Help me fix my roommate's computer...

[Hound]

My roommate's computer is a piece of crap (yeah, he's watching me type this...)

Some sytem alert window keeps popping up saying he's got some ungodly amount of errors in his registry that will eventually lead to the damn thing blowing up or something equally disastrous. It gives you an URL to a nice helpful site to download a program to fix it. Only you then have to pay $40 to register the program so it can fix the nearly 300 errors it's just detected so it's not really helpful at all!

I don't suppose anyone could help me and provide a way to fix this without paying anything.

Thanks in advance...

[Phantom Starscream]

Have you tried taking it apart and rebuilding it?

Have you reformated?

Have you kicked it?


Try those if you haven't.

[Civ]

I was in the same situation not too long ago. Unfortunately, I'm not a computer buff, so I just went on Google, typed in "registry cleaner" and found this...

http://www.registry-cleaner.net/

Now, I downloaded the free trial version and that'll last for 14 days, iirc. The problem with it is that it only fixes a set amount of errors in one sweep -- only two per category (you'll see what I mean). In short, I had to run God only knows how many runs to clean all my errors out. It got the job done, but it just took a Hell of a long time to do it. If anyone knows of anything better, I'm all ears.

[Hound]

Here's hoping the next response will be less idiotic...

@Civ: Is that a permanent fix or temporary? Will he have to worry about future problems or will it be worth the effort of getting this program?

[Sir Auros]

Sounds like it needs a hot Spybot injection, because that seems a lot like crap messages you'll get telling you to buy something you don't need.

What OS is the computer running? Do you guys have a router splitting your connection that may have a firewall?

[Civ]

Originally posted by Hound
[B@Civ: Is that a permanent fix or temporary? Will he have to worry about future problems or will it be worth the effort of getting this program? [/B]

Well, after 14 days, you'll have to register the program for $40. Registry errors happen for some reason all the time. What those reasons are, I haven't the foggiest. I think no matter what, unless you find a permanent program, it's a temporary solution.

After the trial period expires, I don't know if you can simply re-download it or not, since I never tried. I'll have to ask one of my apartment mates since, thankfully, I have three of them who are computer science grad students. I'll let you know what I find out.

[Ultimate Weapon]

Originally posted by Sir Auros
Sounds like it needs a hot Spybot injection,

Oh the jokes that could follow that statement.

[Phantom Starscream]

Originally posted by Hound


Here's hoping the next response will be less idiotic...

@Civ: Is that a permanent fix or temporary? Will he have to worry about future problems or will it be worth the effort of getting this program?

oh, sorry. still, have you checked all the parts?

[Civ]

Hound, check your PMs, I think I found something that might help.

I talked to one of my roommates and Jim and neither of them knew of any good programs. My roommate says that whenever that happens to him, he just reinstalls windows to start fresh.

I think I might have found a registry cleaner though. Keyword there is "might."

[Denyer]

Originally posted by Hound
Some sytem alert window keeps popping up saying he's got some ungodly amount of errors in his registry that will eventually lead to the damn thing blowing up or something equally disastrous. It gives you an URL to a nice helpful site to download a program to fix it. Only you then have to pay $40 to register the program so it can fix the nearly 300 errors it's just detected so it's not really helpful at all!

Have you considered that it's a) lying, and b) spyware?

Click thee linke in yon sig down there...

[Hound]

It's running XP and no we don't have a router, yet. I've got Ad-Aware on this thing and that isn't getting rid of this crap.

I run 98 which is so very far superior in my opinion so I just assumed this was some kind of stupid XP crap that can't be shut off but it's damn persistent as it pops up a system alert every ten minutes or so.

I'll be glad when I've got a router and can stop using this piece of crap to surf the web...

[Denyer]

It gives you an URL to a nice helpful site to download a program to fix it.

^ See, it's this bit which make me really, really doubt it's owt to do with the system.

You don't do anything silly with that machine, like run IE/OE or not have a firewall and antivirus?

[Hound]

Originally posted by Denyer
^ See, it's this bit which make me really, really doubt it's owt to do with the system.

You don't do anything silly with that machine, like run IE/OE or not have a firewall and antivirus?

Yeah, he runs IE and doesn't have an antivirus program. I know, I'll get him Antivir but convincing him not to use IE isn't working...

[Sir Auros]

Your roomie should have XP's firewall turned on at the very least. It's not perfect, but it gets the job done.

What kind of message is it? If it's just text, it's likely an irritating type of message that XP has turned on by default allowing spammers to irritate the hell out of you until you shut it off. Can't remember how off the top of my head, but the instructions aren't hard to find with a google search.

[Gesani]

Is XP running SP2? Who made ths computer.. does he have a restore disk...

[Denyer]

Originally posted by Hound
Yeah, he runs IE and doesn't have an antivirus program. I know, I'll get him Antivir but convincing him not to use IE isn't working...

To be honest, it sounds as if it's a bit late for anything short of reinstall with antivirus/firewall software downloaded ready to install first thing after the operating system is put back on.

http://www.grc.com/freepopular.htm

^ Download and use all. Though if you plan on sticking with a browser that old and broken you may as well not bother.

Just as a fun exercise, I can probably find you lots of links that will bring what's left of the machine to its knees, regardless of what AV and firewall you have in place, simply because IE is being used.

[Hound]

Ok I downloaded Registry cleaner and ran it but it has an option that it reccomends you not use unless you are know what you're doing, fle/path references. That's where like 200 of the problems are but the program says that not all the errors found with that option will actually be invalid and that it can potentially dangerous to remove things that way unless you know what to look for.

What I wonder is if that might be where this spyware problem is coming from? I've run Ad-Aware and that doesn't seem to make a difference. I ran AntiVir and that found nothing.

SP2?

and how do I turn XP's firewall.

I will be so much happier to be back on my computer...

[Denyer]

Originally posted by Hound
the program says that not all the errors found with that option will actually be invalid and that it can potentially dangerous to remove things that way unless you know what to look for.

Yeah, unfortunately there are times when there's no substitute for knowing roughly what should be there and what shouldn't. I've always viewed registry 'cleaning' software as a bit useless unless you know what it's removing and why.

You could give this one a whirl, though:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download414.html

Originally posted by Hound
I've run Ad-Aware and that doesn't seem to make a difference.

One spyware removal tool isn't likely to catch everything—try the others mentioned in that software list (again, see sig.)

Originally posted by Hound
how do I turn XP's firewall.

Don't. Get one that works on both incoming and outgoing traffic... eg, Sygate.

Has SP2 recently been applied? From the sounds of it, there aren't any service packs or OS patches on there. Well, maybe SP1 preinstalled if it's a moderately recent machine.

[Plasmodium]

Delete the registry.

[Sir Auros]

If you don't want to mess with a firewall other than XP's, it can be turned on from the connection options. Wherever he has his network connections accesible (definitely from Control Panel), right click on whatever connection he's using, go to properties and there's a checkbox under advanced. It's as simple as that and that coupled with Norton and Firefox has kept me free from malicious software ever since I set up this computer last August. Connected 24/7.