 200 different .exe, is there a faster way and do you think it WAS a virus,trojan? Don't know enough, brain is FULL of stuff I don't really know about! I'm really confused about what happened and what to do? ANY help will really be appreciated!! Thanks, guys!!!
Marja(on an OLD 95 HP that is reallllly slow)

 

Try booting into safe mode (tapping the F8 key as your computer boots). If you're able to get into safe mode, you can use msconfig or the services control panel to reset your services (go with the defaults: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/.../proddocs/en-us/sys_srv_default_settings.mspx).

Noticed you're running TeaTimer. I read some comments about it noticeably slowing some systems down: Link.

Hope that helps.

Nick

 

Nick, Thanks for replying!

I did go to safe mode, I got a message that "Windows XP does not run in safe mode." That was the first I heard?!
Next, I tried to install a OEM (Dell) re-installation disk, but, all it wanted to do, was wipe my disk and barely re-install XP. I would then lose all my d/l's, updates, security, settings, drivers, etc. I repeatedly tried to repair, but, windows stopped at install and said files were missing, it needed a product catalog, Dell was no help. I spent alot of time reading M$ stuff, XP sites, no one had a concrete answer.
I read Recovery Console was really unpredictible, but, I was pretty sure it was a service I disabled. Some services aren't needed, but, XP can't(won't) boot without them.
The problem now is - I got the list up, I figured out how to start 4 services, enable name service_boot,demand,system,auto_start, there is a list of dependencies(I guess?) 200 of them, it seems there has to be a all-in-one,exe that can re-start the services, then I can run the security stuff too, just in case.
I just have more info than I know what to do with and a family that is tired of me spending hours working to get it running!

Any Help is Appreciated!! Marja

 

Were you running System Restore before the crash? If you were, you could try Safe Mode with Command Prompt rather than Safe Mode. You can then run System Restore via the command prompt: How to start the System Restore tool at a command prompt in Windows XP.

Nick

 

Ronjor and Nick,

I wasn't able to run anything in safe mode, I tried all three safe modes(?). I even tried to boot with a 98 disk, something another XP forum suggested, to partition a dual boot. It sounded like I still wouldn't be able to start services.

If I type a command at the prompt will it warn, tell me what will happen if I go thru with the "command", like could I just type, ENABLE SERVICES.EXE SERVICE_?_START, I don't know if exe is system, boot, demand, auto and if I type an exe? Safe mode is not an option at this point, Recovery Console is the only thing that has got me even close to any control of my system.

If it is something I disabled than, it is affecting system restore, last good config, and keeping the OS and WinXP from communicating, it's missing the "spark", that boots, starts everything running.

I appreciate your ideas, I know I am vague on this, because I barely know anything about what I am doing, looks like I am going to learn real quick, huh?

It takes a long time to answer on this olde HP (1.3, 32ram, 10 year old HD 1G it was in retirement and resents this intrusion!)

System Restore, Last Good Config went down right away along with McAfee Privacy Suite and the firewall wasn't recording a trace log at all, and there was always mucho activity on that, could it have been a virus or trojan and not any thing I did? If I could just get it booted up, this has been a frustrating week! My family wants to send it to Dell in pieces! I want to know why!!

THANKS TONS, GUYS!!!
Marja

 

OK, I went back over my notes, cuz I couldn't remember why safe mode w/command prompt didn't work. I did try the prompt, there wasn't any response in safe mode at all, except to say "Windows XP does not run in safe mode." That isn't true, I have went into files in safe mode before, that really threw me.

As the system seemed to domino (one by one), I tried to backup to a cd, the computer said the cd was full, all I have is this 10 yr HP with 98 on it, could it not be capable of reading a XP backup? Maybe I do have a backup but, how can I use it?

I like mysteries, but, really!! It would help if I knew what to tell you to help, but, I don't even know that, so I am telling everything I can think of!! If anyone can think of a more clear concise way of putting it all in order, that would be helpful!!

