Computer help needed: fixing registry

[TredWel]

Something rather odd has happened to my computer lately, and it's something that I can only attribute to the registry getting fouled up somehow. I'm running Win2k, Listen to these symptoms:

- Clipboard no longer functions in most cases. The only place I can still paste text is in Notepad. You never realize just how often you paste things till you can't anymore.

- When looking at the file system for my computer, nothing shows up under "Program Files" Everything is still there, and everything more or less works, but the directory is blank. This, despite reporting something like "90 objects" in the toolbar.

- I'm on a dialup connection, and I'm allowed one connection per boot. If I'm kicked off or the connection dies, I've got to reboot before I can get back online.

- I can no longer open Excel files, which is a major annoyance. Word works fine, but Excel's been giving me headaches.

So, with this diverse and odd bunch of problems that have cropped up on my computer, I can only surmise that the Windows Registry got fouled with sometime in the past few days.

I'm wondering if anybody has any experience with this sort of thing. Despite being proficient with computers, I have almost never needed to get knee-deep in the registry, so my knowledge in that arena is lacking. Should there be anything in the registry that I can look at and tell that it's obviously wrong? Are there programs that can comb through the registry and pinpoint errors? Should I just give up and go through the annoying but inevitable process of reinstalling Win2k?

Thanks for whatever help you can provide.

[MizzouRah]

I'm not a registry buff, but I say re-install Win 2k or XP if you have a copy. I was an avid user of 2000 when XP first came out, but with SP 1, XP has been great. SP 2 should be out soon as well.


Todd

[sterlingice]

Wow- those are some large and unrelated problems (most likely)! I would be working on my reinstall right now, but I either solve these things or just give up and start over pretty quick.

1. How is Excel not opening? Is it just not doing anything when you click the icon? Is it crashing upon opening?

2. Same question for clipboard. How is it not working? Is the ctrl+c/ctrl+x shortcup not working? Is something crashing?

3. For the "Program Files" folder- there are 3 (All Users, Default User, and ) so make sure you're looking at the right one.

This is quite an odd array of problems so I'm not sure this is the same thing. Then again, I'm not sure what could have caused multiple failures like this.

SI

[TredWel]

Originally posted by sterlingice
Wow- those are some large and unrelated problems (most likely)! I would be working on my reinstall right now, but I either solve these things or just give up and start over pretty quick.

Yeah, I'm resigning myself to the fact that I'm probably going to have to reinstall Windows. It's a pain in the ass, and I just want to make sure that I'm not overlooking anything fixable before resigning myself to the task.

1. How is Excel not opening? Is it just not doing anything when you click the icon? Is it crashing upon opening?

I can open Excel and work in a new file fine, the only problem is an alert box with the message "Cannot use object linking and embedding". Whenever I try to open a file, however, I get an Application Error about memory that cannot be "read", and that crashes the program.

2. Same question for clipboard. How is it not working? Is the ctrl+c/ctrl+x shortcup not working? Is something crashing?

There are no immediate problems when I highlighting text or a file and pressing CTRL-C. The problem comes when I try to CTRL-V and nothing happens. I try to right click, and "Paste" is grayed out. It's as if it's not even registering the copy.

I just tried this in Excel. It marks a cell as copied just fine, but when I tried to paste, I get the friendly alert box telling me that "Excel cannot paste the data."

3. For the "Program Files" folder- there are 3 (All Users, Default User, and ) so make sure you're looking at the right one.

I have attached a screen capture of the window to show exactly what I'm talking about. Note that it says "99 object(s)" in the lower left hand corner, but decides to show none of them.

Another oddity. To create the screen capture, I had to paste the data into Paint, which worked fine. I guess this falls under the same category as Notepad paste working.

This is quite an odd array of problems so I'm not sure this is the same thing. Then again, I'm not sure what could have caused multiple failures like this.

Neither do I. I've seen all sorts of weird computer failures over the years, but this one is among the oddest ever.

[TredWel]

Originally posted by TredWel
- I'm on a dialup connection, and I'm allowed one connection per boot. If I'm kicked off or the connection dies, I've got to reboot before I can get back online.

Dola update.

