Add/Remove Programs opens then auto closes

On clicking add/remove programs from 'Start > Control Panel > Add Remove Programs' it opens, starts to populate the program list but does not stay on screen long enough to complete. The window disappears to leave me back at the desktop display.

I have tried shutting down and re-booting to no effect.

Assistance in repair would be much appreciated.

Operating system Win XP Pro with 1GB ram.

 

First thing to try and you will probably need your XP Install CD in the drive
start~run~sfc /scannow

You won't see much, if anything happening but any missing or damaged system files will be replaced. If you need specifics,
start~run~eventvwr.exe and you should see details of what files, if any, were replaced.

 

Add remove programs - Win XP update failure

I decided to try and repair the above problem by re-running my Win XP upgrade disk. Bad mistake. I received the following error messages when a Fatal Error preventing the update occured:

Setup failed to remove:
ieexcep.cat and sp1.cat

Also the following was listed:
Signature for Win XP Pro upgrade is invalid. Error code fffffdf0

And:
System cannot find message text 0xfffffdf0 in message file for syssetup.dll

What has happened? I cannot get out of a loop now. Every time I accept the error message my machine re-boots and goes straight back into the setup which fails again.

I have tried booting up in Safe Mode but have found that is not allowed when setup is running.

I have also tried starting with the last known good configuration - no go again.

I am at my wits end! Help please......

 

Back to square one?

HI

I think you may as well save time and trouble by starting at square one. Depending on what you upgraded from, I would boot from a DOS or Startup disk that contains dos utilities, and run fdisk, deleting the boot partition and then remaking it. Then reformat it however you wish - NTFS or FAT32. Then reinstall the os from which you upgraded. And finally reinstall the XP upgrade.

 

Argh! sparrow is there another way?

My computer is used for video editing and I would lose 1 hour 40 mins of video. This represents many hours of work. The HD is partitioned - C & D.
I would also have to re-install all the video capture equipment - not an easy task.

Any other ideas would be welcome.

 

C: is the only partition that you should work with. It contains the OS.

If you can access the drives with DOS, you can copy data from c: to d: first.
What file system are you using?

This should help in making a boot floppy to access c: for copying data to d:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;119467

Maybe someone else has a better suggestion?

 

Is your BIOS set to boot from CD? Is this the kind of XP disk that requires you to insert a qualifying earlier version of Windows during the set up, or a "restore" disk from an OEM?

If your data (video) is on your second partition, and you have a real XP disk, you should be able to boot from cd, reinstall XP on C, and be good to go. If your video is on C and very important, pull your hard drive, and put it into another working computer and copy it. Then do a clean reinstall of XP.

Before you tried to "repair XP ", did you try a System Restore? How about Newt's suggestion:
start~run~sfc /scannow ??

Sparrow, I don't follow what you mean by booting and using DOS to copy files in XP. Do you mean booting into Safe Mode and using the Command Prompts, Recovery Console, or ASR? Anyway, Bootdisk Downloads here, but you SHOULD be able to boot from your XP cd.

Johanna

 

For Johanna, mostly.

Johanna,

I appreciate your help. Your suggestions seem better and simpler than mine; just so you allow for moving all important files from c to d so nothing is lost. I've just never done it that way, but I'm still learning.

Suggest you make yourself a bootable floppy (directions in my previous post), boot with it, and use the DOS "copy Xfile yfile" (fill in real names) command on your XP partition. Possibly your second lesson in dos, i.e., see if it works!

In the present case, that's why I asked what file system is involved, because if it's fat32 all that's needed is a win98 startup disk or the equivalent. If it's ntfs, I think 2-3 additional files need to be added to the floppy. Not having ntfs, I haven't had occasion to make one yet. Been meaning to.

Recovery Console may work also (I'd love to know), but it's just "modified dos, with limitations, for xp" as far as I have seen (preliminary evaluation, just beginning to examine it - installed it as a multiboot option).

 

If you boot from the install CD to the recovery console and run chkdsk /r you certainly won't hurt anything at this point and may help - maybe even to the point of getting a system that will boot and load Windows.

If chkdsk will run and the system still will not boot, then again from the recovery console, run fixboot.

Note that unlike the 'repair reinstall', most of the suggestions here other than sparrows (which may be the ones you have to follow at this point) may or may not fix a problem but will almost never trash a system.

 

Win XP Pro update.

Many thanks to sparrow, newt, & Johanna.

It is 23.15 here in Scotland and I shall try your suggestions in the morning!

I am not in a fit state at the moment!

I shall report back with info on what happens............

 

"If your video is on C and very important, pull your hard drive, and put it into another working computer and copy it. " Johanna's suggestion is the best to preserve the video. Actually, you should be able to copy files from c to d on your drive if you can find a computer that reads ntfs (if that's what you have).

