OK - my second-most popular post is me recommending a software program, so
I'll throw open comments for some advice about software. DW's computer has a
couple of problems that are driving me batty. It's running Windows XP Pro (OEM)
on an Athlon-XP 1700+, MS8137C mobo, 1gb of memory, ATI Radeon 7000-series
video, Audigy sound card. There are two recurrent problems that see to be
intertwined: every so often the USB ports "turn off" (no USB device works, and
the USB hub ceases to show that it is connected), and occasionally while the
machine is unattended, it will reboot. Sometimes when it reboots, one of the
registry hive files becomes corrupt (usually SYSTEM or SOFTWARE), and very
occasionally the user profile becomes corrupt.
What I have been doing is pulling the registry hive copies out of the System
Restore points store manually and replacing the hives with the system restore
copies. This usually works, though I occasionally have to go back several
versions to find a non-corrupt hive (even though the machine was working when
the hive was backed up!) See KB Article #
307545
and
318011 for more info.
The machine is kept up to date on patches via Windows Update and Critical
Updates. The application software environment is fairly similar to my own
machine (if anything, it is more stable, since I tend to install/uninstall
software I'm considering, and my machine hasn't had a reinstall for almost 2
years now, vice a couple of months since the last fresh install on the problem
machine).
I actually had this machine blue-screen on me while I was in the Recovery
Console! I have swapped memory with known good parts, so I have ruled out memory
hardware errors. While CHKDSK occasionally finds problems with the file system
after a [particularly nasty crash, there doesn't seem to be HW issues with the
hard drive - the corrupted files are not in the same place on the platter each
time, nor are any other files being corrupted other than the registry hives and
the user profile.
Virus protection and spyware detection software are installed, frequently
updated, and frequently run.
System stability varies - we've gone several months between crashes, and had
them occur as rapidly as days apart.
Anyway, suggestions would be appreciated. (OS must remain WinXP due to
application support; so please don't tell me to put in Linux, or go buy a Mac!)
UPDATE: After going back to the beginning of the moth to get a bootable hive,
I can log in as Administrator. When I attempt to use System Restore to try and
bring it forward to an earlier date, I get a message saying that Network
Idenifiers have changed; particularly the System Name is blank, as is the
workgroup membership. If I try and log in using DW's user account, the machine
reboots. When I tried to set a restore point, the systme rebooted (though the
restore point name was set).
