NATO

AVAST Free Edition. Finds corrupt files and viruses with a boot time scan. Microsoft Security Essentials is good too. I used to use AVG Free but did not like the latest version which could wreck the registry with its additional tools.

I am getting this fault continuously in the Event Viewer. The Universal Plug and Play device host service depends on the SSDP discovery service which failed to start. The reason given is that one of these services has a different account to other services running in the same process. Does anyone have any idea what this is abot and how to rectify the issue? What - are - all the services running in this process? Thanks for all and any help. (Great Sunset / Light Pyramid - Boot Screens - much nicer than the MS one!) (No matching logon/off screen though... )

From long experience I would not use Windows Backup or rely on System Restore. The very best system for backing up a drive is to use a drive imaging program. I use Image For Windows which is used in conjunction with Image for DOS. Image for Windows is installed in Program Files and will back up all the partitions on my small 80 GB internal drive. I use it to make an uncompressed backup drive image to the F:\ partition. If the OS C:\ partition is damaged in any way I reboot to a CD with Image for DOS and restore from the F:\ partition. Just in case that the hard drive fails altogether I also make a compressed image on an 8GB Kingston G3 USB stick. Image for DOS will see both images as long as you do - NOT - disable 8 letter DOS name creation in the registry. Image for DOS is packaged with Image for Windows which will make the bootable CDR for you. You just need to download the free Phylock extra to obtain a lock on the drive before imaging it so that data is accurate. There are other Drive Imaging programs out there and they are far more reliable than backup programs.

No, I found out that it was corrupt AFTER it was installed.

Second, temporarily turn OFF your AntiVirus as it will sometimes cause problems (as you just seen) because Real-Time Scan could clobber you by checking stuff while nLite is running. Third, nLite should never be in the same folder created above (you already knew that). Last, just create the ISO from nLite instead of having it burn it, then burn it afterward. I find this to be much safer, especially when you may want to reduce the Burn Speed (max usually 8x)... try ImgBurn (free) for that purpose. It also allows you to "mount" the ISO in any free ISO mounter and inspect it. Thanks I will take your advice. 1. Image the C:\ drive. 2. Uninstall - all - additional software including the Anti Virus, as I see that nLite had put it into a separate folder. 3. Uninstall SP3 as the AV reports that the CAB files are corrupt. (Only showed up on a boot time scan.) 4. Copy the bare XP SP2 install to a folder and run nLite. 5. Burn the .ISO at 8x 6. Restore the drive image to the C:\ drive. Then I should have an XP SP2 install CD to carry out any repairs, re-install or run the recovery centre. "Third, nLite should never be in the same folder created above (you already knew that)." Yes I - did - know that. (Past tense!) I had totally forgotten it though. Getting too old! Thank you very much for your constructive advice. It is much appreciated. Ian

My AVAST AV reported that the SP3 Service Pack had corrupt CAB files, if that is any help. It installed all right but I now have a few problems with shutdown...

Ponch, No. It has been a persistent fault for some time, only now it is really getting bad. I suspect that the old PS2 drivers are trying to load as well as the USB drivers. Maybe updating the old Legacy drivers will sort it out.

These refer to services that are enabled for devices that are not present in the system. You currently have them to start, but when they do they fail because the hardware isn't present which generates an error. For example, i8042PRT refers to a PS2 port used by a keyboard or mouse. These will show up in MSINFO32's Software Environment/System Drivers, Device Manager's Hidden Devices or in the Services panel. I do not have the other two on my system so I can't tell you what those are. So! Thank you very much. And what is more you are right! Another utility reports that 'Windows reports that a PS2 Keyboard and PS2 mouse are trying to load but have failed.' I stopped using these some years ago and no longer have them. Both keyboard and mouse devices are now USB. Any idea on how I should get rid of this error as I think it is responsible for stopping the USB keyboard and mouse from connection from time to time which is the real problem forcing a hard shutdown. I thought to change the filenames to keyboard.dr- and mouse.dr- but am slightly concerned that I won't have any input if I need to reverse the changes. There is no mention of PS2 devices in the Hardware Manager. Many thanks for your help.

Have you really done that "without problem" or do you then run into the mess you describe further ? You are obviously not starting from an original cd... are you by any chance running nLite with your running XP (whatever SP or MUI) on C:\ as source files ??? Yes, I am using nLite on a running installation on C:\ I have now three files on C:\ WIN51 (Windows plus 1 space.) WIN51IP (Windows plus 1 space.) WIN51IP.SP2 (No 'windows' ,just the1 space.) nLite now finally identifies the installation as XP SP2 (even though SP3 is installed and runs right up to burn .ISO when it hangs and the processor goes to 100% full use. If I abort and then click - next - nLite reports a successful operation. However, my anti-virus, after running a boot time scan, reports that the .cab files in the SP3 Service Pack are corrupt! Arrgg! And it also found that a bootscreen - testingXP.exe - contained a virus. (Happily I had not yet used it.) Thanks for your help.

I wonder if any of you can throw any light on these persistent errors? 1. The Server did not register with DCOM within the required timeout. 2. The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load. i8042PRT / Teefer / WPSDRUNT 3. The Universal Plug and Play device host service depends on the SSDP discovery service which failed to start. It is all double-Dutch to me... I also recently tried TuneUP Utilites which advised the "Windows reports that a PS2 mouse and PS keyboard are not loading properly." As I use a USB keyboard and USB optical mouse - BUT - very often - get to the login with no keyboard and mouse loaded and have to re-boot is it that old PS2 drivers are trying to load as well and causing this fault? Or is is a MotherBoard fault? Thanks for - any -advice.

