freeze ups

Running a Dell 4100, 60G, 512 RAM. I the last couple of weeks have been
having a lot of trouble with lock up. Most of the time alt.ctrl,delete does
nothing and I have to hit reset and do the scandisk thing. Also when I go to
restart it hangs up. After a while started getting a blue screen and windows
would not load. After a few tries it would sometimes go into safe mode and I
would try system restore with no luck. After feeling it was time to go to the
shop I tried running a startup disk and ran
scanreg /restore and got windows back. alt,ctrl,delete still doesn't work as
well as restart. By the way I didn't think I was going to find this place
after they changed everything
Kelly Smith

Begin by using System Restore to revert to a date prior to the time you
noticed the problems.
If this succeeds, get new AV signatures and scan immediately, as well as
running any anti-spyware tools, with current definitions.
Attempt to boot to Safe Mode if Normal Mode fails to load, and follow up per
above.
--
Jack E Martinelli 2002-05 MS MVP Shell/User /DTS
Help us help you: http://www.dts-L.org/goodpost.htm
In Memorium: Alex Nichol
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/e...ts/nichol.mspx
Your cooperation is very appreciated.
----------
"kbsmith9" wrote in message
...
Running a Dell 4100, 60G, 512 RAM. I the last couple of weeks have been
having a lot of trouble with lock up. Most of the time alt.ctrl,delete
does
nothing and I have to hit reset and do the scandisk thing. Also when I go
to
restart it hangs up. After a while started getting a blue screen and
windows
would not load. After a few tries it would sometimes go into safe mode and
I
would try system restore with no luck. After feeling it was time to go to
the
shop I tried running a startup disk and ran
scanreg /restore and got windows back. alt,ctrl,delete still doesn't work
as
well as restart. By the way I didn't think I was going to find this place
after they changed everything
Kelly Smith

Jack, went back a month and a half where I had created a restore point after
running defrag. Seems like when I run restore it takes about 10 minutes to
fully process but it usually works. As usual it took 10 minutes for
completion but it did not restart automatically after the bar finally filled.
It attempted to restart but I ended up with a black screen with a blinking
cursor in the upper left cornor. Back to reset. I have run McAfee with all
the latest updates also McAfee Stinger, CWshredderand Ad-Aware. Still had to
do the reset scandisk bit and restoration failed. I tried all this in normal
mode. I don't know dos or mess with registry.
Kelly

"Jack Martinelli" wrote:

Begin by using System Restore to revert to a date prior to the time you
noticed the problems.
If this succeeds, get new AV signatures and scan immediately, as well as
running any anti-spyware tools, with current definitions.
Attempt to boot to Safe Mode if Normal Mode fails to load, and follow up per
above.
--
Jack E Martinelli 2002-05 MS MVP Shell/User /DTS
Help us help you: http://www.dts-L.org/goodpost.htm
In Memorium: Alex Nichol
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/e...ts/nichol.mspx
Your cooperation is very appreciated.
----------
"kbsmith9" wrote in message
...
Running a Dell 4100, 60G, 512 RAM. I the last couple of weeks have been
having a lot of trouble with lock up. Most of the time alt.ctrl,delete
does
nothing and I have to hit reset and do the scandisk thing. Also when I go
to
restart it hangs up. After a while started getting a blue screen and
windows
would not load. After a few tries it would sometimes go into safe mode and
I
would try system restore with no luck. After feeling it was time to go to
the
shop I tried running a startup disk and ran
scanreg /restore and got windows back. alt,ctrl,delete still doesn't work
as
well as restart. By the way I didn't think I was going to find this place
after they changed everything
Kelly Smith

Jack, forgot to mention I tried all this in safe mode also and checked to
make sure system restore was not disabled. It shows active but does not work.
Kelly

"Jack Martinelli" wrote:

