Request for help with strange XP problem
I'm an experienced tech - and this has me stumped
JoeUser Forums
What I have been doing is pulling the registry hive copies out of the System Restore points store manually and replacing the hives with the system restore copies. This usually works, though I occasionally have to go back several versions to find a non-corrupt hive (even though the machine was working when the hive was backed up!) See KB Article # 307545 and 318011 for more info.
The machine is kept up to date on patches via Windows Update and Critical Updates. The application software environment is fairly similar to my own machine (if anything, it is more stable, since I tend to install/uninstall software I'm considering, and my machine hasn't had a reinstall for almost 2 years now, vice a couple of months since the last fresh install on the problem machine).
I actually had this machine blue-screen on me while I was in the Recovery Console! I have swapped memory with known good parts, so I have ruled out memory hardware errors. While CHKDSK occasionally finds problems with the file system after a [particularly nasty crash, there doesn't seem to be HW issues with the hard drive - the corrupted files are not in the same place on the platter each time, nor are any other files being corrupted other than the registry hives and the user profile.
Virus protection and spyware detection software are installed, frequently updated, and frequently run.
System stability varies - we've gone several months between crashes, and had them occur as rapidly as days apart.
Anyway, suggestions would be appreciated. (OS must remain WinXP due to application support; so please don't tell me to put in Linux, or go buy a Mac!)
UPDATE: After going back to the beginning of the moth to get a bootable hive, I can log in as Administrator. When I attempt to use System Restore to try and bring it forward to an earlier date, I get a message saying that Network Idenifiers have changed; particularly the System Name is blank, as is the workgroup membership. If I try and log in using DW's user account, the machine reboots. When I tried to set a restore point, the systme rebooted (though the restore point name was set).
