Tripredacus

Hmmm I see, second welcome...

I'll presume this is a typo...

What packages have you added into your WinPE?

Link to WinPE builds removed.

I don't think we have one either.

Did you try this one? http://blogs.technet.com/b/fixit4me/archive/2009/03/31/error-code-2738-when-running-a-microsoft-fix-it-solution.aspx

You should try to keep enough free diskspace for whatever that % that Defrag needs to be able to run.

Something you could test on a VM or other system... just an idea (probably not a good one). Is to delete the data in those keys, then change the permissions on them so that they cannot be written to. So as an example, you would still have an ".ai" class but with no data. But a situation may occur that locking those keys would cause an update to fail if it couldn't write the registry key.

I think it would be possible if you had a dual boot, but the problem would be that the processes that is running setup.exe would not be able to replace themselves during the repair.

I can't get to the company's website (Ruanmei) but their certificate is valid.

If the mass storage driver is not installed, Diskpart can't see anything. If you do a LIST DISK, it will return "No fixed disks" message.

Is it conceivable that Tihiy might post a procedure for accomplishing what he did, rather than uploading OS files? (The assumption would be that the user already has the necessary files, and only needs to port and modify them accordingly.) Or would the procedure be too difficult to replicate? --JorgeA He mentions to me that it wouldn't be a redist, but a patcher. Anyways, he knows our rules already so I'm sure it will be fine.

What is the actual formatted size of the boot partition? Some BIOSes do not support booting 2GB+ over USB. If you can do a test, build a bootable WinPE using a small USB to see if it works on those problem computers.

Ok I didn't know about "cutting the wire shorter" before. I suppose it depends entirely on whether or not the thing you are plugging into is also designed to not have a connection at that point as well. I had a certain picture in my head when typing that (ie USB connector block) which has the N/C pin physically removed.

I see what you mean. First let me point out that the actual appearance of the memory doesn't matter. Unless you are running a computer fashion contest, most people never actually ever see their memory after it is installed. I think what we will need (unless you get lucky with searching) is the part number off the RAM itself. That will make it easier to locate, rather than searching for those generic terms which lead to finding a false positive on Crucial's website. I know a Crucial guy, maybe I can ask him if he can track it down using the name you posted.

How about at Crucial? http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs.aspx?imodule=BLT2G3D1337DT1TX0

Intel AMT is aimed mainly at Enterprises. You can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Active_Management_Technology I never go about and disable those services, since the only one that may be annoying is the one that writes the event logs saying the service isn't started. I imagine that you wouldn't use any of those features if it is just your home computer.

I've only used that page to run recovery, but is there any Warnings or Errors in Event Viewer that might give some more detailed information?

You can do your own boot options using Terabyte Unlimited's MBR program. You can see some example here where I created my own recovery partition.

Yeah the F9... this means they are using something "custom" likely because they entered into agreements with their software provider and didn't ditch them when the easy option came out with Vista or 7. This is why HP still used SoftThinks recovery with Vista, even though MS gave OEMs the tools to do it themselves with minimal development time. Windows 7 was even easier (aka no Visual Studio required). So with the F9, that is in the MBR which can be intercepted ahead of time before booting on your normally active (OS) partition. The basic function of that F9 is to take the OS partition, un-active it, and activate the recovery partition, then allow the PC to boot "normally". Of course then your recovery partition reverts these settings, which allows the next reboot to boot to the OS again. As far as the Boot Menu in Windows, I am not entirely sure where that is stored. I know that it *can* be configured (adding options) since the Vista recovery method required a script to be used to add that "Recovery" option in the menu. However, Windows 7 natively has an ability to know to display that option if a valid recovery partition is present and/or certain settings are set in BCD. I think (no clue really) that Bootmgr works likely similar to the F9 hand-off idea I posted before. Without any interaction, its going to run winload.exe (boot Windows), but if you interrupt that by using the F8 key, it boots to the menu. I don't believe that any of those options are preloaded, but when one is executed it knows what to do. I would presume a pre-load would delay boot time, and besides its not actually possible to execute more than one of those options at once.

From what I can tell is that pin 5 on 6P6C (RJ12) needs to connect to any pin on 8P8C (RJ45) that isn't being used (4, 5, 8). The N/C means that particular pin does not make a connection to whatever it plugs into. Since it is actually laid out in the diagram that it connects to pin 5 on the other side makes me think it might be used for grounding? Anyways, this type of cable seems to be fairly inexpensive to buy.

Well since your system isn't untouched, the fact your settings are incorrect is because of one of these two issues: 1. You fiddled with the BCD. 2. The OEM uses some non-standard way to run recovery. 3. There is always something else possible. You can see all of Reagentc switches with /? While it is normal to see the winre.wim in C:\Windows\System32\Recovery, the one to actually use in booting is typically in the recovery partition. So I'd guess that your manufacturer is either using a 3rd party tool, or some in-house method of handling recovery, rather than using the official Microsoft guidance. For example, even your reagentc /info data is lacking... Windows RE staged should be 1 not 0 Setup enabled should be 1 not 0 WinRE.WIM directory should have a path Setup Files should have a path That path is the same as the one in Recovery Environment. But since you are back to working, I wouldn't worry about going about and fixing (breaking) it now. It may be by design as not everyone does it the same way.

Your motherboard manual doesn't list that speed as being supported. Only these: PC2700 PC2100 PC1600 Also says only 2 DIMMs support PC2700 (333MHz), if you add more it drops the memory speed to 266MHz. I am looking at info on Page 26 of this PDF: http://mtz01-a.stanford.edu/machines/manuals/a7s333.pdf The PDF has a modify lock, which also apparently doesn't let me copy (Ctrl+C) data off of it.

It seems to me that it doesn't physically remove them, but makes it so they do not install. Having not actually used it, not sure about that but just a guess. Looking at this, seems that you need to do additional steps to remove the winsxs data:

The only way is to use an unattend to install the package. I'm not sure about DirectX, but MSSE has an "uninstall requirement" in order for it to be bundled into an OS. This is a licensing thing, and probably a good thing, since packages injected into the OS can't be uninstalled, which would be a big legal problem if a computer was sold with it included in that way. For DirectX, there may be an MSU available. For example, here is a DX11 MSU for Vista: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=3274 With some research you might be able to find one for Windows 7.