Begin by using System Restore to revert to a date prior to the time you
noticed the problems.
If this succeeds, get new AV signatures and scan immediately, as well as
running any anti-spyware tools, with current definitions.
Attempt to boot to Safe Mode if Normal Mode fails to load, and follow up per
above.
--
Jack E Martinelli 2002-05 MS MVP Shell/User /DTS
Help us help you: http://www.dts-L.org/goodpost.htm
In Memorium: Alex Nichol
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/e...ts/nichol.mspx
Your cooperation is very appreciated.
----------
"kbsmith9" wrote in message
...
Running a Dell 4100, 60G, 512 RAM. I the last couple of weeks have been
having a lot of trouble with lock up. Most of the time alt.ctrl,delete
does
nothing and I have to hit reset and do the scandisk thing. Also when I go
to
restart it hangs up. After a while started getting a blue screen and
windows
would not load. After a few tries it would sometimes go into safe mode and
I
would try system restore with no luck. After feeling it was time to go to
the
shop I tried running a startup disk and ran
scanreg /restore and got windows back. alt,ctrl,delete still doesn't work
as
well as restart. By the way I didn't think I was going to find this place
after they changed everything
Kelly Smith

kbsmith9 wrote:

Jack, forgot to mention I tried all this in safe mode also and
checked to make sure system restore was not disabled. It shows active
but does not work. Kelly

Kelly,

Not that it will necessarily be able to help you with your freezing but
what exactly happened, such as any error messages that you saw, when you
tried using system restore?
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP

Mike, I get no error messages. When I use system restore the progress bar
advances to about one third and hangs there for up to 12/15 minutes before
rebooting and then I get the message restoration unsucessful. This happens
with several restore points. The system restore hot fix was also downloaded
last year. Belarc advisor seems to show that everything is up to date. I have
had some trouble with Kodak easyshare software. Un-installed it and tried to
re-install it but had to go to Kodak and download a cleaner to remove some
left over components. After that a new install downloaded ok. If I have no
luck with the problem I may disable system restore then restart it and start
from there.
Kelly

"Mike M" wrote:

kbsmith9 wrote:

Jack, forgot to mention I tried all this in safe mode also and
checked to make sure system restore was not disabled. It shows active
but does not work. Kelly

Kelly,

Not that it will necessarily be able to help you with your freezing but
what exactly happened, such as any error messages that you saw, when you
tried using system restore?
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP

One more thing. When I go to msconfig, startup I do not find this file.
STMGR.exe. It seems like this was in there before and had to do with system
restore.
Kelly

"kbsmith9" wrote:

Mike, I get no error messages. When I use system restore the progress bar
advances to about one third and hangs there for up to 12/15 minutes before
rebooting and then I get the message restoration unsucessful. This happens
with several restore points. The system restore hot fix was also downloaded
last year. Belarc advisor seems to show that everything is up to date. I have
had some trouble with Kodak easyshare software. Un-installed it and tried to
re-install it but had to go to Kodak and download a cleaner to remove some
left over components. After that a new install downloaded ok. If I have no
luck with the problem I may disable system restore then restart it and start
from there.
Kelly

"Mike M" wrote:

kbsmith9 wrote:

Jack, forgot to mention I tried all this in safe mode also and
checked to make sure system restore was not disabled. It shows active
but does not work. Kelly

Kelly,

Not that it will necessarily be able to help you with your freezing but
what exactly happened, such as any error messages that you saw, when you
tried using system restore?
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP

Kelly,

Why do you say you get no message when you at the same time tell me you
see the message "restoration unsuccessful". That was a message from
system restore and tells me the most likely cause of your problem. What
follows will hopefully explain why you are seeing this message but it also
means that unfortunately system restore will not be able to help you this
time with your other problems although it may well give a clue as to their
cause if you installed Win Me over itself.

Restoration Unsuccessful:
A failure to restore to a previously created checkpoint is often a sign
that the 290700 patch for system restore wasn't installed when the
checkpoint to which you were trying to return was created. If that is the
case the checkpoint is useless.

What is the version of the file smgr.dll in the windows\system folder?
You can check this by locating this file in Windows Explorer, selecting,
right clicking and choosing Properties and then clicking the Version tab.
If not 4.90.0.3003 then that could be the cause of the problem and you
need to download and install the 290700 patch for system restore. The
easiest way to do this is from the link in the associated KB article
(KB290700 - "Checkpoints that you create after September 8, 2001 do not
restore your computer" (http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=290700).

It is also possible that at one stage you did install this patch but have
subsequently reinstalled Win Me over itself using the Win Me CD. Doing
this causes the original, broken, version of smgr.dll to be reinstalled.
If this problem is a result of your having reinstalled Win Me over itself
may I recommend you to download and use the Belarc Advisor
(http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html) which will help you in
identify which other patches also need to be reinstalled.

