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Windows Forum / Windows Me / General Topics / January 2006WinME Reinstall: Seek Advice on advisability doing this
I am hoping Noel Paton, Koldbear or someone much more savvy that me can provide some common sense and tech advice to prevant me from melting down my old Compaq Presario 5000 desktop. Backstory: My WinME operating system, as currently configured, is continually melting into increasingly frustrating states of disrepair. System Restore hasn't functions in forever; The sound system only works if I delete the sound device and reboot the machine; I habitually boot the machine to discover ScanDisk running, no mouse function and the SafeMode display limited to 16 colors and 640x480 resolution. (I am currently in this safemode state and can't figure out how to fight my way out. If I do a normal bootup I have no mouse function.) If you search this group for WinME posted by beezer000@gmail or bdz000@hotmail, you'll see the whole woeful story. I am wondering if a reinstall of WinME over the current WinME OS will clean up the conflicts and errors in the registry or wherever that have me teetering on the edge of extinction. If necessary, I am willing to reinstall all of my applications and updates, and the drivers for the firewire, usb and dsl ethernet cards I installed. What I want to maintain are the data files (be they MSExcel/word, jpg, MP3, etc) on the internal harddrives.. These files are saved under 4 User names on 2 internal hard drives. I have also read that reinstalling can make the data on the slave hard drive inaccessable, and would hope to prevent this phenomenon. (The primary drive is subdivided into C:LOCAL and D:SYSTEM_SAV. The slave is E:HardDrive2. C:uses 23/27GB, D:uses 2.5/3GB, E:uses 47/80GB.) I understand that IE6 (and OE6?) needs to be removed before doing such a reinstall. I see there have been several discussions of reinstall in the Group. However, I cannot put together a clear picture of how to move forward from these postings (each has its own tweaks), so I am throwing myself on the mercy of the Group. My questions (finally) are: ## Does this make sense as a strategy for reaming out the gremlins in my system? ## Is it possible to save the data files, especially on my E: drive? ## Are there levels of invasiveness I should work through in attempting a fix? ## What is the best way to go about this? I do have a WinME OEM CD-ROM. I also see the BASE2.CAB cabinet under C:Windows/Options. And I once heard that Compaq supposedly stashed some restoration functionality under D:SYSTEM_SAV. Thanks for any advice, perspective or warnings. Brian beezer000@gmail.com Given your problems I think the last thing I would want to do would be to reinstall Win Me over itself but instead I would probably bite the bullet, save my data, and start all over with a clean install.  SignatureMike Maltby mike.maltby@gmail.com > I am hoping Noel Paton, Koldbear or someone much more savvy that me > can provide some common sense and tech advice to prevant me from [quoted text clipped - 54 lines] > Brian > beezer000@gmail.com Hi, I agree with Mike that this may call for the Restore Disk. Can you save data to CDs or an external drive? But, without knowing what you've posted previously or what's been tried, I'd be happy to toss out a few suggestions if you really want to avoid the clean reinstall. ;-) System Restore: http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/quiktipsr.htm Scandisk at each startup: ScanDisk Runs Even Though Windows Shut Down Correctly http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];Q273017 290342 - The PS-2 Mouse May Not Work After You Upgrade to Windows Millennium Edition: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;290342 Describes how to remove the mouse from Device Mgr without using the mouse. Over the top (dirty) reinstall of ME (even on a Compaq) http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/reinME.htm I've done this... "Boot into Safe Mode Go to the Folder where you found BASE2.CAB and double-click on SETUP.EXE" It worked. Yes IE6 should definitely be removed first. I'm not sure what will happen WRT the 2nd HD. It shouldn't (I think) be touched by the reinstall but you may have to help ME find it. Hope this helps, Don [MS MVP- IE] > I am hoping Noel Paton, Koldbear or someone much more savvy that me can > provide some common sense and tech advice to prevant me from melting [quoted text clipped - 53 lines] > Brian > beezer000@gmail.com Sorry to have to bring reality into this, but Koldbear has been 'elsewhere' for two years :( - If you wish to contact him, please see your local medium :( A reinstall of ME over-the-top will do absolutely nothing for system stability, and is likely to mean that you will be unable to access the Internet. I cannot (until tomorrow, at least) answer your questions in respect of the 'clean' reinstall - but please hold fire until I come back, as