Topic awaiting preservation: Uncheck This Option Now

Many of you may already know about the option I'm about to mention, but I'm sure many do not. I hope to save those who do not from what I went through last night.

First, the incident. About 3:00 yesterday afternoon, I decided to perform a plain old restart to try to clear up a minor problem that had nothing to do with what was about to happen. When I did so, it got to the point where Windows was supposed to appear and -- odd -- it rebooted itself again. Around it came once more, and the same thing. "Aw, shucks" I exclaimed to my new LCD in language much more offensive.

I tried Safe Mode. I tried all the other modes. I checked the BIOS. I pulled an unneeded drive or two. Same problem. I switched out to my old graphics card. Same problem. I pulled put/unplugged everything one by one -- backup data drive, data drive, CD-RW, DVD-RW, RAID, IDE card, RAID card ... It continued its circular reboot.

"Aw, nuts" I exclaimed again and again, flavoring my speech with more spicy expletives, giving otherwise neglected pens and notepads thrilling airborne journeys. It appeared I had yet another system drive gone south.

I pulled the drive, hooked it up to my spare computer and tried to read it. Glory be, it was readable. I copied over all the files just in case, a process that took one syndicated episode each of Friends, Will & Grace and Frasier. In the meantime, I stuck a good drive I wasn't using (which was actually the warranty replacement for the last system drive gone bad) and began the long process of reinstalling Windows should I not be able to get the original system drive fixed.

Throughout this process, I attempted Norton drive scans, chkdsk scans and various virus scans, each maddeningly time-consuming, in a chronology I now can't possibly recall. Nothing significant was ever found.

Then it was research, research, research. Googling, and Googling yet again, following dead leads and guesses by people who didn't know what they were talking about. I entertained any idea that seemed to point to my incredibly vague problem. Twelve hours after it began, I took a stab at what was probably my best chance.

Apparently, there's a setting in Windows 2000 and XP that you can find by doing the following:

1. Right-click My Computer and select Properties.
2. Select Advanced and click Startup and Recovery.
3. Under System Failure, look for "Automatically reboot."

I don't think it's checked by default in XP, but it is in 2000. I theorized that there was a failure occurring at Windows startup, causing it to immediately reboot every time. But you see the problem here, I'm sure. If I couldn't start Windows, I couldn't uncheck this setting to start Windows.

So then began the long procedure of trying to figure out how to edit a registry on a drive pulled from another computer. After trying to follow instructions that told me to use regedit.exe, which were totally impossible to follow using regedit.exe, I tried regedt32.exe on a whim, a program I had long forgotten about because I never used it. Turns out, that's what the intructions were supposed to be for. Idiot instruction guy.

As I discovered, you can use regedt32.exe to load a hive file, edit it, then close it again. Further research told me where I could find the aforementioned option in the registry and where the appropriate hive file was located.

Opened, edited, done. Stuck the drive back in the other computer, tried to boot and -- yes! Blue screen of death!

Understand, now, that under these circumstances, it was actually a pleasure to see. Why? Because that meant I had figured out why it was rebooting. Plus, being able now to actually see the BSOD, I could read what the real problem was. And I think you'll all agree it's pretty damned helpful to be able to read what the problem is. Anyway, it was a corrupted registry file.

I swapped the disk out again and hoped I could fix the problem -- now that I knew what it was -- by using the previous procedure to edit the corrupted registry file. Thankfully, it loaded and read okay. I then searched for any keys related to a small piece of software I had tried out earlier in the day and had subsequently uninstalled. The program and its uninstallation never caused me any problems, but it was the only thing I had changed all day, so I had to run with it. I deleted the one key that was found and resaved the hive file.

I don't know if it was that one key or if it was just the act of opening and resaving the file that fixed it, but when I stuck the drive back in the original computer -- bang! -- it worked again.

So the moral is: uncheck that dumbass option before you have to stay up till 5:00 a.m. hoping to God you don't have to reinstall every bit of your software and swearing at yourself for not nightly ghosting that drive to begin with.

The End



(Edited by Wes on 05-21-2005 00:55)

Actually - on my XP PC.. it is default checked - and I did have a issue installing GoBack when I first bought this laptop.

God, I love the fact I moved to a Mac.

It was default checked on my XP too. It is now unchecked.

Now I know why Windows just reboots out of nowhere every once in a while (although I must say it doesn't happen all that often).

