Invincible registry? Will it never die ??

[schizosquirrel]

Hi,

I started encountering lots of Registry errors on my Win 98 OS. My hard disk is partitioned, and all my data safe so I proceded to format the c drive.

Win 98 has succesfully been installed with just bare bones, however the registry errors keep on coming.

I first noticed something was wrong when the Windows set up recognized my graphics card and modem - both of them should fail to be recognized, as they are not on the usual list of drivers available.......Indeed the system display box displayed the icons, with the device name (Trust 56k v92 whatever modem etc etc) and the question mark to show no driver available - as far as I know Windows shouldn't have been able to tell what the name of these devices is.

Any ideas on how to kill the registry when I'm formating ? Or is it that the startup disk I am using could be holding some sort of entry ?

I'd really appreciate some help on this, I've got to help the missus get some work done tonight and I need to be up till 4 in the morning like I need a hole in the head.

Thanks !

 

[wolluf]

Sounds like you may have developed a hardware problem. Have you changed anything on the machine (hardware or software) recently?

If you have, try removing new item/app. If not, I'd start with RAM. If > 1 stick, try each on its own. If just one, buy/borrow another.

(Cpu RAM ok? - overheating is another possible cause).

There are lots more - post back if this no good.

 

[Grenage]

If you formatted the Drive the OS was installed on you formatted over everything, including the registry.

 

[schizosquirrel]

Thanks - I'll start with the Ram failure idea.

No hardware has been "installed" on the system - other than the modem and graphics card, which I have had for some time.

I thought there may have been something included on the starter disk that may have held some data ??

 

[mattjurado]

No, as grenage stated, if you formatted, a new registry was created from scratch. If you are receiving actual error messages, then you have some hardware problem. Of course you want to test everything, but registry errors on clean installs tend to indicate a mainboard problem. Make sure you installed your mainboard drivers, sometimes they contain registry patches.

Matt J.

 

[adscrims1]

Have you tried Microsoft Regclean? This cleans your registry for you and makes a backup if you ever want to revert the registry back to whenever you cleaned it.

 

[TopHat2]

I think Win9x queries the PCI bus as part of the instalation (and also on start up). Plug & Play devices contain information as to their manufacturer and modle, I suspect that's where the information about your devices is coming from.

As others have said, formating the partition that contains your OS will wipe out your old Registery.

What registery errors are you getting?

 

[schizosquirrel]

TopHat2,

When I have installed 98 before with these devices, Windows has never been able to determine the details of them.

As for the registry errors, I don't know how to obtain the specific errors - its the Generic "Windows has had a problem accessing your registry" followed by a restart, Registry repair and continuing to windows.

With all due consideration to my mental state of health and the mrs unable to do her work, the machine is now going for a flying lesson and I will try and stick the hard disk into a new pc.

God I hate hardware. And MSoft. Linux here I come.

 

[Grenage]

In all fairness it probably isn't your hard drive that has a problem, its more likely to be a MB problem.

That or you were just unlucky in your installs

 

[schizosquirrel]

Thanks Grenage - I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope it is the MB.
Or my life is over. Have you ever seen an angry woman drop a monitor on someones head ???

I'm going to attempt to transfer the HD into this second PC (ground breaking stuff for me) and use it as a slave - hopefully without having to reformat all the partitions.

Didn't like the colour of my old computer anyway. And it smelt. Erm...