System Information won't start in Windows XP

I'm having an odd problem. Though my system is generally working well, I can't start "system information." When I click in the start menu, I get a momentary hourglass and then nothing. No error message, as one might expect. I've also tried the run menu and clicking on the actual file, msinfo32, in the Microsoft shared folder. All necessary files seem to be there, but nothing happens.

I can't go back to the last restore point at which msinfo worked, because I have used it so seldom that I can't tell when it stopped working. There doesn't seem to be an easy way to uninstall and then reinstall this component, which might well solve the problem if I could do it. I don't want to risk trying to reinstall the operating system. Is there any other way to solve this small, but annoying, little quirk?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Lance

 

How about Start/Help? Is that working and did you use a registry cleaner lately?

 

No, interestingly enough, Strart/Help is not working either. Is there a connection?

Yes, I use Registry Medic to clean up the registry on a fairly regular basis, and I have run it just recently, so if there is a registry problem, it appears to be one not correctable with that program.

 

Yes, Lance, there is a connection. But I'm afraid you misunderstood the way I asked the question about the reg cleaner. I intended to imply that the cleaner was the cause of the problem rather than the solution.
Generally speaking, probably 10% of the problems people present to me about XP are CAUSED by poor or misused registry cleaners. I am not familiar with yours in particular, but they ALL cause damage to a greater or lesser degree, depending on the cleaner and the skill of the user. RegCleaner from www.jv16.org seems to cause the least amount of harm if the "Ignored" list is adequately prepared. EasyCleaner is an especially bad one.
My suggestion would be to use the jv16 app only to remove references to apps you have uninstalled and stay clear of automatic cleanings.
Sys Info uses Help and Support files. The problems are one and the same. There are registry fixes, mentioned in MS KB articles, but this VB app does them all for you.
I bet this will replace the damaged reg keys (for Help, at least, but you may end up reinstalling other apps):
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts/fixwinxphelp.vbs

Thanks for letting me expound

 

Thanks very much! That did indeed solve the problem, and system information runs again. I'll check out the registry cleaner you suggested also. It never occurred to me that other commercial products might disable a standard part of the operating system like that.

Thanks again.

Lance

 

Excellent call Abraxas. Thanks.

 

Quote: "EasyCleaner is an especially bad one. "

EasyCleaner http://www.toniarts.com/ecleane.htm is actually my favourite Registry cleaner out there for ANY Windows OS INCLUDING XP. Problem is it's a bit overdue for an update. But it can easily be made 100% Windows XP and Office XP compatible by doing the following...

In the Registry cleaner Skip dialog box enter "Help" (without the quotes). This will stop EasyCleaner disabling the XP Help files.

To make the programme Office XP compatible you must enter "data.bak" (without the quotes) in the Unnecessary Files skip box. This means deleting unnecessary files from XP won't cause Office to keep asking for the install disk to repair some deleted files after using the unnecessary files function.

Yes Regcleaner is also a good cleaner but both cleaners find dead registry entries the other doesn't so they actually compliment each other if used one after the other.

BTW the OLD Microsoft Regclean version 4.1 from memory, IS NOT compatible with XP. Don't use it.

 

As you can tell, Paul, I had bad experiences with EasyCleaner back in ME. The most important thing about regcleaners is probably to get to know whichever one you use thoroughly and be sure it makes backups.
We all have our likes and dislikes. Thank you for your input.

 

I have no problems using MS Regclean in XP. It's MS Regmaid that fails for me.

I use Cleanreg3, nagware. It has to be the best I've found.

 

Quote: "I have no problems using MS Regclean in XP "

You are a lucky person and will live to be 100.

Go out and buy a lottery ticket!

-

 

I'll have to stand with Paul on this one. It only makes sense that an app that came out before XP could not have been made in anticipation of the structure of XP's registry.
Using MS regclean is a shot in the dark.

 

I have virtually the same problem that Lance had, but when trying to bring up "system information" through the "system tools" or by entering "msinfo32.exe" in the run box, I get the "help and support center" instead.

I've tried doing the following with no luck:

1. "sfc \scannow" and that doesn't help

2. I've looked at the extension and the relevant folder, etc. and everything looks fine there

3. I've tried unchecking the "remember folders" option and that didn't work

4. I've applied the "fixwinxphelp.vb" and that doesn't help

5. I've installed XP SP1 but that didn't help either

6. And some other things I can't remember

Any ideas?

 

Well, that is an interesting one. I don't know what happened, but mine is the same. System Information is nigh unto inaccessible.
At first I thought it was because I had changed the file association of system information files (.nfo) to Notepad, but that didn't solve it.
This is a "fix" or "workaround" or whatever you want to call it until I can track this down.
Change the properties of your shortcut to System Information. You need to add a switch to the target. For example, mine now reads:

"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSInfo\msinfo32.exe" /showcategories

Or, from Run:
msinfo32 /showcategories

 

My previous "fix" seems to give a slightly different form of SI. Changing your shortcut to the form:
"C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\MSInfo\msinfo32.exe" "%1 "
gives the usual SI.

Or, Run:
msinfo32 "%1 "

I made a half-hearted attempt to track this down in the registry, but I am going to leave it as is with the shortcut fix.

 

It worked!!! Thanks you. Could you post something if you find out anything else?

 

Glad you can now get SI. I will tell you if anything new comes to mind.

 

Evidently this problem occurs because of a missing "index.dat" file in C:\WINDOWS\PCHEALTH\HELPCTR\OfflineCache.

I checked and I'm missing this file. The problem is replacing the file. Would it be possible to extract this file from the XP installation cd? If not where could I find it?

Jeff

 

Can you give me the source of the info about an index.dat file? I tried a few things based on that suggestion, but got nowhere with it.
Any further information would be greatly appreciated. Though my SI works fine with the new shortcut, I'd still like to get to the bottom of this.
The reason your suggestion interested me is that I had recently run a program that deletes index.dat files. Usually, that causes no problems since they are rebuilt on boot and it can actually help speed things up since they can grow quite large (I had one that was 15 megs). But that program would have taken any index.dat file in the location you specified, as well.
Have you run any "internet cleanup" programs lately?

 

beemer -------

Do you have Norton Utilities installed by any chance? I'm still looking to solve this from time to time. I am wondering if the System Information in Norton has somehow disabled the XP one and replaced it.

 

Tried opening System Information this morning only to find that for some reason it now starts Help and Support Center. Tried running msinfo32.exe from Run and received the same result. Tried a System Restore using several different restore points but to no avail. Problem is I don't use System Information that often to really have any idea when it quit working. Also ran the fixwinhelp.vbs but it didn't correct the problem.

Did a search of the threads and found this one. The suggestion Abraxas gave of adding the "%1" to the the msinfo32.exe command got me back to System Information. Thanks Abraxas, Ya gotta love this bbs.

In reading through the entire thread I found of particular interest the exchange between Abraxas and Beemer concerning the deletion of Index.dat files, given the fact that I've recently run a program "Clean Disk Security" which tries to delete the index files. Don't know if this actually has anything to do with the problem or not, but it does seem awful coincidental.

Beemer, could you elaborate on your comments of 15 Sept; What led you to believe the problem was caused by a missing Index File and how did you come to this conclusion?

Abraxas, for what its worth I do not have Norton Utilities installed on my system so I don't know if this has anything to do with it not.

Does anyone else have any suggestions on how to correct this problem.