Windows XP Freezes

[NooNoo]

Then you are looking at a process - you need to get Process explorer, boot to safe mode and run it so there are less processes to monitor, then see what there is when it freezes

[howie7]

downloaded & ran in live mode, as safe mode stable.
Only services running with CPU activity at time of freeze is the System Idle 98.5% & Services.exe 1.5%. Otherwise, not sure what I should be looking for.

[NooNoo]

Did you use the immunise function with spybot or the sdhelper? It is known that other things like mcafee can cause those symptoms in normal mode, but not in safemode.

Uninstall mcafee again. Does it run in normal mode without mcafee properly?

[howie7]

Thanks NooNoo. After several tedious hours analysing the startup programs & re-boots, I've identified several startups which were no longer valid / unknown. I've disabled these so XP now seems stable.
Is there a process of permanently removing these? and is there a utility out there which could determine and change the order in which the remaining start-ups start? The programs currently appear to start up in any order they like at each reboot.

[NooNoo]

It rather depends what the programs are... for example, ctfmon.exe is part of office xp and you can't get rid of that, it just comes back every time you start word unless you do this

The programs in your menu startup folder start last. Pay no attention to the icons popping up by the clock, they do not indicate the start order.

The actual start up is controlled in the registryread here for details

If you just want to get rid of the startups listed in msconfig that you have unticked
Have a look in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\MSConfig\startupreg

[howie7]

During my start-up checks, I found that although I unchecked some items, my desktop was still freezing, and on occasion all the desktop & taskbar disappear to background. I logged in as another user, and had thought, perhaps my profile was causing the issue. I deleted my user profile (and wished I didn't. I now get a C0000218 error whilst booting.
I've tried 'Last known configuration & safeboot. get same error. run chkdsk /r, completed successfully. Get same error message.
Is there a way to restore the registry?
My Vista still works fine on another partition. Can I fix XP registry using vista?

[NooNoo]

Microsoft thinks your hard drive has a problem read here

You can give this a go

[howie7]

Thanks NooNoo. I've managed to get XP back to working order & now appears stable. I followed the instructions here using Vista windows explorer instead of recovery console.

One last assist please.

I have noticed there are a lot of listed programs in the 'Add/Romove' programs piece in control panel. Some I know have been uninstalled, yet the program listing remains. Is there a way of securely clearing/cleaning this window of all uninstalled programs as well as the Start - Programs menu.

[NooNoo]

You can either try to uninstall them from control panel and if control panel thinks they are already gone, it will remove the entries or you can get ccleaner and get that to remove the relevant entries.

Glad you got XP stable again.

[pastorlesofm]

I don't have much doubt that your "software to speed up Youtube" was malware. So, I would download and run (in Safe Mode) Combofix for a start. You should rename the file to something like 123xx.exe instead of combofix.exe before you run it. I would also download and run both Spybot Search & Destroy and Malwarebytes Anti-Malware afterwards.

When you install Spybot S&D, you should uncheck the option to use System Protection/Tea Timer. I would run Spybot right after Combofix and follow up with Anti-Malware's full scan, which can take several hours if there are many files on the computer.

Also, you really should avoid all of the registry cleaners and repair tools. Usually, they do more to hurt your system than help it.

Thank You for good information.