HI: I am new to all this! but just wanted to ask you if the service for system restore is turned on.??

Originally posted by johnmcmullan7:


Please check items 6 and 7 in the original post. System Restore service is indeed turned on, and I can now access System Restore through an indirect way by using IE.

Thanx for the suggestion though. I appreciate it

A friend had this problem and it was from one of the recent patches for Internet Explorer.

Not sure if you want to try this or not but here goes.

Go into add/remove programs and make sure the show updates box at the top is checked.

Find and remove Security Update for Windows XP (KB896688).

Originally posted by American Zombie:


Actually, even THAT I did try. I dug around on google groups and several topics hinted this patch is the cause. So I said, what the heck. I removed the patch. Restarted, and it STILL showed a blank screen. So I re-installed it!

Thanx for the suggestion though. much appreciated :up:

Try importing these to registry:

Originally posted by Wilhelmus:


I ran the reg file, and allowed it to modify the registry. Restarted. and Guess what, Holy Flying Cows with machineguns I STILL get a blank screen! (Anyone sensing how a problem so ridiculous is yet so annoying?)

I am leaning toward this being a third party program problem changing a default setting.

Spybot is good but sometimes it goes overboard and tea timer is a useless use of resources.

Since you are being asked about running activeX then either a program is blocking or your internet security zones are at some custom setting.

Do you have the same problem in safe mode?

Originally posted by American Zombie:


Although this certainly is a possibility, I somehow get the feeling its not the cause. Call it a hunch.

I have this same problem in Last Known Good, and Safe modes (see original post!)

Thanx for the input. I really appreciate it.

Originally posted by shassouneh:


Maybe AZ has something there?

Have you run "HiJackThis"?

http://www.tomcoyote.org/hjt/#Top

Could find something Spybot missed.

OK Here is the HiJack This Log.

NOTE: I am in no way familiar with HiJack This. I am just posting the log here JUST to make sure i tried THAT too.

Minor, maybe: R3 - Default URLSearchHook is missing

Just a few important things there:

O2 - BHO: XBTB00429 - {3FDE0CB5-619F-4227-8961-F2D7ED15B88E} - (no file) not good

O23 - Service: Apache2 - Unknown owner - C:\PROGRA~1\Apache Group\Apache2\bin\Apache.exe" -k runservice (file missing) not good

O23 - Service: SQL Server (SQLEXPRESS) (MSSQL$SQLEXPRESS) - Unknown owner - C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Binn\sqlservr.exe" -sSQLEXPRESS (file missing) not good

O23 - Service: MySQL - Unknown owner - C:\MySQL\bin\mysqld-nt".exe (file missing) not good

O23 - Service: Remote Packet Capture Protocol v.0 (experimental) (rpcapd) - Unknown owner - %ProgramFiles%\WinPcap\rpcapd.exe" -d -f "%ProgramFiles%\WinPcap\rpcapd.ini (file missing) not good

O23 - Service: VNC Server Version 4 (WinVNC4) - Unknown owner - c:\RealVNC\WinVNC4.exe" -service (file missing) not good

Seems you have a lot of server files missing. Not good. Possibly this is the problem, hard for the server to access the computer if the files aren't there to let it in.

How do you fix that? I really don't know, but I do know that missing files are not a good thing.

The funny part is the stuff marked as not good works flawlessly. Apache, RealVNC and MySQL are used daily with no problems whatsoever. I have not tried MS SQL and quite frankly don't want to until I absolutely have to.

Can anyone offer any insight on what to do next? 10x.

I've just had the exact same problem as you, Shassouneh, and have been pulling my hair out trying to solve it.

In my despair I came across this page, but also remembered a similar problem I had once: I was getting a blank screen on the product activation page, which is pretty bad!

So I dug around for the solution I used back then and here it is:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q314935

It's a quick change of a registry value, an install of some stuff from the XP CD, and then a manual register of some java/vb stuff.

Although it's aimed at sorting out the problem for the activation screen, I've just tried it and, lo and behold, it's worked for the restore screen too!

