win98 registry bootup problem

when i boot up into win98, i get a message that
says "unable to process registry". it tells me to run
scanreg /fix, and that i dont have enough free
conventional memory. i ran scanreg and i still have the
same message on bootup. could it be from bad ram or what?
i have 160mb ram. and ive tried a back-up registry that i
made, but i still get the same message on bootup. thank ya.

That sounds like a bad one. In the event Windows finds a problem with
the Registry at boot, it does no "/Fix", unless there is no backup to
"/Restore". It will restore an earlier Registry from
"C:\Windows\Sysbckup". Why isn't it finding one for you?

Firstly...
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=186909
Registry Checker Continues to Detect Registry Damage
....better check the integrity of RAM (Memory), as that is often
suspect, when Windows does it's auto-/Restore of the Registry at boot...
http://www.simmtester.com/PAGE/products/doc/docinfo.asp RAM tester
http://www.memtest86.com/ RAM tester

But, to investigate your Registry backups. Can you boot to Safe Mode?
(Hold F5 or Ctrl as you boot. Try to press one (& hold) after the BIOS
screen has finished.) Then...

(1)
(a) START, Settings, Folder Options, View tab.
Bolt "Show all files" & UNcheck "Hide file extensions..."

(b) "START, Find, F/F, RB???.cab".
Those are the Registry backups, in Sysbckup\. Are there five,
plus an RBbad? Are the dates consistent with each of the last five
days you've successfully boot? What is the date on RBbad?

(2) "START, Programs, MS-DOS Prompt". Then,
(a) CD Windows\Sysbckup
(b) DIR RB???.cab /od
(c) Use the "Mark" button, outline with mouse, "Copy" & post for
inspection.

C:\WINDOWS\SYSBCKUPdir rb???.cab /od
Directory of C:\WINDOWS\SYSBCKUP

RB000 CAB 1,416,088 03-30-03 3:13p rb000.cab
RB001 CAB 1,411,408 03-31-03 3:06p rb001.cab
RB002 CAB 1,414,491 04-01-03 2:48p rb002.cab
RBBAD CAB 1,399,569 04-02-03 5:06p rbbad.cab
RB003 CAB 1,400,385 04-02-03 5:06p rb003.cab
RB004 CAB 1,401,263 04-03-03 3:34p rb004.cab
6 file(s) 8,443,204 bytes

Note, on 4/2 I did a Scanreg /Fix, which created the RBbad. It is also
created when Windows decides on it's own to replace a Registry with one
of the backups. Then, the Registry that was replaced ends up in RBbad.

One is created at the first successful boot per day, when all is well.
So, check those dates. When Windows detects a Registry corruption at
boot, it will look for one of those backups to replace it with. If there
only is a very old one in there, it would explain a loss of recent
changes to settings at reboot.

Also check that "ScanRegistry" is checked in "START, Run, MSConfig,
Startup tab". It should read:

ScanRegistry c:\windows\scanregw.exe /autorun

Perhaps look inside "C:\Windows\Scanreg.ini". Here is how a normal one
should look...

......Scanreg.ini..........
;
; Scanreg.ini for making system backups.
;

;Registry backup is skipped altogether if this is set to 0
Backup=1

;Registry automatic optimization is skipped if this is set to 0
Optimize=1

ScanregVersion=0.0001
MaxBackupCopies=5

;Backup directory where the cabs are stored is
; windir\sysbckup by default. Value below overrides it.
; It must be a full path. ex. c:\tmp\backup
;
BackupDirectory=

; Additional system files to backup into cab as follows:
; Filenames are separated by ','
; dir code can be:
; 10 : windir (ex. c:\windows)
; 11 : system dir (ex. c:\windows\system)
; 30 : boot dir (ex. c:\)
; 31 : boot host dir (ex. c:\)
;
;Files=[dir code,]file1,file2,file3
;Files=[dir code,]file1,file2,file3
......End......................


--
Thanks or Good Luck,
There may be humor in this post, and,
Naturally, you will not sue,
should things get worse after this,
PCR

"Mark" wrote in message
...
| when i boot up into win98, i get a message that
| says "unable to process registry". it tells me to run
| scanreg /fix, and that i dont have enough free
| conventional memory. i ran scanreg and i still have the
| same message on bootup. could it be from bad ram or what?
| i have 160mb ram. and ive tried a back-up registry that i
| made, but i still get the same message on bootup. thank ya.