Oh, where to start-Need Computer help.

[SuzukiChopper]

Re: Oh, where to start-Need Computer help.

You can copy the one from the i386 folder if you want or you can copy it from your computer as well to the Dell's system3 folder. Because it isn't there you may want to just start by doing that and skip the registry part for now and see what happens.

As for the reg editing, if you look at the link I posted above and even just go in to your registry and look at the location they mentioned, you'll see the key I'm talking about and the value it has. Once you load the dell registry as a hive, you may or may not see that Userinit key. If it is there with the appropriate value then you're golden. If it has the wrong value it needs to be changed as per the instructions in that link. If it's missing then you'll follow the second group of instructions that are in that link to create one.

PS. Sorry but I just realized I've been saying Userlogon key in the registry when I meant Userinit.

 

[WizeOne]

Re: Oh, where to start-Need Computer help.

Moving along, an inch at a time. I copied the Dells \i386 userinit.exe over to the System32 folder, reinstalled the HD and booted. When it came to the login box, I just hit enter (without password) and the system scooted to what appears to be a full screen desktop foto (of the Mr and Mrs) without any Desktop icons. The mouse still works but there is nothing there to click on.

I tried hitting escape, enter and control+alt+delete, but I get no action of any kind???? It appears that I will have to shut down to get out of this screen.

Anymore ideas, SC? Should I try the regedit/registry deal? Or should I just reload the OS. My fear is that one thing after another may just keep popping up.

 

[i386]

Re: Oh, where to start-Need Computer help.

Make sure you have a good explorer.exe. Without that there's no icons or taskbar.

I'm glad you're making some progress and it IS fun to bring one back that's really messed up. Just make sure you trust it before giving it back to the "customer". If it acts funky in any way it'll get brought back to you (again and again).

 

[WizeOne]

Re: Oh, where to start-Need Computer help.

Make sure you have a good explorer.exe. Without that there's no icons or taskbar.

I'm glad you're making some progress and it IS fun to bring one back that's really messed up. Just make sure you trust it before giving it back to the "customer". If it acts funky in any way it'll get brought back to you (again and again).

I assume that does not mean IE Explorer? As far as funky, yes, I agree. If after a few more tries I do not get a final result or a non-quirky result, I will reload the OS before I return it. There is no 'returning it to me' as I am just doing this as a favor.

...and part of the reason I am doing it is, as you say, for the fun, satisfaction and any gained knowledge that will be useful to me in the future.

EDIT: fancy that! I just pulled the drive and re-hooked it up to my gizmo to do a search for c:\windows\explore.exe. Thar wer'nt none.

I'll copy it over from my drive and see what shakes out?

EDIT II: A few more inches!!!! After pasting explorer.exe to the dell windows directory, the dell booted to the desktop w/ icons and start bar. I did however get a message that the system could not find \system32\svchost.exe, so I will copy and paste my version of it to the dell HD.

Inch by inch, maybe it will work yet.

 

[SuzukiChopper]

Re: Oh, where to start-Need Computer help.

Now that you have got that far... and before going any further... boot in to safe mode with it. Before you do that though, download Malwarebytes and SUPERAntiSpyware to your system and copy that over to the Dell HD. Then boot in to safe mode (with networking), install those apps and make sure they are up to date. Then start scanning away. Chances are you'll have to scan a couple times with each (after rebooting in to safe mode). I've noticed that sometimes with certain bugs, until the harsher ones are taken care of, the others can't be dealt with. You may even have to root around in msconfig and see if the shell in the system.ini file has been changed at all.

My thought at this point though is to just back up all their stuff (ask them what they need) and re-install fresh. Generally all I do is back up their 'Documents and Settings' directory completely just so nothing goes missing. A fresh install means a clean slate and nothing will sit there and linger only to cause problems later on. Good luck.

 

[WizeOne]

Re: Oh, where to start-Need Computer help.

