Windows Forum / Windows 98 / General Topics / November 2006
RegClean hangs - no completion
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Rob - 27 Nov 2006 15:58 GMT RegClean hangs about 85% of the way through Scan Type Lib for errors. Any fix for this? Win 98 SE. TIA for any advice.
 Signature RobF
Gary S. Terhune - 27 Nov 2006 16:24 GMT Sure. Stop using it, <s>.
How much RAM you got? How much stuff you got running in the background while you're running RegClean? How big is System.dat? Have you tried running SCANREG /OPT /FIX from a Command Prompt Only startup (that will probably hang, too, but it's worth a shot.)
See the first article in my sig for helpful suggestions.
 Signature Gary S. Terhune MS-MVP Shell/User http://grystmill.org/articles/cleanboot.htm http://grystmill.org/articles/security.htm
> RegClean hangs about 85% of the way through Scan Type Lib for errors. Any > fix for this? Win 98 SE. > TIA for any advice. glee - 27 Nov 2006 17:02 GMT The stall is probably due to corrupt HELPDIR entries....I have run acoss it before.
MS MVP Alan Edwards has answered this question many times, so I will let him answer it again:
<quote>
Try running RegClean with a command-line argument: REGCLEAN /L
This will create a log file (called RegClean.LOG) in the same directory as RegClean. It will be a *very* large text file. When it stalls, open up RegClean.log in a good text editor or Wordpad. See if you can pick an error. If it is not obvious, then post the last 12 lines and someone may spot the fault.
It will probably stop at a line like this: HELPDIR = " ???k"
Use Regedit.exe (Start-Run-Regedit) Search for that string (Edit-Find or Ctrl+F) and when you find it, highlight the HELPDIR key in the left-hand pane, rightclick and Delete and confirm the deletion. Press F3 to search again. There will be two or three such strings. Delete as you did the first one. Note: Don't have the "match whole string only" box ticked when doing the search for the culprit string.
An alternative is to search for HELPDIR in Regedit and keep on pressing F3 until you find the first one that is obviously wrong. Any others will be close by. Mine was no. 74 of 191 occurrences, so this can take a while in Regedit.
<unquote>
 Signature Glen Ventura, MS MVP Shell/User, A+ http://dts-l.org/
> RegClean hangs about 85% of the way through Scan Type Lib for errors. Any > fix for this? Win 98 SE. > TIA for any advice. Ron Badour - 27 Nov 2006 21:57 GMT I vote with Gary--only use a RegCleaner as a last resort. Here is my standard blurb on your problem:
If RegClean stalls when you run it, there is a bad entry in the registry which must be removed so RegClean can complete its operation. Go to the Start Menu, Run and enter the path to RegClean's folder and enter the command: regclean /L For example, my folder is on E: drive so my entry looks like this: E:\tools\system\regclean\regclean /L Run RegClean using this method and a log will be created in RegClean's folder. Once RegClean has stalled, use WordPad to open the log. Scroll towards the end of the log and see if you can spot an entry that looks something like this: HelpDir = " ???k" The information after the = sign is the bad data that causes the problem.
Open the registry editor (regedit.exe) and do a find on the bad data value identified above. If you are not familiar with the safe operation of the registry editor, go here for information: http://home.satx.rr.com/badour/html/registry.html Once the bad data is found, right-click the HelpDir entry in the left pane and delete it. Click the F3 key to continue the search and delete similar entries that are identified. When the search is done, close the editor and try RegClean again.
 Signature Regards
Ron Badour, MS MVP for W98 Tips: http://home.satx.rr.com/badour Knowledge Base Info: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=kbinfo
> RegClean hangs about 85% of the way through Scan Type Lib for errors. Any > fix for this? Win 98 SE. > TIA for any advice. Rob - 28 Nov 2006 16:40 GMT Thanks, Ron. Strangely, my article doesn't show in this newsgroup, nor does the post by "Gary", with whose opinion you agreed. Someyhing wrong with my reader, outlook express? I'll look in Google's newsgroups for his and any other articles on the subject.
RobF
> I vote with Gary--only use a RegCleaner as a last resort. Here is my > standard blurb on your problem: [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > > fix for this? Win 98 SE. > > TIA for any advice. Rob - 28 Nov 2006 16:45 GMT Strangely again, the above post does appear, and more, Google reports there is no such group as microsoft.public.win98.gen_discussion
RobF
> Thanks, Ron. Strangely, my article doesn't show in this newsgroup, nor does > the post by "Gary", with whose opinion you agreed. Someyhing wrong with my [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > I vote with Gary--only use a RegCleaner as a last resort. Here is my > > standard blurb on your problem: ********snip
Rob - 28 Nov 2006 17:07 GMT To answer Gary S. Terhune's article, found an Google Neews Groups:
scanreg/ (or scanreg /) opt/fix yields invalid command line parameter. RAM: 512 MB System.dat = 6897 KB www.grystmil.org shows "Cannot be displayed ... unavailable".
I'll try the fixes today.
RobF
> I vote with Gary--only use a RegCleaner as a last resort. Here is my > standard blurb on your problem: ##########snip
Gary S. Terhune - 28 Nov 2006 17:58 GMT The command line is:
SCANREG /OPT /FIX
Space before each forward slash.
The website is www.grystmill.com, but it's a mostly private site with just two articles for public consumption, the ones linked below.
 Signature Gary S. Terhune MS MVP Shell/User http://grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm http://grystmill.com/articles/security.htm
> To answer Gary S. Terhune's article, found an Google Neews Groups: > [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > > > ##########snip glee - 28 Nov 2006 19:46 GMT That is supposed to be (as Gary wrote it): scanreg /opt /fix
scanreg <space> /opt <space> /fix
Did you see my original reply to your question (which is much the same as Ron's in content) or is it also missing in your newsreader?
 Signature Glen Ventura, MS MVP Shell/User, A+ http://dts-l.org/ http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
> To answer Gary S. Terhune's article, found an Google Neews Groups: > [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] >> > ##########snip Rob - 28 Nov 2006 20:29 GMT Missing from outlook express (your orig reply), saw it in google. I typed the command that way, i.e. your way, in dos box, c:\windows. "Invalid command line parameter".
I got the very long regclean log, in word pad. The FIND function doesn't find HelpDir=, or several alternate inputs. Scanning through, not the whole dang thang, I found entries for c:program files, and d: norton sys works. RegClean is no longer worth the bother to all you good participants, or to me. Smurch it.
Regards, RobF
> That is supposed to be (as Gary wrote it): > scanreg /opt /fix [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > >> > > ##########snip Gary S. Terhune - 28 Nov 2006 21:26 GMT SCANREG /OPT /FIX only works from a pure DOS prompt -- the one you get when you hold down F8 during startup, get the Startup menu and then choose Command Prompt Only. Or you can try Restart in MSDOS Mode.
 Signature Gary S. Terhune MS MVP Shell/User http://grystmill.com/articles/cleanboot.htm http://grystmill.com/articles/security.htm
> Missing from outlook express (your orig reply), saw it in google. I typed > the command that way, i.e. your way, in dos box, c:\windows. "Invalid [quoted text clipped - 34 lines] > > >> > > > ##########snip
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