I see some things that do need to be answered (perhaps in a new web page? - but certainly before you attempt this procedure!) To quote a well-known actor....." I'll be baaaack!" Until then, please do nothing of any significance! SignatureNoel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows) Nil Carborundum Illegitemi http://www.crashfixpc.com/millsrpch.htm http://tinyurl.com/6oztj Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's >I am hoping Noel Paton, Koldbear or someone much more savvy that me can > provide some common sense and tech advice to prevant me from melting [quoted text clipped - 53 lines] > Brian > beezer000@gmail.com > Sorry to have to bring reality into this, but Koldbear has been 'elsewhere' > for two years :( - If you wish to contact him, please see your local medium [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > To quote a well-known actor....." I'll be baaaack!" 'Governor' Schwarzenegger, perhaps? > Until then, please do nothing of any significance! > [quoted text clipped - 55 lines] > > Brian > > beezer000@gmail.com >> To quote a well-known actor....." I'll be baaaack!" > > 'Governor' Schwarzenegger, perhaps? Well, it's more credible than 'actor', wouldn't you say Harry? Shane > >> To quote a well-known actor....." I'll be baaaack!" > > > > 'Governor' Schwarzenegger, perhaps? > > Well, it's more credible than 'actor', wouldn't you say Harry? I'm backing off on that one, Shane, I hate 'violence'. > Shane > Sorry to have to bring reality into this, but Koldbear has been > 'elsewhere' for two years :( - If you wish to contact him, please see > your local medium :( <vbg> I suspect he'd have found that amusing too. So <quote> Noel Paton, Koldbear or someone much more savvy that (sic) me </quote> - I guess we can agree that KB is *not*, indeed, savvy-er than anyone these days. It's a harsh judgement on you though, Noel. Shane I am standing by. There is clearly a lot going on here about which I know less than nothing. I would move data onto a flash drive and over to a different machine, if I could get SafeMode to "see" the flashdrive (Device Manager sees a usb wheelmouse plugged into one, but not the usb mass storage device plugged into the other front usb port.) Sorry to learn of Koldbear. I just today encountered his posts; but he seemed to have a good grip of these issues back in 2002. More details, which may or may nothelp: I ran msconfig in safe mode: Under the check Selective Start: Process system.ini file = checked Process win.ini file = checked Load static VxDs = checked Load environment variables = checked Load startup group items = gray check System.ini tab+ top item is checked and shows only the letter "I" then there are many blank lines, followed by numerous Password List folders, boot folders and 386Enh folders, all of which are checked Win.ini items are all checked VxD items are all checked Environment items are all checked Startup items are partially checked, according to the scheme I have established for this computer. However, as the end are 2 items I do not recognize: POWERR~2.EXE is checked POWERR~1.EXE is not checked. Don't know if this helps, but perhaps it doesn't hurt. Brian Brian: For "knowing less than nothing" you are doing quite well. I'm sure your supplied info will be very helpful. Harry. > More details, which may or may nothelp: > [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > > Brian Brian please email me your system.ini - from your description, it's a little strange (my email here is valid) Powerr~1.exe and powerr~2.exe - what are the details on those lines? Unfortunately the names have been truncated to 8.3 format, which leaves too many options to make even an educated guess without more details. SignatureNoel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows) Nil Carborundum Illegitemi http://www.crashfixpc.com/millsrpch.htm http://tinyurl.com/6oztj Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's > More details, which may or may nothelp: > [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > > Brian I found this http://www.securitystronghold.com/gates/spyware-adware-solutions/POWERR~1_POWERR ~1.exe_solution.htm re: POWERR~1 indicating it's a bad thing that can be delete manually via registry. I suspect the same is true of POWERR~2 though didn't find it at that link. Here's my Google page for POWERR~2 . http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-42,G GLG:en&q=powerr%7E2%2Eexe "If at first you don't succeed, Google it" 'mo > Brian > please email me your system.ini - from your description, it's a little [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] > > > > Brian The problem is that the 8.3 filename powerr~1.exe can be expanded in any number of ways - such as POWER R*.EXE POW ERR*.EXE with the * being anything from 2 to 240-odd characters long! We just don't have enough data to make a realistic guess as to what these references are pointing at. My inclination is that