Edit III: I pulled the plug and am running the Dell restore. Even though I got it to boot to a ?functioning desktop, goofy things were happening. Such as, open MS Word, it would not close. Even a control+alt+ delete would not work. The system also could not find it's ethernet ?card, etc etc.

I had copied all the pictures off of it for the lady, now she will just have to reload programs etc.

Thanks All, for you assistance.

Ah!!!! Nothing like a clean working copy of XP!

 

[i386]

Re: Oh, where to start-Need Computer help.

That's great!

 

[dolluper]

Re: Oh, where to start-Need Computer help.

Here's a little tool for reloading with missing service packs...it makes a copy of your install disc with the missing service packs...you download to a file and it makes you a fresh install disc with service pack included on your burn very handy.

http://majorgeeks.com/AutoStreamer_d4444.html

 

[WizeOne]

Re: Oh, where to start-Need Computer help.

Here's a little tool for reloading with missing service packs...it makes a copy of your install disc with the missing service packs...you download to a file and it makes you a fresh install disc with service pack included on your burn very handy.

http://majorgeeks.com/AutoStreamer_d4444.html

I'm not sure how that would work with the Dell system. There were no discs for the OS. I had to do a CTRl+F11 to get to the restore partition. This method, of course would be useless if you had a HD go **ts up on you.

I did do the SVC pk updates after re-installation plus I dumped all of the Dell loaded garbage that had all the 'free' programs that were only good for 60 days. Heck, some of the stuff Dell had loaded was considered Spyware/Malware by Avast and MS OneCare.

 

[v1_0]

Re: Oh, where to start-Need Computer help.

Edit III: I pulled the plug and am running the Dell restore. Even though I got it to boot to a ?functioning desktop, goofy things were happening. Such as, open MS Word, it would not close. Even a control+alt+ delete would not work. The system also could not find it's ethernet ?card, etc etc.

I had copied all the pictures off of it for the lady, now she will just have to reload programs etc.

Thanks All, for you assistance.

Ah!!!! Nothing like a clean working copy of XP!

So, did you ever get the history on what happened?
Sounds like some sort of malware.

I've had luck reinstalling/recovering windows XP and keeping my data - however some of the programs were not registered, and I needed to do some funky stuff (or just reinstall them) to get them to work.

Found the following: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...68-6e4f-471c-b455-bd5afee126d8&displaylang=en

Also, the licensing cost is in the actual windows XP license, not in the media. So you can probably create a windows install disk off of your windows XP (so long as you have the same verision pro/home as the target computer's license). Heres a way to do it: http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/winxp-sp2-bootcd.html

 

[WizeOne]

Re: Oh, where to start-Need Computer help.

So, did you ever get the history on what happened?
Sounds like some sort of malware.

You hit the nail on the head v1_0. When I finally pulled the HD to display it on my computer, so as to pull data off of it, my Avast started screaming. I had started to paste the whole 'my documents' folder to my external USB harddrive.

I stopped the paste and ran the whole hard drive on Microsoft OneCare. There were something like 450 items and 19 issues (I think that is the way they state it.)

i386's suggestion of a USB to IDE/SATA converter was a lifesaver for me. However I did not like the reviews on the one he suggested so I picked up this one at Frys. It worked flawlessly, at least on the SATA Drive.

http://www.frys.com/product/5625211?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

I returned the computer to the Lady last nite. Her husband is my OMC guru and has done me lots of favors, lent me tools, given me small things, etc etc, so I wanted to stay in good favor with him by fixing his wifes computer. Little did I know when I picked it up that it would not even boot to windows.

With my miniscule level of knowledge and a whole lot of help from my secret weapon (you great guys on iboats) I made everyone think I was a genius.

Thanks for those additional links, I will check them out.

Regarding slipstreaming service pack 3 on that Dell, do you suppose it is possible to retrieve that restore program off the harddrive and into a windows folder? or maybe it is already there? All I know is to access it I had to do a CTRL+F11. I assumed that it must be in it's own partition?

I don't like that method of restoring the OS. It does not give you the opportunity to partition the disc. I would like to have done that to give the lady a safer place to store here pictures.