Hopefully it works for you too - I've registered with this message board just to post this!

Good luck! And Happy New Year!

Originally posted by mosesix:



Thank you for taking the time to register, and leave feedback to help me out. However, I'm afraid those instructions are VERY sloppy, and they did not help fix my problem. The very first step essentially says start up in VGA mode then try WPA (in our case System Restore), then restart windows XP. If you cna restart windows XP then you're good!!!!

Well I obviously can start Windows XP just fine. I even tried checking those registry keys and re-registering jscript and vbscript (which i have done so millions of times already).

STILL a blank Screen.

One other alternative is to do an in-place install, which microsoft has the audacity to call "repair". That is FAR too much work for a problem that is so pathetic as this. Essentially Re-Installing Windows JUST to fix System Restore is ridiculous.

Thank you for the valuable input, but I'm afraid It does not help me any

Just on the chance that you tried to remove IE as you wanted to from one of your previous posts, perhaps you inadvertantly removed two files that you need for system restore that is actually part of IE:
%WinRoot%\System32\hlink.dll
and
%WinRoot%\pchealth\helpctr\binaries\pchshell.dll

Originally posted by Sampson:


Dear Sampson,

Thanx for the idea. No I did not remove IE. I am reluctant to remove/re-install IE, or to "repair" windows. This problem, although EXTREMELY annoying, is not worth the pains of a full-fledged repair or installation/re-installation of IE.

That being said, I did check for those files you mentioned. They are in place, and have not been removed.

NOTE: Please do bear in mind that I CAN run system restore indirectly (by launching IE and manually typing "res://C:\WINDOWS\system32\Restore\rstrui.exe/srui-main.htm" in the address bar and approving some ActiveX warnings). I even created a restore point to check if it was working. However, I still WANT system restore to work as its SUPPOSED to.


Please keep the feedback coming folks. I appreciate every word of it!

Shassouneh,

I agree the instructions are pretty sloppy - especially as it thinks it's being helpful telling you to basically reinstall Windows! Incidentally I think a 'repair' clears all your restore points anyway...

To be a bit clearer (and to not let my first post be my last!) I only followed steps 3, 4 and 5 from the MS support page. I then restarted XP and it worked fine.

Does that make any difference? If not then I guess your problem is a little more complicated than mine...

Originally posted by mosesix:


For the sake of having tried EVERYTHING short of a repair or re-install of windows/IE, I decided to follow steps 3, 4 and 5 (as you suggested). I performed steps 3, 4 and 5 in that order. Restarted. STILL a blank screen.

Does anyone else think XP is too flaky and seems prone to things just stopping to work? I'm even thinking of formatting and going back to Win2k!!!!!

ok Guys. I did some digging around. I found that In IE's "Manage Add-Ons thingy", there's something called the System Restore Wrapper (see screenshot)



I have also noticed the following: With this wrapper DISABLED, I can ONLY restore to an earlier point (using the indirect way to access system restore). If this wrapper is enabled, then both restore and create are enabled (again, using the indirect way of running system restore by launching IE and typing res://C:\WINDOWS\system32\Restore\rstrui.exe/SRUI-Main.htm into the address bar).

I do not have that control and never have.

Originally posted by American Zombie:


That makes two of us......

Hmm. Are your machines patched up with the latest updates? I'm thinking maybe a Windows XP and/or IE update added that add-on thingy. Also, do any of you have problems with System Restore?

OK Yet another update. Just to be 100% the problem is not from rstrui.exe, I copied the "Restore" folder in its entirety from another machine (on which System Restore works fine, and is NOT running SP2). I tried to run the copied .exe, and I got the same blank Windows. So its obvious its NOT the system restore files that are messed up, but something else must be limiting or interfering with system restore.

Originally posted by Relic:


I know for a fact that I don't have the latest updates, and judging by your wee problem, I'm not about to get them anytime soon.

I quoted myself there, should have gone to bed early, heh.

That was in answer to this post: Posted on 2006-01-03 08:09:50 by shassouneh