Computer will not start up - after installing Mcafee AV and ram

[lesj1968]

Hi, A friend has a problem with their computer which has Windows ME. It will not load up. A friend of mine has just installed Mcafee anti-virus to their pc which all went fine – they restarted the machine and it was fine. They then went on to install 256mb ram (in addition to the 64mb ram it had as standard). The old ram was of the type PC100 (100mhz) and the new 256mb ram was of the type PC133 (133mhz) however we were assured by the vendor that both types of ram were compatible with the PC. The PC is a Compaq Presario 5000 with an AMD Duron processor (750mhz). Again, the pc was fine when the machine was turned back on after installing the ram. However after an hour my friend tried to register Mcafee online (using a dialup connection) and when they went to go on the internet the whole screen froze during the dialup connection (they did not get online). The machine had to be restarted and now it will not load properly – it goes through the process of checking the ram when the computer is turned on, the Windows ME logo page appears as normal then it gets to the usual blue screen (the blue screen which normally appears just before the desktop loads) but it does not get any further and stays on this blue screen and the following error appears on the screen after 5 minutes or so:

”Spool32 has caused an error in lxacpprt.dll Spool32 will now close. Please restart if you have problems.” It is important to note no printer settings have ever been changed. (We tried disconnecting the printer completely from the pc.)

The pc has been restarted several times and been left for over an hour without success - nothing happens... it appears to be loading with the usual blank blue screen but stays like this (no egg timer just the cursor but nothing loads on the screen). When I look at which processes are running I see "Mcvsescn" and "Cmdninst". What are these? I tried ending both of the processes and nothing happened… the spool32 error appears after a while.

I can start the PC in safe mode (by holding the control key down on start up) but it does not fully load up and stays on the Egg timer ("safe mode" is in each corner of the screen as expected with a light grey background screen) and nothing happens. I pressed control-alt-delete to see what processes were running and I found there was one called "Msgsrv32 (not responding)". What is this process? Anyway I ended the task and still nothing happened…it just stayed on the egg timer for over an hour.

I have tried removing the new ram, leaving just the old ram in.. no luck.

Thank you very much for any help.

Les

 

[PurdueTNT]

Here is a description of Msgsrv32:

msgsrv32.exe is a process which is initiated by Microsoft Windows 9x and ME only. It acts as a 32 bit message server and will never appear in the Windows task list unless there is a problem with it. At any other time it should be left enabled

It almost sounds like you are running into a severe case of coincidence. I unfortunately don't remember if windows ME can be installed over itself without data loss. You might try to see if you can re-install win ME. Make sure you don't wind up formatting your HDD and losing all of you data.

 

[KevinADC]

can you run scandisk from the command prompt? Instead of booting into safe mode, boot into command prompt only. At the c:\ prompt type:

scandisk.exe

and press the enter key. If that doesn't work try the full path, something like:

C:\windows\command\scandisk.exe

 

[wolluf]

I keep telling people - don't use McAfee - it causes too many problems!

You could try restoring an earlier version of the registry (preferably from before the McAfee install) using scanreg /restore after booting from an ME boot floppy (

http://www.bootdisk.com

if you need one). If that's no good, I think you can install win ME over itself using the same trick as for win98 (rename win.com to something else in dos before starting the install - and make sure in goes in the current windows folder). But I've never done that, so don't know for sure.

If all fails, you can always slave the drive elsewhere to backup stuff, and do a clean install of course.

 

[mainegeek]

lesj1968,
You may have luck by booting to C:<prompt> through the selecive startup menu.

At the C:/ type EDIT C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT

Look for any lines refering to McAfee and add a REM to the begining of the line. This will treat it as a remark instead of a command.

Then click file,exit and save on the way out or ALT-F-X and select yes to save.

Reboot and if you get back up try uninstalling McAfee.

 

[wolluf]

mainegeek - you can't boot to a dos prompt in ME - MS removed that functionality. You have to use a boot floppy to get to dos.

 

[mainegeek]

wolluf,
It has been quite a while since I have had to touch an ME system. Thank you for setting me straight.