 

DOS commands in XP

Sparrow

Long way around the barn. The XP upgrade disk is a full install, but it will prompt for the qualifying earlier Windows disk during set up. No need to install old OS, or use fdisk. Unless dual booting, FAT32 is not necessary- so set partitions to NTFS and install XP on the OS partition. XP boot disks use like 6 floppies, so it's easier to use the cd, if the cd-rom is functional.

I have made a few boot floppies, (to flash BIOS, run NFDisk, etc) but have never seen the need to try to boot XP into DOS-like commands to do things I could do faster from the XP GUI, like copy files. The data could have been saved BEFORE the attempt to repair the Control Panel was made.

The original problem was a missing part of the control panel (add/remove) and instead of trying the simple fixes first, the poster is doing a reinstall, risking data loss. We've also muddied the waters by making the problem more complicated than it might have been.
Apologies, Nargh.

Johanna

 

More discussion.

Johanna,

"Sparrow, I don't follow what you mean by booting and using DOS to copy files in XP "

You are correct, Johanna; it appears that it can't be done with dos or with SR either. I found a copy command in SR, but it's useless in this situation, because SR won't allow me to open any non-system dir's (pardon me; folders with the cd (=chdir) command).

Correct me if I'm wrong. It appears to me that the xp startup disk only puts you in something like SR.

So IF there are any videos to save on c, it can't be done with SR. Your other idea (putting the hdd in another ntfs computer is the only hope - or he could install another disk in this computer as c: and install xp on that (temporarily?), leaving the old hdd to be d and e (temporarily?).

If nothing on c: requires salvage, your first suggestion, to just repair/reinstall on c is fine. It's just more interesting to solve the (theoretical?) problem.

"Long way around the barn. "
Agree. However I hark back to the days of 98 and 98se which required that sequence, and I'm certain it would work in this case, tho might take an extra 45 min.

"no need to use ... fdisk" Not true. If partition is to be made active, it's the only way; SR has no command for that. You can only do that from within running xp - and not much point then. The reason I brought that up is that I suspect there is a possibility of a trojan causing trouble, and I have seen a case where a format or fdisk/mbr didn't remove the problem but a repartitioning did.

"FAT32 is not necessary "
Yes, but wouldn't it have been nice here! Could just use DOS to copy files/folders from c to d!

 

SR (System Restore) only works on Protected Windows files. No recovery of data is possible, using SR. When no good Restore Points exist, SFC (System File Check) will restore corrupt system folders from the XP disk.

Physically yanking the hard drive is the best solution (in this instance) to preserve data on the OS partition, but there shouldn't BE any data on the OS partitition in the first place, right, XPers? If you haven't moved your Docs, Pics, Music, Favorites & WAB off of your OS partition, you stand to lose it- maybe- during a repair install.

When you boot w/ the XP cd you have several choices:
Repair Install (iffy at best, may or may not fix the problem, usually corrupts all other software on the OS partition, may or may not lose settings and data on the OS partition)
Full Install (If all that is on your OS partition is XP and a few program files, and you leave your second partition alone, you will PROBABLY not lose anything on the second partition)
ASR- (does no good if you haven't made a back up with the wizard when the system was operating well)

When you get to the partition screen in set up, XP will format the partitions you choose, so you don't need fdisk. XP does it automatically.

XP Clean Install would be my advice at this point, on the OS Partition only.
Cheers from beautiful Ohio!
Johanna

 

Win Pro is running - new LSA problem.

Hi Guys,

I have read with interest all your suggestions. Many thanks for them. I tried to get control of my machine using DOS in Safe Mode but could not get in to make changes. My solution to the loop problem mentioned above was to set the boot up order to CD-Rom first and from there reload Win XP to a separate drive. This gave me control of my machine.

I then deleted Windows from the C drive and reloaded it again. Finally I deleted Windows from my E drive and I was back to square one but having kept my video files....

HOWEVER I have a new problem. My first install was my ADSL modem. This is working fine. But I now get a LSA Shell fault which shuts down my machine in about a minute. Not long enough to update IE from Microsoft with the latest updates. I am also getting unsolicited popups on screen within a few seconds of logging on.

What can I do now?

 

nargh,

You have a trojan,as i suggested. More to follow.

 

nargh,

Please read this thread.

 

Sasser worm stopped - I think!?

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the info. I have managed to download the MS fix for Sasser. Only just before my machine shutdown. (Good old broadband does it again!!).

The above has enabled me to download XP SP1 as my Windows installation is new from the CD.

HOWEVER I am still getting the annoying popups called message alerts.

What can I do to stop them?

 

Do you have a firewall running? Which one? Will it block popups(ads)?

 

Popup defeated.....?

Hi Guys,

Thanks to all again for the advice......

At present the only firewall I have is Win XP. I am waiting on Win XP SP 2. Do you think it is worth the wait?

I have loaded a popup stopper programme and it seams to have fixed my problem with unsolicited popups.