Re: Windows XP Pro is FUBAR'd!!! Help!

From: Kelly (kelly_at_mvps.org)
Date: 10/18/04 

Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 01:27:20 -0500

Which registry key/entry did you remove, Ernie? As for the browseui.dll
error, this generally has to do with Norton Systemworks 2003 Pro.

Either way, run this combo in the meantime:

Run Ad-Aware, Spybot and HijackThis:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads31.html

Note: Update each program, once installed, before running.

Note2: To avoid the False-Flag for the DSO Exploit (W3), open
Spybot/Advanced Mode/Settings/Ignore Products. On the All Products Tab,
scrol to DSO Exploit and check that item only. Randy (silj) 

-- 
All the Best,
Kelly
Microsoft-MVP Windows® XP-Shell/User
2004 Windows MVP "Winny" Award
Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com
Taskbar Repair Tool Plus!
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm
"Ernie" <Ernie@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message 
news:DA71D1FE-C846-4C5E-AD01-91B6597092B9@microsoft.com...
>I tried to be as breif as possible, but like it or lump it, this is
> paractuically a novel...
>
> Last week, I was having problems moving/deleting .AVI files on my 
> computer.
> I googled the problem, and the solution was simple enough, remove a single
> registry entry.  So I did, nothing I haven't done a dozen times before...
> Friday night, I went to use these .AVI files, and Media player wouldn't 
> play
> them, but it worked fine before I modified the registry...  I ran the AVIs
> thru GSpot Codec tool, and some of them came back with corrupt headers, 
> but
> they ALL played fine in WMP a few days previously.
>
> So I said to myself, "Self, use System Restore".  I opened system restore,
> selected a system checkpoint from 1 week previous.  I restored the 
> computer,
> and found the problem was still uncorrected, and a few of my files had 
> been
> moved around and/or renamed and/or copied.  I didn't like this, so I 
> reverted
> back to the pre-restored state, figgering the files that had been
> moved/renamed/copied would be undone.  I then selected a different restore
> point, and rinse, lather, repeat... After about 4 restores, my Systray
> flashed a message saying I was dangerously low on hard drive space.  I
> checked it out and I was sitting at approximately 180mb remaining, and 
> when I
> started an hour previous to that, I had about 2.1gb free.  I decided to do
> another revert.  This is when the proverbial excrement hit the air
> circulation device...
>
> The last revert seemed to progress normally for the shutdown.  When the
> sytem restarted however, after I logged in, I got a message saying I was
> missing browseui.dll and explorer.exe could not open.  I hit Ctrl-Alt-Del,
> and got a similar message for taskman.exe and vdmdbg.dll.  I rebooted the
> machine and opted for safe mode, same results.  I rebooted again into safe
> mode command prompt.  (my memories of DOS commands have served me well...)
> From there I was able to find copies of those files in the SP2 update 
> package
> stored in C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\download\<insert alpha-numeric
> gobbledeygook here>\.  I had previously installed SP2 and found it slowed 
> the
> performance of my computer, and had uninstalled it.  There was another
> similar update in the download folder (also named with numbers and 
> letters).
> I think it was a major KB update or it might have been SP1, b/c it was 
> almost
> as big as the SP2 update.  Once I copied those two files from the SP2 
> Update,
> I typed explorer, and got a slightly different message, having to do with 
> a
> different dll file.  iexplore.exe didn't work because shdocvw.dll was
> missing.  I tried Taskman again, and it came up.  From there, I decided 
> the
> most prudent course of action was to run an update, to restore all of the
> dlls, as they had obviously been adversely affected somehow.  So, from
> taskman, I opened the run box, browsed to the non-SP2 update in
> C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\download\, and ran it.  It seemed to go 
> ok.
> Until it restarted...  Then the excrement hit the air circulation device
> again....
>
> At this point, the computer would display the XP pro startup screen, but
> before the log in screen would normally come up, there was a flash of a 
> Blue
> Screen of Death, and the computer restarted.  It came up saying windows
> hadn't started correctly (duh) and prompted me for various safe modes, 
> last
> known good configuration, or start windows normally.  All produced the 
> exact
> same result; blue screen of death and restart.
>
> I did not make an ASR disk, and I didn't install the recovery console.
> However, I was able to get a DOS command prompt using my old WinME startup
> disk.  (Amazingly enough, the entire file structure is intact, and AFAIK, 
> so
> is the registry, b/c I could open regedit from taskman previously, and no
> errors came up.)  From there, I manually copied all of the files from the 
> SP2
> update to C:\Windows\System32, and restarted the computer.  This brought 
> me
> back to where I was before; I could start the computer in safe mode - 
> command
> prompt, and taskman was ok, but explorer.exe wasn't working, etc.  From
> there, I tried running the SP2 update.  Again, the update seemed to run
> normally.  Upon restart, the blue screen of death came back.  I found a KB
> article regarding the BSoD/Restart loop, and it suggested extracting
> kernel32.dl_ from my WinXP Pro disc.  However, my friend took it with him
> when he moved to Calgary.  I borrowed my Dad's XP Pro Upgrade disc, and
> extracted the file from there (using the ME Startup disk DOS prompt),
> however, this did not correct the problem either.  I haven't tried 
> anything
> else at this point, as I am pretty much out of ideas....
>
> The machine specs:
> Athlon T-Bird 1.3Ghz on Soyo K7VTA-Pro mainboard
> Win XP Pro SP1 with all latest updates except SP2 (When it last worked,
> anyway)
> 256mb Ram
> NVidia GeForce2 MX 64mb

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