Finally you may want to give system restore the once over by carrying out
the following quick test.
a) Create a shortcut on your desktop to a file.
b) Create a manual checkpoint
c) Delete the shortcut
d) Restore you PC to the checkpoint you created.
Was the shortcut restored? Did you see any error messages?
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP



kbsmith9 wrote:

Mike, I get no error messages. When I use system restore the progress
bar advances to about one third and hangs there for up to 12/15
minutes before rebooting and then I get the message restoration
unsucessful. This happens with several restore points. The system
restore hot fix was also downloaded last year. Belarc advisor seems
to show that everything is up to date. I have had some trouble with
Kodak easyshare software. Un-installed it and tried to re-install it
but had to go to Kodak and download a cleaner to remove some left
over components. After that a new install downloaded ok. If I have no
luck with the problem I may disable system restore then restart it
and start from there.

Oh dear, without the *StateMgr entry being present and checked in MSConfig
| Startup your system is really heading for problems as this would mean
that not only is system restore not operating but also that your system is
no longer benefiting from system file protection which means that
essential system files can be either deleted or amended regardless of
whether the replacement file is valid for use with Win Me or not.

If you are sure that the *StateMgr entry is missing (rather than just
unchecked) you can download a registry file
(http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/SRIERFix.reg) from Noel Paton's site.
Save this to your desktop, select and right click, and Merge. This will
then add back the missing entry to the registry.
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP



kbsmith9 wrote:

One more thing. When I go to msconfig, startup I do not find this
file. STMGR.exe. It seems like this was in there before and had to do
with system restore.

Sorry, I thought you were refering to a popup error message. I had said I
downloaded that hotfix 290700 last year and that Belarc showed it. I did not
reinstall windows. Nevertheless I downloaded the hotfix again and did the
operation you suggested. System restore worked ok and took out the new folder
I created. I do get one error message on bootup. As follows:
Kodaksoftwareupdater.exe lacks a '-' app ID separator. I've had this since I
re-installed Kodak easyshare software.
Kelly

"Mike M" wrote:

Kelly,

Why do you say you get no message when you at the same time tell me you
see the message "restoration unsuccessful". That was a message from
system restore and tells me the most likely cause of your problem. What
follows will hopefully explain why you are seeing this message but it also
means that unfortunately system restore will not be able to help you this
time with your other problems although it may well give a clue as to their
cause if you installed Win Me over itself.

Restoration Unsuccessful:
A failure to restore to a previously created checkpoint is often a sign
that the 290700 patch for system restore wasn't installed when the
checkpoint to which you were trying to return was created. If that is the
case the checkpoint is useless.

What is the version of the file smgr.dll in the windows\system folder?
You can check this by locating this file in Windows Explorer, selecting,
right clicking and choosing Properties and then clicking the Version tab.
If not 4.90.0.3003 then that could be the cause of the problem and you
need to download and install the 290700 patch for system restore. The
easiest way to do this is from the link in the associated KB article
(KB290700 - "Checkpoints that you create after September 8, 2001 do not
restore your computer" (http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=290700).

It is also possible that at one stage you did install this patch but have
subsequently reinstalled Win Me over itself using the Win Me CD. Doing
this causes the original, broken, version of smgr.dll to be reinstalled.
If this problem is a result of your having reinstalled Win Me over itself
may I recommend you to download and use the Belarc Advisor
(http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html) which will help you in
identify which other patches also need to be reinstalled.

Finally you may want to give system restore the once over by carrying out
the following quick test.
a) Create a shortcut on your desktop to a file.
b) Create a manual checkpoint
c) Delete the shortcut
d) Restore you PC to the checkpoint you created.
Was the shortcut restored? Did you see any error messages?
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP



kbsmith9 wrote:

Mike, I get no error messages. When I use system restore the progress
bar advances to about one third and hangs there for up to 12/15
minutes before rebooting and then I get the message restoration
unsucessful. This happens with several restore points. The system
restore hot fix was also downloaded last year. Belarc advisor seems
to show that everything is up to date. I have had some trouble with
Kodak easyshare software. Un-installed it and tried to re-install it
but had to go to Kodak and download a cleaner to remove some left
over components. After that a new install downloaded ok. If I have no
luck with the problem I may disable system restore then restart it
and start from there.