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Major freeze issue. Help needed please!

PH8

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Aug 29, 2004
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I'm in a bit of a jam and have no idea what is going on. I was hoping someone here does.

Now first up, a warning. This gets extremely messy and I will try to explain in detail and as best as I can. If you feel up to it, continue on. BUT, you have been warned... ;) :D

It all started when, after a considerable time spent with other games, thought I'd have a tool around with Far Cry. It went ok. Played for about an hour and a half with no dramas whatsoever. I then thought I'd check the FC website to see if patch 1.2 was available. It wasn't but 1.3 was - I downloaded and installed it. Went to try it out. Loaded a saved checkpoint, I was in a jeep when it saved and was moving, so when it loaded I was straightaway cruising. I braked hard, parked and got out. Turned around and then my machine just froze.

There was no HD activity for about 10 minutes. Tried alt-ctrl-del to no avail. My only option was to do a hard reset. When things booted up - It went as far as the Windows loading screen and then WHAMMO - I got a really nasty BSOD that stated there was a Registry File Failure. The blue screen I got was as follows:

STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load the hive (file):
\Windows\System32\Config\SOFTWARE
or its log or alternate.
It is corrupt, absent, or not writable.

Beginning dump of physical memory
Physical memory dump complete.
Contact your system administrator or technical support group for further assistance.


Long story shorter, I thought I fixed it using XP Repair feature and instructions I got off the Microsoft Knowledge Base article (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=307545) . Now, however, I can't play any games. It freezes all the time. I have tried completely uninstalling both Far Cry and Raven Shield, but they seem to no longer work. I am totally clueless. :confused:

I have the latest ATi drivers. Use a firewall (I initially thought that I had to reconfigure the firewall to allow the game to run after installing the 1.3 patch as the firewall would have noted the change and may not have let it run. It didn't make a difference.). Have service pack 2 and use McAfee VS v8.0.

Any more info needed just let me know or if you get lost in my babble, same applies.

Help is appreciated. :(
 

ReconCX

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Easiest thing to do... Format =) But wait for other people's suggestions first =)
 

PH8

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ReconCX said:
Easiest thing to do... Format =) But wait for other people's suggestions first =)

I've toyed with the idea, believe me ;)

BUT - I'm not willing to give up without seeking at least some advice... :D
 

Urlyin

I still do pencil mods
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PH8 ... a couple of things to do, first what OS is it? Either way W2k or XP you can try to boot from the OS cd and go to repair. With W2k you can do a repair from the selections or with XP you'll be taken to the Recovery Console after selecting repair. With XP you can type chkdsk /r at the command prompt to do a check disk to possibly repair the corrupted reg hive. There are a couple of things you can do with the last being a in place upgrade. Hopefully the Software hive is not totally corrupted. Which would mean a re-install of most applications, the only good thing about doing that is your settings from the program files will still be there. Just a pain going back through it all... do not reformat yet unless you have backed everything up and a reformat is no big deal...

Well I didn't finish reading the bottom of your message... sorry
 

Urlyin

I still do pencil mods
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Messages
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Good you were able to get it back up...some of my suggestions... have you tried to completely remove the video drivers after uninstalling with a driver cleaner? Then try to reinstall the chipset drivers or the VIA drivers depending on the MOBO. You can try to run SFC /scannow in the run box to check the XP files. Last you can do a in place reinstall of XP by booting the OS cd, check Microsofts web site for a in place install. Just reinstalls the OS and keeps your current settings and programs. Good luck
 

PH8

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Aug 29, 2004
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Urlyin said:
Good you were able to get it back up...some of my suggestions... have you tried to completely remove the video drivers after uninstalling with a driver cleaner? Then try to reinstall the chipset drivers or the VIA drivers depending on the MOBO. You can try to run SFC /scannow in the run box to check the XP files. Last you can do a in place reinstall of XP by booting the OS cd, check Microsofts web site for a in place install. Just reinstalls the OS and keeps your current settings and programs. Good luck

Hey Urlyin, how's things? I remember you helped me with my video card softmod, thanks again (I'll never get tired of thanking you and W1zzard for the help BTW) :cool:


Yeah, back to this problem... No - I didn't think of cleaning out the video driver cause I was using these drivers for a while with no problems whatsoever, but when I applied the 1.3 patch - BANG - stuff-up central...

It just freezes. No messages. No 'little blinky light' (HD activity indicator) - nothing. I can't see that it could be anything other than the 1.3 patch.

I just had an idea whilst typing this - maybe if I use System Restore to go back to before I installed the patch, that could possibly clear out any little problem. If that doesn't work - I'll try the previous video drivers. Does anyone know where to get the drivers before the current one, BTW?

Will report back on the system restore attempt...
 

Urlyin

I still do pencil mods
Joined
Aug 17, 2004
Messages
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Ph8.. not that there is anything wrong with the current version of drivers you are using just that it has helped me in the past to use Driver Cleaner v3 to clean up some, then reinstall. It may help to try System Restore.... It won't hurt to download and install the latest inf chipset drivers from Intel which supports the fastwrites of your AGP card, among other things. Those are just starting points... you can try msconfig in the run box to do a selective startup which turns off some of the startup programs which can help determine which one may be a problem ...
 
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