Registry Problem - No Sound & Memory Error Msg. System Restore crashes

[Hardatwork]

Registry Problem - No Sound & Memory Error Msg. System Restore crashes

I recently ran a program called RegOwnit.exe on my windows registry to take ownership of the registry. But before I did that I made a backup copy of the registry by selecting Export and All from RegEdit.exe and saving a file called backup.reg. Since then I've been having issues such as no sound, I can't open "My Computer", "Control Panel", "My Documents", "Recycle Bin" When I try to I get an error message stating "there is not enough free memory to run this program."

So I tried restoring the backup I made of the registry by going to Import and selecting backup.reg from there. But nothing changes in the registry at all. I just get various error messages each time I do that such as: "Cannot import C:\Users\Owner\Desktop\backup.reg: Not all data was successfully written to the registry. Some keys are open by the system or other processes." I've even tried doing it in Safe Mode.

So my next guess I thought was to run System Restore but that hangs and never completes. The first time it ran I let it sit for 12 hours before I realized it was never going to finish. I've tried running it several more times since then, even selecting older restore points but it always hangs and I end up sitting here waiting for it to complete but it never does.

I have Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit My computer is a HP Pavilion dv4 Notebook PC with 4 GB RAM and 76GB free space on Drive C. Intel Core processor. I don't have any usual configuration. It's practically new.

I found someone else with the same problem on here, and one thing I was able to fix was by following the directions at the thread at: http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-...there-not-enough-free-memory-run-program.html Someone said to make sure All Users has permission to access the registry:

Make sure that System and Users (and just to make sure maybe Administrators and your account name too) have more or less unrestricted access to the registry hive "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\"

So I added Users to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and now I can open My Computer and Control Panel etc, but I still have no sound. In fact when I try to put on an MP3 I get an error that says "Your soundcard driver does not support this type of sample format."

What I'd really like to do is run system restore or be allowed to import my full backup of the registry to the point before all of this happened. What's the point of having a tool for backing up the registry and making restore points if you can't roll back to them? Please your help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[writhziden]

I recently ran a program called RegOwnit.exe on my windows registry to take ownership of the registry. But before I did that I made a backup copy of the registry by selecting Export and All from RegEdit.exe and saving a file called backup.reg. Since then I've been having issues such as no sound, I can't open "My Computer", "Control Panel", "My Documents", "Recycle Bin" When I try to I get an error message stating "there is not enough free memory to run this program." So I tried restoring the backup I made of the registry by going to Import and selecting backup.reg from there. But nothing changes in the registry at all. I just get various error messages each time I do that such as: "Cannot import C:\Users\Owner\Desktop\backup.reg: Not all data was successfully written to the registry. Some keys are open by the system or other processes." I've even tried doing it in Safe Mode. So my next guess I thought was to run System Restore but that hangs and never completes. The first time it ran I let it sit for 12 hours before I realized it was never going to finish. I've tried running it several more times since then, even selecting older restore points but it always hangs and I end up sitting here waiting for it to complete but it never does. I have Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit My computer is a HP Pavilion dv4 Notebook PC with 4 GB RAM and 76GB free space on Drive C. Intel Core processor. I don't have any usual configuration. It's practically new. One thing I was able to fix was by following the directions at the thread at: http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-...there-not-enough-free-memory-run-program.html Someone said to make sure All Users has permission to access the registry:

Make sure that System and Users (and just to make sure maybe Administrators and your account name too) have more or less unrestricted access to the registry hive "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\"

So I added Users to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and now I can open My Computer and Control Panel etc, but I still have no sound. In fact when I try to put on an MP3 I get an error that says "Your soundcard driver does not support this type of sample format." What I'd really like to do is run system restore or be allowed to import my full backup of the registry to the point before all of this happened. What's the point of having a tool for backing up the registry and making restore points if you can't roll back to them? Please your help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

It is unfortunate that you had to learn the valuable lesson not to use automated registry cleaners in this manner. What methods have you used to attempt the restore? http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/700-system-restore.html has a couple different options for running restore if you have not tried all of them.