I have also had the non-standard MBR message but ran FIXMBR anyway using the Recovery Console from the XP CD as I have no ENCRYPTED files on any of the four partions. No problem. I then ran FIXBOOT for good measure. If you do have any encrypted files you will likely lose them. (Normally a Corporate problem not for the private user.) BUT ... I do use a drive imaging program and have two drive images which I can restore from even if the drive totally fails. One is on the F:\ partition and another is on a USB stick. I use Image for Windows which has never let me down and is very easy to use. So I would run chkdsk on both partitions and also run Sysinternals Config defrag program as well as their PageDefrag as both are recommended by sources close to MS especially as Sysinternals is now part of MS. It seems that the Config program modifies the behaviour of the standard Diskeeper based MS defrag to produce a better file structure. If all is well and the partitions are 'clean' make a drive image of the OS partition and back up anything on the other partition. Then if anything goes wrong you can restore easily. Simply taking the RAM out and putting it back helps to re-seat the connectors and the same can be true for all cable connections. Do NOT forget to unplug and disconnect ALL cables before opening the case then simply hold the metal casing with your left hand and hold the start button down for a few seconds. You should hear a slight crack as any residual electricity is discharged. If you add /sos to your BOOT.INI file ... I.E. --- /fastdetect /sos ... you will be able to see the boot process on the screen. The drivers will load and then a screen will appear showing Processor(s) and RAM. Then you should see. Volume C:\ is clean. Volume D:\ is clean. Windows has finished checking the drive. It will then proceed to the Welcome/Password screen. (I never use a boot screen preferring to have a clear view of the boot process and a confirmation that the RAM is being reported and that the partitions - are - clean before using the computer.) Intermittent errors smack of connection problems. When you have checked all the connections and re-seated the RAM modules you might want to run a check on your drive and do a burn in test. One pass is enough. You can also find freeware programs which will do a burn in test on the entire system to see if the connections are up to the job. If you are getting serious fragmentation it may be that you need to increase the size of the MBR (happens if a lot of new programs/data has been added.) My registry setting allows the MBR to use 25% of the drive space. NB I recently made the mistake of removing the NTFS file time stamp and the 8dot DOS naming after which Image for DOS, the CD/floppy based program used for restoring drive images made by Image for Windows, could not see the TBI00.IMG files to restore from. So be careful not to do this when using a Drive Imaging program. (FAR better than System Restore and Backup and 100% reliable so far.) (Trying too hard to maximize NTFS performance.) (Should have known better!) Otherwise ... virus?

Wrong! See below...

Wrong! See below...

Save you all going through the whole thread... Solved. Finally! As you know from the other posts I had to make an XP install CD from the installation on the C: drive. So I used the MS setup.exe on the C: drive to set up a copy on the indentical size D: partition (1st logical drive). I then booted to this partition and used the MS MUI rollback tool to remove the other languages. (I added the three WIN files, WIN51 (Windows plus 1 space) WIN51IP (Windows plus 1 space) and WIN51IP.SP2 (No 'windows' , just the1 space). I then made a drive image of the D: drive with Image for Windows 1.64 and extracted the files from the image to a folder on the F: partition using TBI View (Two really good software tools from TeraByte Unlimited in Las Vegas) so that I could use nLite to cut it down to size and make an ISO. So I then formatted the D: partition (1st logical drive) and re-installed from the nLite ISO giving me XP Pro SP2 (OEM) without any unnecessary junk and practically no MUI. (Some keyboards did manage to get past this process but got picked out and deleted from the remaining MUI cache using Reg Organiser.) As the SP3 downloaded file turned out to have corrupt .cab files, according to the Avast AV, (Previous post) I downloaded the US SP3 ISO and burned it to CDR. I then re-installed and ran the subinactil.msi tool from MS and proceeded with the SP3 update which went in flawlessly. (Contrary to those who claim that SP2 has to be - fully - updated - before - SP3 will install.) I then added IE8 and all my other software archived on the F:partition, cleaned and optimised the registry, ran chkdsk, defragged the drive, and telephoned MS USA to validate the install. 1 - click later, back up and running. :-) Just had to go online to update the AV, complete the validation, and add all the many security updates. Made a new drive image of the, fully functional, D: drive to archive and then 'restored' it to the C: drive. Re-booted to the C: drive edited the boot.ini file and formatted the ... 1st logical drive ... in the extended partition ... where the new install ... had been prepared..... Login - Logoff works perfectly, as all settings are US English, even with the Belgian (Period) keyboard. (There is a Belgian (Comma) keyboard, but they are quite rare.) I now have - NO - 'Teefer' (for NT) and 'wpsdrvnt' (Windows PS Driver NT) errors in the event viewer as there was no PS/2 keyboard and PS/2 mouse attatched when the initial installation was done and these legacy drivers no longer appear in the hardware device manager. Hooray! So - VERY MANY THANKS - to all of you on the Forum for your help, which has proved to be invaluable. Hope you - ALL - have a great day. Ian. PS Just - two - little things... See above. Now my primary partition shows as Local Drive D: (System with boot files) and the ... 1st logical drive ... shows as Documents C: ... \Ö/ Checking the Event viewer reveals that MS, in its infinite wisdom, chose to re-assign the drive letters so that the 'system' (Big Brother) could keep track of things. Arrrggg !!! I feel like Winston Smith from 1984! Anyway, that is three up, one down, which has to be good and the entire system is much more responsive. 'Apply' is very much quicker, for example. Also the registry is as new and very much smaller. Tonight I will see if it is possible to re-assign the drive letters using Boot-IT NG....