it's likely to be malware of some kind - but before I advise I ;like to *know* what I'm dealing with (It makes life so much easier in the long run!), if at all possible. SignatureNoel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows) Nil Carborundum Illegitemi http://www.crashfixpc.com/millsrpch.htm http://tinyurl.com/6oztj Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's >I found this > http://www.securitystronghold.com/gates/spyware-adware-solutions/POWERR~1_POWERR ~1.exe_solution.htm [quoted text clipped - 40 lines] >> > >> > Brian A little searching on your first link gives an insight to it's trustworthiness. http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-46 ,GGLG:en&q=securitystronghold gives a number of well-known 'rogue' sites which are trying to sell it a whois of the site give Hostway Whois Server Version 1.0 Domain Name: securitystronghold.com Registrar: AAAQ.COM Whois Server: whois.aaaq.com Referral URL: http://www.aaaq.com Name Server: ns39.dedicatedusa.com Name Server: ns40.dedicatedusa.com Status: ACTIVE Updated Date 2005-10-06 Creation Date: 2004-06-27 Expiration Date: 2006-06-29 Registrant: KONSTANTIN ARTEMEV ***************@mail.ru 28 Army Street 16/1, flat 69 Astrakhan, Astrakhan 414056 RU +7-851-2-546183 Fax: Administrative Contact: KONSTANTIN ARTEMEV ***************@mail.ru 28 Army Street 16/1, flat 69 Astrakhan, Astrakhan 414056 RU +7-851-2-546183 Fax: Technical Contact: Administrator DNS *************@siteprotect.com 1 N State Street 12th Floor Chicago, IL 60602 US +1.3122362132 Fax: +1.3122361958 Billing Contact: KONSTANTIN ARTEMEV ***************@mail.ru 28 Army Street 16/1, flat 69 Astrakhan, Astrakhan 414056 RU +7-851-2-546183 Fax: checking AAAQ.COM itself is quite interesting - the postal adddress is a P.O.Box!! AAAQ.COM, Inc. P.O. Box 2404 Chicago, Illinois 60690-2404 However - the accreditation for AAAQ.COM is for Canada! Googling for "KONSTANTIN ARTEMEV" gives some very interesting results, also http://3d2f.com/programs/20-847-active-shield-download.shtml would appear to be a fore-taste of what's on the site I wonder what he's doing here?.... http://womans-net.com/forums/member.php?s=ca7aa78392a2cfcebbfe00adfd3b484e&u=512 http://www.acidfiles.com/companies/Rich-Speech.html Now this one's interesting! http://download-miscell.b0x.com/Download-Flash-Terminal.html forces an install of Zango - only to end up with the following message... <quote> Freewebsites.com error 403/404: The web site you are trying to access either does not exist or has been terminated for violating our policies. Please make sure you entered the web site address correctly and try again.If you received spam advertising this web site, please do not send further complaints about it. </quote> http://www.technorati.com/profile/SpywareBlogger http://spyware-telegraph.blogspot.com/ seems to be a set of personal notes as a blog - I can't quite see the point of it, since all the links there lead to the securitystronghold site! SignatureNoel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows) Nil Carborundum Illegitemi http://www.crashfixpc.com/millsrpch.htm http://tinyurl.com/6oztj Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's >I found this > http://www.securitystronghold.com/gates/spyware-adware-solutions/POWERR~1_POWERR ~1.exe_solution.htm [quoted text clipped - 40 lines] >> > >> > Brian Brian - got your system.ini file - and it's severely corrupted!! Do a Search for files named system.* in the Windows folder, and email all found (as attachments, please) and I'll see if I can make some sense out of them SignatureNoel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows) Nil Carborundum Illegitemi http://www.crashfixpc.com/millsrpch.htm http://tinyurl.com/6oztj Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's > Brian > please email me your system.ini - from your description, it's a little [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] >> >> Brian I'll turn this over to Noel. Since you're able to backup your data, a full restore is a reasonable option. Or, some of the individual problems look fixable without a clean reinstall of WinME. Don [MS MVP- IE] > I am standing by. There is clearly a lot going on here about which I > know less than nothing. I would move data onto a flash drive and over [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > Sorry to learn of Koldbear. I just today encountered his posts; but he > seemed to have a good grip of these issues back in 2002. I have looked into Powerr~1 and Powerr~2. They appear to be execution files driven by PowerReg Scheduler V3 (Leader Technologies). Powerr~1 is in disabled startup (last update 16Dec04) and Powerr~2 is in Startup (last update 28Dec04). Clean install would be a viable option, IF I could figure out a way to backup files. 