I am allowed one connection per boot, but that's because it can't disconnect me. Windows Networking provides the always helpful message "An unexpected error occured" when I try to bring up the connection properties.

[Buzzbee]

I'm no expert, so take my comments with a grain of salt.

In regard to the pasting problem, it sounds almost like a memory issue, as if you only have a little bit of memory. You might be able to paste to notepad because notepad can only handle limited amounts of text (you've probably gotten the "This file is too large for notepad, would you like to open it in WordPad instead?" message).

The Excel message regarding memory might tend to support my theory.

A memory problem MIGHT explain the program files showing up blank. Perhaps not enough memory available to render the image. Do you have another folder with that many objects? Does it display? One with less? Does it display?

Just some thoughts. Of course I have no idea to diagnose if it is a memory problem or not. Hope this helps and hope everything works out.

[TredWel]

Originally posted by Buzzbee
I'm no expert, so take my comments with a grain of salt.

In regard to the pasting problem, it sounds almost like a memory issue, as if you only have a little bit of memory. You might be able to paste to notepad because notepad can only handle limited amounts of text (you've probably gotten the "This file is too large for notepad, would you like to open it in WordPad instead?" message).

The Excel message regarding memory might tend to support my theory.

A memory problem MIGHT explain the program files showing up blank. Perhaps not enough memory available to render the image. Do you have another folder with that many objects? Does it display? One with less? Does it display?

Just some thoughts. Of course I have no idea to diagnose if it is a memory problem or not. Hope this helps and hope everything works out.

I'm inclined not to think that. I haven't recieved any message when I try to open a large file in Notepad to use Wordpad (not since my Win 3.1 days, at least). My "My Documents" folder has over 200 items in it, and displays just fine. The system task manager shows that I 'm using about 1/3 of my possible memory, so unless that's lying, it's not looking like a memory problem.

Thanks for the thought, though.

[FrogMan]

Tredwel, don't mess with your registry, you are suffering from the latest msblast virus. We had this problem at work yesterday, all the same problems you've experienced (clipboard not working, excel not working, etc)

They installed a patch from Microsoft. See the quote below from another thread.

The patch mentionned in that Microsoft link is what they installed on all machines running Windows 2000 around here...

Good luck!

FM

Originally posted by FrogMan
Airhog and ahbrady, just out of curiosity, I searched "Remote Procedure Call security flaw" in yahoo and it returned this article...

Microsoft Warns of Major Security Flaw in Windows

in which they you should install the patch found at this place...

Microsoft Technet

Good luck!

FM

[JHandley]

I've seen some really goofy symptoms of this exploitation of windows security. I've seen the clipboard problem you described. I've seen a computer that wouldn't open and run either regedit or task manager. They would open up long enough for you to get your mouse to the window and then it would just disapear.

Windows update will fix your problem.

[TredWel]

That does it. Thanks a lot for your help, FrogMan!

[FrogMan]

Originally posted by TredWel
That does it. Thanks a lot for your help, FrogMan!

Glad to see it was that simple. I had that critical update installed on my home PC about two weeks ago (I run XP home edition) and we were it big time at work yesterday morning. When I started reading about your problems and afterward ran into one of our IT people, I asked her what patch they installed, she pointed me to the one I told you about. Now we knwo what this "little" security breach can cause...

FM

[Airhog]

I think can also cause your network to lose internet access during the evening. Since my brothers computer was infected, our home network has been messed up each evening. I turned his computer off and viola it started working again. You should also remove the virus, and just dont patch the hole.

[TredWel]

Originally posted by Airhog
I think can also cause your network to lose internet access during the evening. Since my brothers computer was infected, our home network has been messed up each evening. I turned his computer off and viola it started working again. You should also remove the virus, and just dont patch the hole.

I've installed the patch, and for good measure found a cleaning tool programmed to root out and destroy any instances of the virus within files, and lat that run for the past couple of hours. Tonight's going to be a very in-depth full scan with my A/V software. I'm going to get this bug completely squashed.

Once again, thanks to all for your help, you saved me a lot of time and headaches. Just goes to show how awesome this board is and how deep it's knowledge runs.