Win98SE registry help needed: program or seach phrase, please

  • Thread starter Thread starter Punk Panther
  • Start date Start date
Update:

The computer is definitely completely crashing significantly less, and
more often the system is able to recover itself without being booted!

[I have not changed anything other than running "scanreg /fix" in DOS.]

More updates as they occur.

JJ


Hey REM!

Wonderful! Other than the back up and restore switches, I was not aware
of any of the others. Thank you. :-D

Having just tried the "repair" (which also optimizes, of course) the
computer boots significantly faster and with many fewer hesitations.
Perhaps a separate program may not be needed after all if the crashes
stop or decrease sufficiently!

I need to test the system more to see if anything other than boot time
has changed, but this seems to be the most positive developement in this
whole affair in about a week!

I'll keep you posted.

JJ



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Hi Karen,

I haven't forgotten you or your input. My hesitancy at responding to you
is only because I am changing as few variables as possible before trying
something else. At present, I am working on the "scanreg /fix"
suggestion earlier in the thread, and it seems promising.

I will soon get back to you in earnest. :-)

JJ


Fastest things to do:

1. Get QuickResource, or even run the resource meter that ships with W98.
A resources plummet (esp gdi) is a standard cause for W9X crashing,
so keep an alarm to alert you whenever you go under ~10% remaining
resources.

2. Get recommendations for system RAM diagnostics utils. Often a hardware
prob, such as RAM gone bad as one, can be the cause of random problems
which have no clear pattern.

3. Clean out tmp file directory, and all browser caches.

4. Take note whether these crashes occur only when you're browsing the
web, or whether they occur as well when you're offline. If the former,
then you have a more specific situation to address.

5. Run anti-malware scans, review your startups, and especially, check for
adware and spyware. Spybot S&D and AdAware are favorites. And you'd be
able to get recommendations for others, if ask here (don't rely on the
web alone for this category -- there are some sleaze programs out there
masquerading as spyware cleaners).

Slowest things to do:

1. Reinstall your video drivers. Analyze your major system libraries, and
find our if you have wrong versions or corrupt files in play. Analyze
your registry, and run cleaners to whack out everything they find,
figuring you have nothing left to lose anyway.

2. Probably better, in interest of time, over dealing with the registry
and DLLs etc, it's to prioritize your schedule for the OS reinstall.
Even could initially try reinstalling on top, perhaps -- but a Windows
group might be better for getting pros & cons on that approach.
Click to expand...


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Punk said:
It might be causing problems ... now. But why it suddenly changed to a
destructive state after all this time is more disconcerting than what
seems to be a relatively straight forward problem otherwise. :-(
Click to expand...

Go here and get dud.exe

http://www3.telus.net/_/dud/

Rename dud.exe to ctfmon.exe and overwrite the original somehow or
other having backed it up first.

And. Are you sure that having 15GB of fonts is not the cause of your
problem?
 
jo said:
You sure this is not the cause of your problem?
Click to expand...

I'd definitely look over number of fonts installed. I'm not sure what
happens with HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Fonts\ when
the max regkey size of 64k is banged upon. There is also the memory load
involved, and most importantly, the stress on w98's teeny GDI allowance.
 
Go here and get dud.exe

http://www3.telus.net/_/dud/

Rename dud.exe to ctfmon.exe and overwrite the original somehow or
other having backed it up first.
Click to expand...

I'll look into this. :-)

And. Are you sure that having 15GB of fonts is not the cause of your
problem?
Click to expand...

They shouldn't cause any problems as they are all dormant files
that the OS doesn't know about. We only have 75 to 100 fonts installed
at any given time and this is far below the operational thresholds of 98
SE.

JJ

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I'd definitely look over number of fonts installed. I'm not sure what
happens with HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Fonts\ when
the max regkey size of 64k is banged upon. There is also the memory load
involved, and most importantly, the stress on w98's teeny GDI allowance.
Click to expand...

There are only 75 to 100 installed at any given time. If we were to
install all 15 GB I'm quite sure Windows (and any software that reviews
all installed fonts while loading into memory) wouldn't start at all.

JJ

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Hi Everyone,

The "scanreg /fix" idea worked significantly as most of the crashes
and stalling have/has ceased since I tried this. As an extra bit of
precaution, I had a technician test all the hardware of the system but
no problems were found.

The next step will be to back up then reinstall everything. Yay.

Thanks to all of you for your help, ideas, and concern with this
problem. It is unfortunate that a final diagnosis of the problem could
not be found (other than, "it is probably the registry") but your
assistance was more than worthwhile in making rest of the needed changes
a liveable experience.

Any further exploration into the cause(s) of the problems will
likely not turn up anything concrete. I have long suspected that
personal computers have passed the point of a user being able to find
the cause of all problems in a reasonable time--like fishing nets, as
computers become more complex they get more holes.

Thank you again,

JJ :-)


Hello,

I don't know the name of what I need: neither specific program
names nor the "class" or "family" of programs I should consider.
("Utilities" is obviously too broad ...)

We need some type of repair done to our Win 98 SE registry as our
system crashes at odd intervals--usually at the most inopportune moments
and we need only a temporary fix until we can format the HD and
reinstall everything.

What program can do the necessary "emergency surgery" to the
registry, or alternately, what phrase or phrases do I use to search
Pricelessware or other wwweb sites to find the type of program we need?

All ideas are appreciated. :-)

JJ
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