8>( It is only in Safe Mode that I am able to get any functionality out of my recalcitrant Compaq. In Safe Mode, I cannot access my ethernet dsl connection or mount usb flash memory cards (Device Manager tells me that "Status is not available when Windows is in Safe Mode.) Safe Mode recognizes my A: floppy drive, but neither my CD nor my CD-DVD RW drives. I don't even want to think about plugging in my external CD burner. I do have a functioning desktop with 80GB available HD memory sitting just 1 meter from the Compaq. Might there be a way to create a lowbrow direct cable connection between the 2 computers and suck the data I need to save over to the operating computer? I continue to be unsuccessful in getting mouse functionality when launching in normal or selective startup modes. A mouse icon briefly appears in the tray during bootup, but is quickly disappears and whether I already have a mouse plugged in or whether I plug in once boot up finishes, the system is not launching mouse function. Thanks for everyone's continuing support. BRian http://www3.ca.com/securityadvisor/pest/pest.aspx?id=453078189 http://virusinfo.prevx.com/pxparall.asp?PXC=6639134450 http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/PowerReg_Scheduler-4135.html USB devices are not recognised in Win9x Safe Mode, because the device initialisation takes place after windows loads - and Safe Mode doesn't do that SignatureNoel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows) Nil Carborundum Illegitemi http://www.crashfixpc.com/millsrpch.htm http://tinyurl.com/6oztj Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's >I have looked into Powerr~1 and Powerr~2. They appear to be execution > files driven by PowerReg Scheduler V3 (Leader Technologies). Powerr~1 [quoted text clipped - 26 lines] > > BRian Personally, I would boot into DOS and reformat the hard drive. Also run Scandisk on all drives. I would then reinstall Windows using a *real* Windows CD, not that crap they call a recovery disk. You could use DOS to back up your data files before you do it. After rebuilding, I would learn and use INTENSE computer security so this doesn't happen again. :) HTH. Walterius Old but secure in Fort Lauderdale. I don't believe this is a problem caused by malware - merely a case of a crosslinked file which happened to be critical (system.ini) no amount of security is going to prevent that (although a good backup regime would make repair easier!) SignatureNoel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows) Nil Carborundum Illegitemi http://www.crashfixpc.com/millsrpch.htm http://tinyurl.com/6oztj Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's > Personally, I would boot into DOS and reformat the hard drive. Also run > Scandisk on all drives. I would then reinstall Windows using a *real* [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > Walterius > Old but secure in Fort Lauderdale. Progress report: I have been able to load logitech mouseware, so I have mouse capacity now when logging in under Selective Startup. I am able to talk to the internet, as well. I am also communicating with the flash memory polugged into the usb ports. However: I am still in 16 color and low resolution. I have several times reset both resolution and colors via Control Panel Desktop, but there is no change upon rebooting. I have lost the passwords for all Users. We can login w/out passwords. I am still trying to figure a way to offload data to enable me to "ream and clean" the operating system. I do have an onboard DVD burner that would let me backup easil;y, but (unfortunately) do s/ware to do collect and burn the data. Any ideas on this front? I could also string as cable to my "good" computer, if I knew the process to let the good computer "see" the hard drives of the ill one. Brian Reboot to Safe Mode Open Device Manager Remove ALL Display Adapters Remove ALL Monitors Reboot to Normal Mode - Windows will reinstall the required drivers - hopefully curing your display problem. SignatureNoel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows) Nil Carborundum Illegitemi http://www.crashfixpc.com/millsrpch.htm http://tinyurl.com/6oztj Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's > Progress report: > I have been able to load logitech mouseware, so I have mouse capacity [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > string as cable to my "good" computer, if I knew the process to let the > good computer "see" the hard drives of the ill one. Brian, If you (or anyone else) are interested, when I started out with ME I had Logitech software. Eventually I found out that the MS Intellipoint was more reliable. I don't suggest it would solve all your problems, but it'd probably eliminate any caused by Logitech drivers! Shane > Progress report: > I have been able to load logitech mouseware, so I have mouse capacity [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > string as cable to my "good" computer, if I knew the process to let the > good computer "see" the hard drives of the ill one. |
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