Save Me. I've tried everything.

[DemonOfElru]

:cool: Hi, I'm new here, but not new to fixing computer problems. But this thing has me stumped. After extensive internet searching, a whole (24 hours) day of trying to get my computer functioning normally, no progress.

I use Windows XP SP2 and was uninstalling old ATi Catalyst drivers (7.9, the latest) and installing 7.7's (per AMD customer support's directions from an actual agent) which pertained to a whole 'nother issue. But now, now... my god. My services aren't starting, about 95% of them are stopped. What the?! I go to services from the control panel and a big, static gray box is there instead of anything else. I go to the second tab and try to start a service only to get the "Error 193: 0xc1" error.

I cannot install anything (new MSI for installshield 8.0 version is what I tried, for the video drivers were that version). I get the "RVC server cannot be found" error when I now try to install my 7.5 (or any other) ATi video drivers and/or catalyst software. I've tried safe mode, enabling and disabling services in msconfig, I feel like it's the whole shablam. And i'm lost.

I've updated everything on my system (chipset drivers, bios etc.) because I was having issues with video card compatibility/performace (got an x1550 after my 9800 pro 128mb frying).

I thought it was perhaps a worm or some other malware and I've used TrendMicro and my wits (as I cannot boot Norton after all this, or much of anything else most of the time) to figure out it's probably not that anymore.

I've tried and done all of these:

HijackThis, Dial-a-Fix, old drivers, new drivers. Registry cleaner (Uniblue), Ad-aware, Chkdsk, sfc /scannow.

I have my .logs from WindowsUpdate, HijackThis, Dial-a-Fix, and whatever else might be requested of me. Attached is my HijackThis log in a .txt form and a screenshot of my services tab that is definitely abnormal.

I did download a .rar file from a less-than-trustworthy source which was corrupt (I then deleted it), which I thought may have been the source of some malware, but at this point I think not.

I feel that this case is special and hopefully presents a fun challenge for the experts. If not I'm sorry, but either way, *PLEASE* help.

hijackthis.txt

[DemonOfElru]

Screenshot of my msconfig attached (services not running )

[Monkey Proof]

check out this article from MS...

Q812486

[Tarun]

You mentioned using a registry cleaner, which may have caused these problems you are having now. Are you able to use System Restore? If so, restore to before you ran the regcleaner.

[DemonOfElru]

Thanks for the prompt response guys . I actually am not able to use system restore (tells me, even after a restart, to restart my computer and try again). But here goes trying to go with the MS article from Monkey Proof.

Edit: So the fix tells me to go individually through each service in regedit and set quotes around the executable file for each service. But.. I don't know where all the executable files are located for each and every service, but there seems to be paths already set for each Image Path file already. Just add quotes to each and go down the list until I get all of them (because every service I tried to start got the same error message that this microsoft article addresses..)?

[Tarun]

If your registry cleaner made backups, try to restore them and revert the damage caused.

[DemonOfElru]

If your registry cleaner made backups, try to restore them and revert the damage caused.

Alright, Uniblue's registry cleaner does have backups available. Problem is I've already backed up to one of the backups prior to me posting here :(. I'll try again, an earlier one this time, and see how that goes.

Edit: Unfortunately, no go. Same problems as before, all my services are stopped and won't start etc. On the manual services I try to start though, there are/were error messages I'd forgotten about (so many errors at the moment..). 126:the specified module could not be found and 1068: the dependency service or group failed to start. But hey! Some of the services set to Manual are actually starting up when I tell them to...

Progress I suppose?

When I try to install my video drivers (ati/catalyst) I still get the same error message at this point: -5009 0x800706ba (which turns up almost nothing on a google search).

Edit#2: Straightforward question: If I change all my Imagepath locations in my HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services to have quotes around them, will I be ok? (as a test to see if this is the problem..)

