Invalid Class String

[Bongmaster]

Hello All-

I have an awesome fan app (FAN Xpert) that I have been using on my Rampage IV Rig. I recently did a re-install of Win 7 (about a week ago) and it has yet to run. It actually is part of suite of utilities that comes bundled with ASUS Mobo's. I have installed it a number of times in the past and have never had any problems. First thing I did was uninstall and re-install I used Revo Uninstaller in safe mode. The problem re-occurred so I then did a regular uninstall.Next I ran SFC. I got a bunch of errors (11) that were all Explorer.exe based. I then replaced Explorer with a fresh copy from the Windows 7 DVD. still Class not recognized. I don't use any of those Registry repair utilities as I have found them to be more detrimental then helpful. So far I have had no problems with any other Apps.

I would like to fix these system issues before they get out of hand. I attached an example of the errors. They are all basically the same in my SFC log. If you guys need more info please let me know.

 

[writhziden]

A few questions:

• How did you re-install?
  
  
• Are you still getting the above errors, or have you since replaced explorer.exe from the DVD again?
  
  
• When you replaced explorer.exe, did you run sfc /scannow again after a restart to see if the corruption was indeed fixed?

Once the explorer.exe problem is fixed, we can proceed with other steps. To make sure I understand the problem: You can install the program, but it will not run. You get a "class not recognized" error when you try to run it? Would it be possible to post a screenshot of that error? Uninstalling and re-installing resulted in the errors through the system file check but did not resolve the running problems with the program, correct?

 

[Bongmaster]

Hi, and thanks for the response-

I did a full reinstall with formatting directly from the DVD. Yes, I am still getting the same errors. I only replaced explorer.exe once. I did run sfc /scannow immediately after I replaced the explorer.exe file and found the same errors (all explorer related) that were there prior to replacing the explorer.exe file. I am going to see if the same number of errors exist right now or if they have increased. I don't want things to go down hill.

TIA!

 

[Bongmaster]

I just scanned and found two more errors. A lot of repairs as well. The last 2 times I ran sfc there were no repairs....

 

[writhziden]

It may be best to cut your losses and http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html Windows 7. Up to you. If you want to go that route, let us know, and we can help if needed.

 

[Bongmaster]

Yeah, I was planning to do that last week. I figure I might give it a whirl. Hopefully my registry will be repaired. I would rather do it now as opposed to later, these things only get worse.

I will let you know how things turn out.

Thanks again.

 

[writhziden]

You're welcome. Look forward to seeing how the system responds after the repair install.

 

[Bongmaster]

Hi-

Sorry for the late reply, I was out of town. I did the repair install. System files are all fixed. I have been checking them periodically. I cannot install that fan app. So strange. I believe it has something to do with Catalyst. I hate AMD drivers. I normally never buy their cards. It took them 4 months to come out with a stable driver for my TriFire setup. I normally buy Nvidia as their drivers are so much more robust. I bought 3 Geforce 680's last month (for another box) and the drivers right out of the box work great.

Needless to say, I need to do a repair install again with Catalyst uninstalled prior to running it, install the ASUS software suite after it is done, AND THEN install the VGA drivers. I bet that will work. I just get nervous about doing a repair install again.

Overall, I would recommend the repair install to anyone with corrupt system files. I was amazed.

Thanks again!

 

[Vir Gnarus]

When you do SFC scan, you should be running it from the Win7 cd, not from the boot drive. Also, explorer.exe has nothing to do with the AMD drivers, nor the fan app, so it's unrelated to this case, though it's necessary that you had it fixed. I personally find it disconcerting that both the locally cached version of explorer.exe and the running version were corrupt. Be alert for possible drive failure. You can also run Seatools for surety's sake (all tests except advanced).

 

[Bongmaster]

I agree on the exloper.exex being corrupt in both cases it made no sense to me. I didn't think Explorer.exe had something to do with AMD drivers. I think (which is a stretch) that the ASUS Suite is having problems with AMD drivers. It is good to know that I should run SFC off the DVD. BTW- My startup disk is a RAID array (0). The reason I re-installed recently is because I had a failing SSD. All my drives are SSD. So unfortunately I can't use Seatools.

Any ideas?

TIA!

 

[Vir Gnarus]

As opposed to Seatools, your SSDs might have a proprietary diagnostic tool for them, so check the vendor website for it.

If I'm correct, ASUS Suite is a software package that comes with the motherboard. I would recommend forgo usage of any such software as they commonly have bugs and are rather gimmicky. Only drivers should be installed on the system.

If the ASUS Suite you're talking about is a driver package for the motherboard, then whatever video drivers for the integrated video (I assume it does) may be conflicting with the AMD drivers for your video card. I've seen it happen before personally, so make sure to only install individual drivers like those for your chipset, audio, and drive controller as opposed to using the full driver collection package. Vendors like Asus will typically provide the separate driver sets in addition to the whole all-in-one package.

Make sure your BIOS is also up to date, as well as the firmware for each of your SSDs, as either of those can cause I/O problems. While they may show up as simple application failures now, they can easily turn into BSODs once the problems start creeping into kernel territory.

 

[Bongmaster]

Yes. I updated the firmware for my Samsung drives. The Kingston drives are up to date (all 256gb). I have the Intel IRST onboard and no onboard video. Unfortunately there is no disk check utility available that I can find from Intel or elsewhere.Unless I am not looking hard enough. BIOS is up to date..... My drive that failed recently did exactly what you said, BSOD's typical hardware errors.

I have an X79 board (2011 socket).

Fortunately the only drivers that I have ever installed are the ones you mentioned that is really all that are available on the CD (Chipset, Intel LAN, SATA/RAID drivers, USB and Audio.

You are 1000% right about the ASUS suite I mean it is a "bundled" installer and contains about 10 or 12 applications that are mostly meant for overclocking the Rampage IV. I normally am skeptical of these types of things. I bet this is not healthy.

I use the EFI BIOS when overclocking anyhow. You have much more control of everything and don't run the risk of screwing with the OS. I am just going to stay away from the ASUS suite. It has a BIOS update utility, but there are 3 other ways to upate anyhow.

Thanks for all the advice. The good news is that everything else seems to be in good shape!

 

[Vir Gnarus]

Intel SSD Toolbox has diagnostic tests included in it. I believe you would've needed this to install the firmware, but it also comes with those tests.

Software overclocking and whatnot are definitely not recommended, yes you are surely correct in your concerns. While you may not even be using it to overclock, just having it installed is a serious point of failure as it will load at startup and be interacting with the hardware regardless of whether you decide to actively use it or not. Plus having it interfere with your BIOS overclocking will definitely cause some problems.

I'm glad to hear everything sounds good. If you feel everything's been properly addressed and all is swell, you can mark this thread as solved. Thanks.