Silly IE / OE problem...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Falco98
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Falco98

I did (what should have been) a routine memory upgrade on a client's PC
today. I made the mistake of shutting it down without first doing a
normal restart to make sure everything booted up and ran like normal
first. When it first restarted with the additional memory in it, it
reported some sort of registry error, claiming 'a recovery was made from
a backup copy' (i didn't think to make note of exactly what it said).

After that, both PC-Cillin crashed, and some little component of the
Roxio suite. Everything else remained stable. Figuring the new stick
of RAM was bad, i tried restarting a few times, including once with only
the old stick in, but the startup crashes were consistent with each
restart (but no further mention of the registry corruption).

Then I noticed, when I tried to launch Internet Explorer, an "installing
components" dialog box popped up claiming 'Office is now installing
components for Publisher'. After about 5 seconds or so, it would go
away, and IE would load correctly. The thing is, it does this everytime
IE is closed and restarted. Then we tried OE; same thing, and it even
had to pop up the dialog and wait while clicking between messages. over
and over.

She does have Publisher installed, but claims she doesn't really need
it, but the 'add/remove programs' dialog mysteriously didn't have any
"remove" or "uninstall" buttons in it as i was expecting it to. Then
again, i'm not convinced uninstalling publisher would help much. I've
seen those 'installing components' windows pop up occasionally when
Office is misbehaving, but never in IE or OE. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
~Mike

<x-posted>
 
Falco98 said:
I did (what should have been) a routine memory upgrade on a client's PC
today. I made the mistake of shutting it down without first doing a
normal restart to make sure everything booted up and ran like normal
first. When it first restarted with the additional memory in it, it
reported some sort of registry error, claiming 'a recovery was made from
a backup copy'
Click to expand...
<snip>

the new memory you put in is either defective,
clocked wrong or just plain not compatable

to confirm: put the original memory back in and see if the machine runs ok
 
I don't think uninstalling publisher will help you in any way whatsoever.

I would try a check disk, a system restore, and a memory test.
Some of the best tools I have found is the big boot cd at
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/. Its bootable and does all kinds of nifty
tests.

Bad ram can cause file corruptions, so check it out.

--
Manny Borges
MCSE NT4-2003 (+ Security)
MCT, Certified Cheese Master

There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who do understand binary
and those who don't.
 
philo said:
the new memory you put in is either defective,
clocked wrong or just plain not compatable

to confirm: put the original memory back in and see if the machine runs ok
Click to expand...

I did (and mentioned as such) a complete check: i tried first with
*only* the old memory in, only the new, both in different orders, etc.
The problems were consistent each time; the same programs crashed on
startup, nothing additional. I ran Memtest from a bootable CD and let
it make a complete pass, and it produced no errors. At this point i
think it's safe to go on with the assumption that it's not a memory
problem but probably a software glitch that just had unfortunate timing.
I'm still puzzled of course, as i've never seen IE or OE try to
'install' Publisher components like that.
 
Falco98 said:
I did (and mentioned as such) a complete check: i tried first with
*only* the old memory in, only the new, both in different orders, etc.
The problems were consistent each time; the same programs crashed on
startup, nothing additional. I ran Memtest from a bootable CD and let
it make a complete pass, and it produced no errors. At this point i
think it's safe to go on with the assumption that it's not a memory
problem but probably a software glitch that just had unfortunate timing.
I'm still puzzled of course, as i've never seen IE or OE try to
'install' Publisher components like that.
Click to expand...


The new memory (if defective etc) might have caused some damage to the OS.

With the old memory in the machine try running chkdsk (without the /f)
just to see if there are any errors.

If so I'd put the drive in another machine, then backup the data on it...
then run chkdsk /f
 
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