THANKS SO MUCH!!
Marja

 

Ron,

Ok, I give up, the DellDude cd is not a full version, it only installs enough to barely get the system started, you even have to install the chipset, drivers, setting blah blah blah. No one on the Dell forum has ever got it to work.

So tell me about your idea, I have hesitated becuz this puter d/l's about 2kbps!! No kidding! So I won't be able to come back until next week for more instructions. Is this where you put the 98 in and pretend to upgrade to XP? Someone also told me to keep putting the same disk in 6-7 times and d'l over the previous program, supposedly the puter will still be able to find CMDCON.SYS which is supposed to solve 80% of my problems, they didn't know what to do after that! It's scary out there!

So tell me how, I want my puter back!! and wish me luck, it will take quite awhile on this, uh nice computer. Then I am going to the Acronis forum!

Thanks!!!
Marja

 

I went into Safe Mode and there were five services running:

Cryptographic Services (CryptSvc)
Event Log (Eventlog)
Logical Disk Manager (dmserver)
Remote Procedure Call (RpcSs)
Windows Management Instrumentation (winmgmt)

You could try enabling these services from the Recovery Console using this command:

ENABLE servicename SERVICE_AUTO_START

This link should help: http://www.wown.com/j_helmig/wxprcons.htm

Do it for the services above. The service names are in parenthesis. Might get Safe Mode working again.

Nick

 

Have you tried deleting mcafee. It seems it is the one that got the registry changed. It couldn't hurt, you can always reinstall mcafee. Sometimes the simpliest things work. May have to remove mcafee in safe mode?

 

Big C,

Will try to uninstall in safe mode, just that safe mode wouldn't let me "do" anything earlier, maybe puter is getting bored by this too!

Nick,

Haven't heard that fix, I think I will try it, it will save time from enabling every little file in services!
Also, I got a list of what I disabled and none of them SHOULD have stopped everything, but, then others say Needed to Us, isn't the same as Needed by M$'s OS. I checkd for dependencies, but must have missed something? What would SERVICES.EXE do? Just curious, got enough to do!!

You all are Wonderful! I have my night cut out for me, hope you all have better things to do! THANKS!! Hope to see ya soon- faster!

Marja wannabe

 

Hi All,

Just to add a little bit ... I've already PM'd Marja about this ... but it could be useful to others too.

XP Home Edition by default does not come with the XP back up utility loaded by default, but it is however available on your XP disk. And it will successfully backup your computers "System State"

System State ... I believes backs up all of the following:

System State data

* Registry
* COM+ Class Registration database
* Boot files, including the system files
* Certificate Services database
* Active Directory directory service
* SYSVOL directory
* Cluster service information
* IIS Metadirectory
* System files that are under Windows File Protection

Instructions for installing this backup utility in My Post - Backup XP Home Ed. with complete links to M$ KB articles

HTH,

dog -

 

Marja.... you asked SERVICES.EXE...

found this...

sorry for pic width, wanted to show the lot



TAS

PS: Just realised, you WERE talking about Services Control Panel? or SERVICES.exe as a running process.

Sorry if that was the case. This refers to it running as a process.

 

Marja...

SERVICES.EXE... where did you see that... I don't have that in my Services Control Panel... nor in start-up...

TAS

EDIT: Sorry,, LOL>.. see it as a running process in TM.... soooo... that means I am infected LOL... nah..

Note the spelling.. caps.. services.exe is the Windows Service controller.... all lowercase.

So if you saw that in TM, did you check to see if anything else strange in there.

TAS

 

Another option:

C:\WINDOWS\repair contains a backup of the registry created at the time XP was installed. There are two methods: one for FAT32 and one for NTFS file systems. I've successfully used the method for FAT32 on a friend's system. The clearest explanation I can find is here: http://www.easydesksoftware.com/news/news20.htm.

Nick