___________________________
Suho: www.liminality.org | Cell 270 | Sig Rotator | the Fellowship of Sup

Was checked on my XP, now isn't. Thanks for the advice, Wes.

this post will self-destruct in 10...

ditto, and ditto


Justice 4 Pat Richard

For soem reason mine in XP was not checked, i guess maybe at some point i had unchecked it myself, but for the life of me cannot remember why, but thanks for the post, although the subject matter serious, i love the humour you incorporated.

No Sig ?

Weird, mine's not checked either and I can assure you it must have always been like that; no way in the world I'd know how to change it without Wes' instructions

Ditto, and ditto!

Thanks, Wes!

Glad to help. Keep spreading the word!

Thanks for all the info Wes. Would you post links to the place where you found the instructions on how to edit the hive file using regedit32?

[edit]Stupd fingers. Can't spell.[/edit]

.



-- not necessarily stoned... just beautiful.


(Edited by hyperbole on 05-21-2005 18:23)

I have mine checked to automatically reboot. Under normal circumstances, I'm usually aware of what caused the reboot and can therefore correct it immediately.

After a reboot, I can check the system logs. If there is an entry, then I had a BSoD incident (specifically described for diagnosis in the log). If there is no entry, then there was a hardware-level incident that reset the machine (so no BSoD).

I prefer my machine to reboot as, when I'm away from it, I have it set to resume certain activities in my absence. If the BSoD did not instigate a reboot, then I would return to find that I'd been burning a few hundred watts on no more than a pleasant blue glow.

I admit that there have been times when it is impossible to boot to diagnostic mode, or when the 'last known good' option is of no help. Under these (fortunately) rare circumstances, I am always glad that I install the recovery console by default with every installation. It is invaluable.

As a last resort, it takes less time and effort to run an installation repair from the original Windows CD than it does to dice the registry on another machine.

==I don't believe it! Somebody stole my sig!!==

BTW F1 - I have a colleague who swears his Mac is so much better than my machine in all respects. It is true that some applications are far better for Mac, but he has been having severe problems with freezes that force him to reboot manually. Not knowing much about Macs and not having had access to his machine, I couldn't comment on the source of the problem, but it has disabled his machine for over a week, and yet similar problems usually take me no time at all to figure out (and permanently solve) on my own.

Plus, my games rock, and they aren't on the Mac, so na-na-nana-na. heehee

==I don't believe it! Somebody stole my sig!!==

My Game (Neverwinter Nights) rocks, and it is on the Mac AND Linux!

Bioware is a great company...

(Edited by WebShaman on 05-21-2005 19:47)

I remember playing a strange game years ago on the Mac (called MDK or something like that). It was amazing. It took quite a while for PCs to match the features and performance levels required to even come close.

I also played the original Myst for hours. The graphics were like nothing I could ever have seen in a PC game.

I don't argue about Macs and PCs. When I cook, I find different utensils serve different purposes, even if their featured functionality overlaps. How can one argue which is better between a fork and a spoon.

I remember when I had an Atari ST and a couple of mates had Commodore Amigas. The arguments! lol

Hyperbole - try here: http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-10877_11-5562308.html

But -- and this is important -- you can't do it with regedit.exe. You have to use regedt32.exe.

And here is a helpful page on where the registry files are located and which branches each contains: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;256986



(Edited by Wes on 05-22-2005 03:31)

These days I'm really only playing three games. Nethack, Diablo 2, and Civ 3, all of which run just fine on my Mac.
I can't help you friend with his problem, most Mac issues can be solved quickly. Usually by doing nasty unix-like things in the terminal. I'm willing to bet that if he went to a MacUserForum and asked a few questions, he'd solve his problems quickly as well.
As for why I switched, I got tired of the BSODs, Virus, Spyware, security (lack of) blah blah blah. I used to not care about Mac vs. Win. But switching and my current experince has sold me on Macs.
Of course YMMV.

Civ 3 rules. It is the only game I play anymore (when I have time for games).

Actually, I have Nethack on my computer as well, but I haven't played that in a while. Hmm...

Wait, what am I talking about? I have a presentation to write!

___________________________
Suho: www.liminality.org | Cell 270 | Sig Rotator | the Fellowship of Sup

quote:

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...most Mac issues can be solved quickly. Usually by doing nasty unix-like things in the terminal.

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You mean, just like Windows?!?

No, those are not unix-like commands. Those are icky-like commands.