For future reference, The best way to do a registry backup, in my opinion, is with CCleaner. CCleaner will create a .reg file if you start the registry cleaning process and ask it to save a backup. Once you save the backup, just do not continue through the cleaning process (I am a firm believer after many registry cleaners making a mess of my systems that registry cleaners are bad news on Windows 7). Then if you need to restore the .reg file, just double click it in Safe Mode.

 

[Hardatwork]

I tried all of the system restore options. None of them complete.

I wasn't cleaning the registry. I was trying to restore a backup and following directions that said to do an Import of the full registry which didn't work at all. So I changed the permissions with RegOwnit.exe thinking I was just adding Owner to it, not realizing it would screw something else up, and not realizing that System Restore doesn't work. What's the point of making backups if it doesn't let you restore them.

Thanks for your future reference, but I could use some ideas on what to do to fix this. I still don't have sound. And how do I fix System Restore since obviously this is a feature that is meant to be working?

 

[writhziden]

I tried all of the system restore options. None of them complete.

I wasn't cleaning the registry. I was trying to restore a backup and following directions that said to do an Import of the full registry which didn't work at all. So I changed the permissions with RegOwnit.exe thinking I was just adding Owner to it, not realizing it would screw something else up, and not realizing that System Restore doesn't work. What's the point of making backups if it doesn't let you restore them.

Thanks for your future reference, but I could use some ideas on what to do to fix this. I still don't have sound. And how do I fix System Restore since obviously this is a feature that is meant to be working.

Ah sorry, misunderstood what RegOwnIt does. I now see its function. May I ask why you were trying to take ownership of the registry to begin with? If you were having problems before using that program and could describe them as specifically as possible, it may point toward why your system restore points are not working.

System restore points sometimes do not work if Windows files are corrupt. Have you tried running http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html up to three times to fix all errors? If it continues to show errors after the third run or if the first run comes back with no integrity violations, we will have to try further troubleshooting steps.

 

[Hardatwork]

I'll give that a try.

I was just trying to restore a backup I had made of the Registry to remove traces a program I wanted to uninstall. I was following directions found here:

How To Make Backup Of Your Registry In Windows 7 / Vista / XP

But it didn't let me Import the backup and the program keys were still in the registry, so I used Regownit to take ownership of the registry. I put * as the key I wanted to own.

 

[Hardatwork]

Here is a screenshot of regownit. What it looked like when I clicked Apply.

 

[writhziden]

Ah, okay. If you have difficulty removing a program in the future, use Microsoft Fix it Solution Center: troubleshooting software issues to find the uninstall FixIt tool: Diagnose and fix program installing and uninstalling problems automatically

 

[Hardatwork]

System restore points sometimes do not work if Windows files are corrupt. Have you tried running http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html up to three times to fix all errors? If it continues to show errors after the third run or if the first run comes back with no integrity violations, we will have to try further troubleshooting steps.

The system file checker finished with the message "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations."

That's good news except that it doesn't explain what's wrong with System Restore.

What now?

 

[writhziden]

You can try the Fix It solution for your sound: Diagnose and repair sound playback problems automatically

 

[Kaktussoft]

Did you try system restore from "recovery environment"? That's the best way to do it. Any errors? Go back a few days. But be sure to go back to a date before the problem started

 

[Hardatwork]

You can try the Fix It solution for your sound: Diagnose and repair sound playback problems automatically

First of all thanks for all your help.

I downloaded and ran the recommended utility but it did not detect any problems and therefore no fixes were applied.

My optical drive is also offline because of all of this, so I think that I should be focusing on restoring the registry or otherwise fixing System Restore.

 

[Hardatwork]

Did you try system restore from "recovery environment"? That's the best way to do it. Any errors? Go back a few days. But be sure to go back to a date before the problem started

Yes. That was the first thing I tried. I let my computer sit here for 12 hours straight without interruption and it did not complete. Finally I turned it off because I was going to bed. And I tried running it at least one more time a day or two after that with a different restore point.

 

[writhziden]

You can try the Fix It solution for your sound: Diagnose and repair sound playback problems automatically

First of all thanks for all your help.

I downloaded and ran the recommended utility but it did not detect any problems and therefore no fixes were applied.

My optical drive is also offline because of all of this, so I think that I should be focusing on restoring the registry or otherwise fixing System Restore.

