Three third-party utilities have similar startup problems

Several months ago I upgraded my main workstation from XP SP3 to Windows 7 Ultimate using Vista as a stepping stone, and all my XP programs and utilities made the transition and ran great on Windows 7 except two, which I removed because I rarely used them anyway. A month or so before I went to Windows 7 I upgraded the machine, changing out the motherboard, CPU and video card, and replacing a pair of 320GB hard drives in a RAID1 mirror with a new pair of 1TB drives, also in a RAID1 mirror. After I stepped up to Windows 7 the upgraded machine continued to run like a charm for three or four weeks, until I started getting weirdness at first, then going increasing downward, finally getting to the point where the machine was barely able to run. After several attempts to correct what I thought were software glitches, I broke down the mirror and tested both drives independently. Both drives were terminally ill. Both those new drives were low end models, so I replaced them with a new pair of industrial strength drives, and the system has sailed along in great form since then. In the attempts to rescue the system from the ailing drives, much of the software had to be reinstalled.

Most of the reinstalled software runs great, but I have several utilities that I have relied upon over the years to help keep my systems in fine fettle, and three of them now have start up problems that seem to be related. The three utilities are Iolo's System Mechanic Professional 10, Raxco's PerfectDisk 12, and Hagel's DU Meter 5.04. System Mechanic complains that it can't start because "CapiCom.dll" is missing, but it's not; it's right where it's supposed to be. Both Raxco and Hagel have APPCRASH problems. Raxco's problem file is "Qtgui4.dll" and Hagel's is "KERNELBASE.dll ". Both of these files are also present in the system. I have been in contact with all three providers and have followed their instructions to the letter more than once in each case, and in every instance the problems remain unchanged. All three of the "*.dll" files in question have been verified as kosher. The verdict from them is that the problem is with some Windows 7 function that registers ".dll" files, or maybe with ancillary Windows 7 programs running in the background.

So where do I go from here? I will very much appreciate whatever service you folks can render to fix this problem, or problems, as the case may be. Please advise me if this query should be posted in some other forum.

 

Bad idea. You have brought along all the yuck & goo that was in your previous installation in to the new installation.

How did you rescue the system. Did you reinstalled Win 7 or what ?

 

Response to rsinfo

The final reinstallation was from scratch. My copy of Win7 Ultimate is an upgrade only version which couldn't be installed clean. After partitioning the second pair of new heavy-duty drives (Western Digital "Black ") I installed a bare instance of XP in the system partition, and then installed the Win7 Ultimate on top of the XP. After that I reinstalled various other programs in three other partitions from scratch. Following that I reloaded my work files, reference files and archives in three more partitions from a USB backup drive.

I do not install my application programs in the system (C:\) drive; the only apps that go into the system drive are various utilities for maintaining the system. The other applications, such as MSOffice, CAD programs, and heavy-duty engineering number crunchers go into separate partitions, although those programs do load start up files into the Program Files on the system drive. The three problem utility programs are all installed in the system drive, along with several others that are running fine.

 

Have you tried uninstalling all the 3 programs & reinstalling them one at a time with reboots inbetween ?

 

Second response to rsinfo

I followed your suggestion twice, but the problems persist without change or improvement. I don't think there is any doubt at all that the problems reside within Windows 7, Service Pack 1, perhaps in the background activities. If I can find replacements for those three utilities that will suit my approach to computer use, I will certainly give them a try. The thing that puzzles me is that those three applications were working just fine initially in Windows 7 until the first pair of 1TB drives went bad. The rest of the system appears to be running in good order; it's just those three old favorites that aren't fitting in now. I should point out that I don't use any of the background stuff in Win7; mostly I use Microsoft Office 2007, Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird, Norton 360 and SystemWorks, and those three ailing utilities. I remain optimistic you and your colleagues can help me straighten out my system.

 

Did any of these utils work when you installed them one at a time ?

 

Third Response to rsinfo

Nope; I tried uninstalling all three of them and reinstalling each by itself. Still have the same problems. I'll try to capture the error messages for each of the three utilities in the hope that this will provide you with enough clues to pinpoint the causes. I appreciate your time and attention to my problem.

 

Third Response to rsinfo Addendum

Here are the error messages for the three utilities under discussion:

Hagel DU Meter:
Error popup indicates an error has occurred and the program has stopped working.
"View problem details" button:
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: DUMeter.exe
Application Version: 5.4.3387.0
Application Timestamp: 4d307189
Fault Module Name: KERNELBASE.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.1.7601.17651
Fault Module Timestamp: 4e2111c0
Exception Code: 0eedfade
Exception Offset: 0000d36f
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 2914
Additional Information 2: 2914d108e233b912acb7a7d55e11f2ef
Additional Information 3: 68c4
Additional Information 4: 68c4df16fa750fc750d6dc443c8b5f14
"Close Program ":
"Application Error" Dialogue:
Exception 'EOleSysError' in module DUMeter.exe at 0001E191
Catastrophic failure, ClassID: {06E70011-9765-11D6-819E-005056C00008}
Module: ComObj, Source: UNKNOWN, Line UNKOWN
Procedure: UNKNOWN
"Details >>" button:
"Call Stack" tab:
Call stack:
:0041F191 [DUMeter.exe]
:75F2D36F [KERNELBASE.dll]
:0041F191 [DUMeter.exe]
:0041EEEE [DUMeter.exe]
:0040493D [DUMeter.exe]
Recursive call (2 times):
:0041F191 [DUMeter.exe]
:0041EFB5 [DUMeter.exe]
:77CB71B9 [ntdll.dll]
:77CB718B [ntdll.dll]
:77C8F96F [ntdll.dll]
:77CD1CDD [ntdll.dll]
:77C9C23B [ntdll.dll]
:77C9C1F9 [ntdll.dll]
:77CD951E [ntdll.dll]
:77CB7017 [ntdll.dll]
:75F2D36F [KERNELBASE.dll]
:0041EFB5 [DUMeter.exe]
Recursive call (2 times):
:75F2D36F [KERNELBASE.dll]
:0041EFB5 [DUMeter.exe]
:0041EEEE [DUMeter.exe]
:0040493D [DUMeter.exe]
Recursive call (2 times):
:0041EFB5 [DUMeter.exe]
:0041EFC4 [DUMeter.exe]
:0041F125 [DUMeter.exe]
:004AC9DF [DUMeter.exe] (DUMeter_TLB.pas, line 443)
:006106F0 [DUMeter.exe] (CommandLineProcessor.pas, line 112)
:00617B83 [DUMeter.exe]
:772FED6C [kernel32.dll]
:77CD37F5 [ntdll.dll]
:77CD37C8 [ntdll.dll]
Modules:
$00400000 (00400000,00001000,00216800) C:\Program Files\DU Meter\DUMeter.exe
$75F20000 (75F20000,00001000,00042C00) C:\Windows\system32\KERNELBASE.dll
$77C70000 (77C70000,00001000,000D5000) C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll
$772B0000 (772B0000,00001000,000C5000) C:\Windows\system32\kernel32.dll
"Additional" tab:
DU Meter 5.04
Running on Microsoft Windows 7 , 32-bit Service Pack 1 (Build 7601)
=================================================================

IOLO System Mechanic Professional 10
After an installation mandated restart, restart interrupted:
Blank Desktop, no icons:
"Setup" Dialogue:
"(! in a yellow triangle) C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\CAPICOM\CAPICOM.DLL
Unable to register DLL/OCX: RegSvr32 failed with exit code 0x5. "
Click "OK" button, restart finishes.
"Error" Dialogue:
"(X in red circle) The component "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\CAPICOM\CapiCom.dll" is required for System Mechanic to operate properly and missing." (No, it aint; it's there.)
"Reinstallation is recommended." (It doesn't help.)
Click the "OK" button, the "Error" Dialogue goes away and the system carries on like it was never there in the first place.
=================================================================

Raxco PerfectDisk 12
"Could Not Connect" Dialogue (on top of the splash panel):
"(! in a yellow triangle) Unable to connect to local machine with current user. Error
(The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion. ) (-2147023843). Please Repair PerfectDisk.
Clicking the "OK" button just redoes the "Could Not Connect" Dialogue; clicking the "X" button in the upper right corner of the Dialogue produces the same result as the "OK" button. Hovering over the Dialogue or the splash panel converts the arrow cursor to the hourglass.
Double-clicking the desktop icon a second time produces a "PerfectDisk 12" popup similar to the "Error" popup at the Hagel DU Meter start, indicating that PerfectDisk 12 has stopped working.
"View problem details" button:
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: PerfectDisk.exe
Application Version: 12.0.0.290
Application Timestamp: 4e679788
Fault Module Name: QtGui4.dll
Fault Module Version: 4.7.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 4d0fc6f8
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 0006be1c
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 0a9e
Additional Information 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Additional Information 3: 0a9e
Additional Information 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Close Program:
The splash panel and the two Dialogues go away.
=================================================================
I hope that this will provide the clues that will lead to a satisfactory resolution to this situation. If any additional information is needed, please let me know soonest, and I'll provide whatever else I can. Thanks again for your efforts in my behalf.

 

We may have to dig deeper to solve this riddle. I believe that there is some corrupt file somewhere which is causing this problem.

Start by running chkdsk /r on all your partitions/hard disks. Download & install CCleaner & run only the "Cleaner" part. Run sfc /scannow.

 

Fourth Response to rsinfo

Quote: "Start by running chkdsk /r on all your partitions/hard disks. Download & install CCleaner & run only the "Cleaner" part. Run sfc /scannow. "

I did all of that several times. I got the startup chkdsk twice each time, and I noted that each time there was all sorts of deleting and restoring and indexing. Each time it finished it said the disk was fine and dandy.

Sorry I haven't replied sooner, but I'm having increasing weirdness with Windows 7 Ultimate, SP1. For example not only are the fixes you proposed not having any effect, but now I can't even modify the main taskbar. I want to use the small taskbar icons and also to autohide it. I can't make Firefox my default browser; Internet Explorer just ignores being other than the default browser. I suspect that the registry needs some attention, possibly permission glitches, or perhaps it's just evil spirits.

I have activated the hidden "master" administrator account so that at least some parts of Windows 7 still behave as I want them to, but staying in that account is risky. I never had these problems with XP, or any of the earlier Windows versions either, and I must say that I am less and less satisfied with Win 7; it seems so fragile as to be unreliable. I am considering cleaning out the systems partition and reinstalling Win 7 one last time. If you can suggest ways to rein in Win 7 and make it behave as it should, I shall be most interested. Otherwise it will be "Bye Bye Microsoft ". I really do appreciate your efforts on my behalf, however.

 

I had the same problem with System Mechanic when I went to Windows 7 Ultimate. Iolo support could not figure out what was wrong. Iolo sent me the instructions to remove it completely. You are right you have to use the registry to remove certain keys. It's invovled. I'll see if I can find removal instructions, but, you'll have to give some time to find them.