Many troubles after repairing the SYSTEM file...

[AntiM$]

I'm on XP Home SP2.

I got the "corrupt file \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM", so I used the Recovery console to repair it. Everything was okay until I noted that some programs didn't work properly... OSA.EXE used nearly all the resources, so trying to reinstall Office XP I got this message:

"The Windows Installer service could not be accessed. This can occur if you're running Windows in Safe Mode or if the Windows Installer is not correctly installed. Contact your support personnel for assistance."

Later I "solved" it by killing OSA.EXE with MSCONFIG, then I started the Windows Installer service. But I still can't reinstall some programs. For example, iTunes gave me a message about some CD driver error, so I had to reinstall it. I tried to do it and I got this:

"1607: Unable to install InstallShield Scripting Runtime"

After starting the Windows installer sevice, the iTunes installer gave me this message.

"1608: Unable to create InstallDriver Instance, Return code: -2147221021"

Trying to uninstall it does nothing.

Finally, Automatic Updates found some updates to download, but the process failed halfway through, and now I have only half of them. Going to the Windows Update makes me download SP2 again, but nothing works. I started the BITS service, I hope that should help it.

Should I install SP2 again? The Security Center gives me a message about the Security Center Service not being started, but I can't find anything like that in services.msc.

 

[AntiM$]

There goes a HijackThis log, just in case this was caused by malwares and the like...

Logfile of HijackThis v1.99.1
Scan saved at 19:22:59, on 04-07-2005
Platform: Windows XP (WinNT 5.01.2600)
MSIE: Internet Explorer v6.00 SP2 (6.00.2900.2180)

Running processes:
C:\WINDOWS\System32\smss.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\winlogon.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\lsass.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe
C:\WINDOWS\Explorer.EXE
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Distillr\Acrotray.exe
C:\Program Files\QuickTime\qttask.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ctfmon.exe
C:\PROGRA~1\MOZILL~1\FIREFOX.EXE
C:\WINDOWS\system32\wuauclt.exe
C:\WINDOWS\system32\wuauclt.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\msiexec.exe
D:\Data Print UUUU\HijackThis\HijackThis.exe

O2 - BHO: AcroIEHlprObj Class - {06849E9F-C8D7-4D59-B87D-784B7D6BE0B3} - C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\ActiveX\AcroIEHelper.dll
O2 - BHO: AcroIEToolbarHelper Class - {AE7CD045-E861-484f-8273-0445EE161910} - C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Acrobat\AcroIEFavClient.dll
O2 - BHO: NAV Helper - {BDF3E430-B101-42AD-A544-FADC6B084872} - C:\Program Files\Norton AntiVirus\NavShExt.dll
O3 - Toolbar: Norton AntiVirus - {42CDD1BF-3FFB-4238-8AD1-7859DF00B1D6} - C:\Program Files\Norton AntiVirus\NavShExt.dll
O3 - Toolbar: Adobe PDF - {47833539-D0C5-4125-9FA8-0819E2EAAC93} - C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Acrobat\AcroIEFavClient.dll
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ccApp] "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccApp.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [ccRegVfy] "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec Shared\ccRegVfy.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Advanced Tools Check] C:\PROGRA~1\NORTON~1\AdvTools\ADVCHK.EXE
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Symantec NetDriver Monitor] C:\PROGRA~1\SYMNET~1\SNDMon.exe /Consumer
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Acrobat Assistant 7.0] "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Distillr\Acrotray.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [iTunesHelper] "C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunesHelper.exe"
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [QuickTime Task] "C:\Program Files\QuickTime\qttask.exe" -atboottime
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [UserFaultCheck] %systemroot%\system32\dumprep 0 -u
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [MSConfig] C:\WINDOWS\PCHealth\HelpCtr\Binaries\MSConfig.exe /auto
O4 - HKCU\..\Run: [CTFMON.EXE] C:\WINDOWS\system32\ctfmon.exe
O4 - Global Startup: Adobe Acrobat Speed Launcher.lnk = ?
O8 - Extra context menu item: Convert link target to Adobe PDF - res://C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Acrobat\AcroIEFavClient.dll/AcroIECapture.html
O8 - Extra context menu item: Convert link target to existing PDF - res://C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Acrobat\AcroIEFavClient.dll/AcroIEAppend.html
O8 - Extra context menu item: Convert selected links to Adobe PDF - res://C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Acrobat\AcroIEFavClient.dll/AcroIECaptureSelLinks.html
O8 - Extra context menu item: Convert selected links to existing PDF - res://C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Acrobat\AcroIEFavClient.dll/AcroIEAppendSelLinks.html
O8 - Extra context menu item: Convert selection to Adobe PDF - res://C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Acrobat\AcroIEFavClient.dll/AcroIECapture.html
O8 - Extra context menu item: Convert selection to existing PDF - res://C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Acrobat\AcroIEFavClient.dll/AcroIEAppend.html
O8 - Extra context menu item: Convert to Adobe PDF - res://C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Acrobat\AcroIEFavClient.dll/AcroIECapture.html
O8 - Extra context menu item: Convert to existing PDF - res://C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Acrobat\AcroIEFavClient.dll/AcroIEAppend.html
O8 - Extra context menu item: E&xportar a Microsoft Excel - res://C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\Office10\EXCEL.EXE/3000
O9 - Extra button: Messenger - {FB5F1910-F110-11d2-BB9E-00C04F795683} - C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe
O9 - Extra 'Tools' menuitem: Windows Messenger - {FB5F1910-F110-11d2-BB9E-00C04F795683} - C:\Program Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe
O16 - DPF: {6414512B-B978-451D-A0D8-FCFDF33E833C} (WUWebControl Class) - http://update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate/v6/V5Controls/en/x86/client/wuweb_site.cab?1120439551136
O23 - Service: Adobe LM Service - Adobe Systems - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe Systems Shared\Service\Adobelmsvc.exe

 

[Rollin' Rog]

Exactly what did you do in the recovery console to repair it?

And most important, did you follow the Microsoft instructions to copy recent snapshot files from the System Restore archive after you did that repair? If not, that is why you are having these problems.

Your Scanlog shows XP gold, not SP2, although your IE version is SP2



See part two of these instructions:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;307545

 

[AntiM$]

This is what I did after entering the recovery console:

cd \windows\system32\config
ren system system.bad
copy \windows\repair\system
exit

And I didn't do these things.

If only IE is SP2, I suppose I'll have to reinstall SP2, considering that I don't use IE at all...

 

[Rollin' Rog]

Have a look at the second part of those MS instructions in the article I posted.

Do you have normal access to System Restore points after doing that? If the archive is there but you can't access it through the normal System Restore interface, follow the instructions in the article to manually get access to it and copy the recent hives there to the config directory. Copy a full set, not just one, for consistency.