Ah, now I see a culprit. Follow these steps:

1. Click Start, and then click All Programs.
2. Click Accessories, and then click Run.
3. Type regedit, and then click OK. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Allow.
4. In the navigation pane, locate and then click the following registry subkey:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
5. In the right pane, click UpperFilters.
   
   Note You may also see an UpperFilters.bak registry entry. You do not have to remove that entry. Click UpperFilters only. If you do not see the UpperFilters registry entry, you still might have to remove the LowerFilters registry entry. To do this, go to step 8.
6. On the Edit menu, click Delete.
7. When you are prompted to confirm the deletion, click Yes.
8. In the right pane, click LowerFilters.
   
   Note If you do not see the LowerFilters registry entry, unfortunately this content cannot help you any further. Go to the "Next Steps" section for information about how you can find more solutions or more help on the Microsoft Web site.
9. On the Edit menu, click Delete.
10. When you are prompted to confirm the deletion, click Yes.
11. Exit Registry Editor.
12. Restart the computer.

Steps taken from Your CD drive or DVD drive is missing or is not recognized by Windows or other programs.

 

[Kaktussoft]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/666-advanced-boot-options.html
"repair your computer" then "system restore"

 

[Hardatwork]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/666-advanced-boot-options.html
"repair your computer" then "system restore"

Like I said, I did that already. But thanks.

 

[Hardatwork]

Ah, now I see a culprit. Follow these steps:

Steps taken from Your CD drive or DVD drive is missing or is not recognized by Windows or other programs.

My optical drive is working without following these steps. I just inserted a disc and was able to access its filesystem. I made an incorrect assumption when I tried to create a system repair disc.

What happened was: I ran Create a system repair disc, and as it said it was enumerating devices, I got an error message that said "System repair disc could not be created The system cannot find the file specified (0x80070002)" Then when I clicked OK there were no drive options. In fact it crashed when I clicked on Create Disc.

Winamp also crashes immediately when I try and run it. Probably because of the audio problem. Sound is still not working. In the bottom right corner there is a speaker icon with a red x on it.

 

[Kaktussoft]

First download setacl. Then start an elevated command prompt http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/783-elevated-command-prompt.html
setacl can be found here: SetACL: Windows ACL management - Browse Files at SourceForge.net
Put setacl in c:\windows

[FONT=Courier New][COLOR=#110000][COLOR=#110000][FONT=Courier New]SetACL.exe -on "hklm" -ot reg -rec yes -actn ace -ace "n:administrators;p:full"[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#110000][FONT=Courier New]SetACL.exe -on "hkcr" -ot reg –rec yes -actn ace -ace "n:administrators;p:full"[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#110000][FONT=Courier New]SetACL.exe -on "hklm" -ot reg –rec yes -actn ace -ace "n:system;p:full"[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#110000][FONT=Courier New]SetACL.exe -on "hkcr" -ot reg –rec yes -actn ace -ace "n:system;p:full"[/FONT][/COLOR]
[/COLOR][/FONT]

After that check security of hklm hive in registry. Is it full permission for both administrators and system?

 

[Kaktussoft]

Tech XE » How to Reset Windows Registry Permissions

 

[Hardatwork]

Neither of the above worked. But I'm not giving up yet.

When I followed your directions for setacl, lines 1 and 3 completed eventually. But lines 2 and 4 gave an error message that said "Error in command line: Invalid option specified: -rec! Type 'setacl -help' for help."

So I moved onto the second thing which showed which keys were updated and which ones failed. Most of them failed. So I tried to run from command prompt after booting from a CD, but it doesn't work from there.

I think part of the conflict might be that some keys are in use or otherwise locked by windows and so I have to do this while windows is not running. I've tried that of course but I think if there is a permissions problem that could be further the reason why I cannot do a system restore or anything. I've tried importing the backup I have of my registry from a CD command prompt but that fails too.

So I think I might have to update the permissions on the registry from a CD command prompt. But I'm not sure how.

 

[Hardatwork]

I think the dash before rec might not be a hyphen. I'm going to try this again without copy/pasting. That would explain why it worked with lines 1 and 3 because I manually typed it then. But copied pasted for lines 2 and 4.