 

[v1_0]

Re: Oh, where to start-Need Computer help.

I don't like that method of restoring the OS. It does not give you the opportunity to partition the disc. I would like to have done that to give the lady a safer place to store here pictures.

Doesn't she have a burner on the comp? Burn the pics to CD/DVDs. If not that, then she could get a USB storage device and put them on that.

Now you have the next step on this: PREVENTION. If you don't lock down their security and educate them - then write down what you did so that it will be faster the next time, and each time after that... In the long run, it's better to teach them to fish rather than bringing the fish to them...

 

[WizeOne]

Re: Oh, where to start-Need Computer help.

Doesn't she have a burner on the comp? Burn the pics to CD/DVDs. If not that, then she could get a USB storage device and put them on that.

Now you have the next step on this: PREVENTION. If you don't lock down their security and educate them - then write down what you did so that it will be faster the next time, and each time after that... In the long run, it's better to teach them to fish rather than bringing the fish to them...

I haven't had a chance to speak with her yet, just dropped the unit off at her hubby's shop. I intended to tell her just that; get an external USB drive.

On the security side, I set her up with Avast and loaded icons for Microsoft OneCare, Ad-Aware and Malwarebytes. I've requested an audience with her to go over these issues and others.

 

[i386]

Re: Oh, where to start-Need Computer help.

If she gets a nice big USB drive, use Acronis (or other image utility) to back up a disk image of her hard drive. Next time her puter blows up you can restore the whole thing in about 30 mins usually. All she needs to do is make regular backups of her Docs, Pics, Music, etc...

Oh yea if it's not too late... I was going to suggest checking her system log for "bad block errors" (and/or run scandisk or similar utility) before you blew it away and ran the restore. Besides malware/virus, another common cause of system files going missing/currupt is a hard drive that's failing.

 

[WizeOne]

Re: Oh, where to start-Need Computer help.

If she gets a nice big USB drive, use Acronis (or other image utility) to back up a disk image of her hard drive. Next time her puter blows up you can restore the whole thing in about 30 mins usually. That would be extra welcome, especially if I did not need to weed out all that embedded Dell crap again. All she needs to do is make regular backups of her Docs, Pics, Music, etc...

Oh yea if it's not too late... I was going to suggest checking her system log for "bad block errors" (and/or run scandisk or similar utility) before you blew it away and ran the restore. Besides malware/virus, another common cause of system files going missing/currupt is a hard drive that's failing.

I forgot all about scandisk but I would be surprised, considering the amount of BADware, that the HD was the issue. I will run it though when I get the opportunity to meet with the Mrs. How do I check the 'system log'?

I am for sure going to do the Acronis thing on mine. Didn't that come on the Boot CD that I burned?

 

[i386]

Re: Oh, where to start-Need Computer help.

Didn't that come on the Boot CD that I burned?

Yup.

 

[WizeOne]

Re: Oh, where to start-Need Computer help.

Yup.

Browsing the contents of the Hiren Boot CD, I find these two Acronis programs listed (amongst many) in the bootCD.txt, but I do not find any .exe's for them on the CD.

Acronis Disk Director 10.0.2160
Popular disk management functions in a single suite

Acronis True Image 8.1.945
Create an exact disk image for complete system backup and disk cloning.

How do I access them, or any of the other programs for that matter?

There is a folder, under the HBCD subfolder, called Wintools. It has a few .exe's for thinks likes of ComboFix, HiJackthis, etc, etc. but not anywhere near the number of .exe's shown in the BoodCD.txt

 

[i386]

Re: Oh, where to start-Need Computer help.

Boot the CD.

 

[aborgman]

Re: Oh, where to start-Need Computer help.

SC, I'll see if I can follow along and give it a whirl. Question though, why replace their Explorer.exe. No doubt the userinit was affected by the viruses so that I understand.

Both userinit and explorer.exe are common virus replication sites.

Userinit being bad/missing will cause the "logging in, applying computer setting, logging out" sequence of events.