[DjLizard]

If you're feeling savvy, you can roll back the SYSTEM hive individually (which will just change all of the services and drivers and nothing else about your system) using whatever restore points are available (since the SR client isn't helping you).

http://wiki.DjLizard.net/SVI

Read the article and try to replace your SYSTEM hive (stored as c:\windows\system32\config\system) with a copy from a restore point (stored in System Volume Information as _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM). If anything about that article is unclear, let us know.

Also, ImagePath values don't require quotes. There are multiple ways to reference a service's executable, too (using absolute, relative, hard-coded fully qualified, and environment variable paths).

[DemonOfElru]

If you're feeling savvy, you can roll back the SYSTEM hive individually (which will just change all of the services and drivers and nothing else about your system) using whatever restore points are available (since the SR client isn't helping you).

http://wiki.DjLizard.net/SVI

Read the article and try to replace your SYSTEM hive (stored as c:\windows\system32\config\system) with a copy from a restore point (stored in System Volume Information as _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM). If anything about that article is unclear, let us know.

Also, ImagePath values don't require quotes. There are multiple ways to reference a service's executable, too (using absolute, relative, hard-coded fully qualified, and environment variable paths).

Thank you so much. This more than anything I've seen so far seems to address my problem. One slight problem though is that my copy/paste has not, and does not, work. It seems I will need it to work through the guide you provided me. Is there a workaround or temporary fix for this?

Edit: Also, in the directions of the guide given, I need to take a file (located in the SVI on my C:\ drive it looks like) and replace it with the system file under c:\windows\system32\config\system. Can I just take the file and copy it (which it seems I can copy, but not paste ) from the registry and replace it with the system file located in my config folder?

[DemonOfElru]

So I can't copy to folder, move to folder (I wouldn't want to lose my restore point's SYSTEM file anyway by moving it..), or just regular copy and paste. It seems to let me copy when I manually right click, but the option to paste is greyed out when I try (or ctrl + v just doesn't work).

There a command prompt (start->run->cmd etc.) or some other workaround? This is frustrating, never had the copy and paste (clipboard) function straight up break before (or is it some uninitialized service of mine..). Oh, and the files I've tried to copy are not read-only files.

Edit: There's a section in the guide on doing it in the recovery console. Er/dur. Trying it.

So I'm trying it in the cmd prompt (start->cmd). The paste/copying worked there. Now should I DELETE (if it will let me, probably not) my current system file and then rename my _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM file to just "system" (minus the quotes) and reboot?

And also, must I be doing this in the recovery console? Probably, right? As the system file is going to be being used when I'm running Windows normally?

[DemonOfElru]

Alright, I've copied my _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM with cmd prompt and then gone into system recovery via my windows CD and deleted my old system file and renamed my _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM to "system" (minus the quotes).

No change, services still stopped, everything still wrong. More help? . Trying another rename (second to oldest restore point), hopefully some more backup from the Lunarsoft guys on the way soon .

Edit: Alright, no go on the replacing _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE and _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM for software and system files, respectively. Services still not booting and error-ridden. :(

[DjLizard]

If it's this bad, it's really just time to backup and reinstall Windows. :(

[DemonOfElru]

If it's this bad, it's really just time to backup and reinstall Windows. :(

Alllllllllllright. Slight problem: won't let me transfer my data to my seagate 320gb external hdd. My roommate says we'll just connect my internal HDD and external to his computer, then transfer the data that way, but I'm not sure this will work...

Any commands in recovery console or cmd prompt to copy all files/folders from say, program files or other directories to my external HDD before I format?

[DjLizard]

This will not work well in Recovery Console, especially since it does not enable DMA, and by default does not allow talking to files outside of the root, System Volume Information, and Windows itself. Also, it respects permissions so a lot of things will barf out.

But yeah, you can easily connect your hard drive to his internally, as a slave of the main drive or on its own IDE channel.

You could also use a Linux live CD on your own computer, such as Ubuntu, Knoppix, Slax (recommended), or for the hardcore, RIPLinux. Most live CDs will easily recognize NTFS and external hard drives, and auto-mount them (not RIPLinux though) so you can copy stuff across. I recommend SLAX; I've used it before to rescue my own data at home.