The Problem Saga Continues

[dalek]

Originally posted here by The Texan
Maybe im just a little parnoid... lol I will try and sys restore and see what happens... im disappointed I cant use dalek tool since I have the cd key for my win xp cd but no cd! and im gonna take a look at the link you provided once I back up my registry

Hi Tex

Is your OS an OEM version, do you have restore CD's, the I386 files may be accessible from there, and unless you already arranged to have all of the contents of I386 loaded to the root drive (C) and a few registry tweaks, you will definately need the CD.

Well, in your computer's registry, are several settings that are checked when you run scannow sfc.

As mentioned earlier in this article, the Windows File Protection service constantly monitors for any changes to the main system files. Well Windows XP keeps a cache (copy) of these essential files at the following location:

C:WINDOWS\System32\Dllcache (assuming C: is your system root which it probably is.)

NB - The dllcache folder is extremely important so Windows XP hides it from you! To view it go to: My Computer > Tools > Folder Options > View > "uncheck" Hide protected operating system files.

If that's the case on your computer then there is normally no need for the original XP CD to be inserted as your computer has a "copy" it can get hold of in this cache...

But, if the Dllcache folcer,or part of it, has become corrupted for some reason then you will be prompted for the XP CD - so your computer can get a clean copy!

Having said that not ALL installations of Windows XP have ALL the system files cached into this folder! You may only have around 50MB of files in this folder under Windows XP depending on the quota settings in the registry. (Under Windows 2003 Server the default is 300MB of system files!)

Annoying, YES!

Is there a workaround YES!

As well as having a cache of all the system files on your PC, I like to have the I386 folder from the XP CD installed on the computer as well. After doing this I then modify the registry to tell it the source path for these files... Why? Well not only does this prevent 99% of request for the the XP CD with Windows File Protection. But the I386 folder also contains many other files that are sometimes needed by the operating system and this stops those requests for the XP CD too!

NB - With today's large hard drives you are not going to notice this 475 MB folder on your computer, but older systems may not have the space for this...

Step 1

You will need to get your XP CD and locate the folder called:

I386

This is a major folder and should be one of the first you see, now copy this onto your hard drive into the system root. For most of you that is going to be C:\ so you should end up with a folder that looks like: C:\I386

Scannow sfc


Additional Info

I also would recommend a system restore as far back as you can go, and like was also mentioned 2 or 3 AV's running can cause complications, you only really need one with real time scanning on and maybe keep another to do manual scans if you want to vet the one that is running in real time..

Luck...

[The Texan]

Dalek, I got my windows xp from my college they have this program where if you take computer classes MS lets you download software for free... I put xp on a blank cd which I no longer have even though I do have the cd key for it lol btw my root drive is H for some reason and not C. it has just always been that way since I installed

edit/ your "additional info" link doesnt work, it just says http: and nothing else

[The Duck]

Texan ol buddy, it usually helps when you keep us updated :P...

[The Texan]

Duck its 11:00pm on weds nite im still working on this just as soon as I find out something decent I will reply with how I fixed it ( or didnt) lol

[The Duck]

Oh I thought you were doing the system restore now... sorry

[The Texan]

Duck/Dalek, I finally found my XP cd so I inserted it and ran the took dalek provided after I did a chdsk ( no errors) the tool took forever but finally finished! the weird thing was it just ended... no results, so nothing so I assume everything was fine. I also cleared cookies/cache all that normal stuff and deleted most of my antivirus/antispyware. I should be OK with one of each I guess but I guess I just fell for that thinking you know " two heads are better than one" so to speak. anyway I dont think the cause of this was a virus or spyware ( I ran scans in safe mode) I think it was I was just running conflicting programs or something. anyway all is well now ( I think) but thanx for your help! Greenies in the mail

edit/ I restarted my pc after I had completed everything. once I restarted it my video card settings had gone from 32 bit 768/1024 to 4 bit 800X600! it looked like crap! well anyway I "rolled back" the driver for my nvidia video card and that seems to have fixed the problem. well im leaving everything alone now and praying everything will still work lol.

[The Texan]

Well I fixed my yahoo issue, it seems there is some kind of "internet explorer script error" within yahoo messenger that I cant get rid of but, if I go back to yahoo messenger 5.5 it goes away