IT Queries: Computer problems answered

I’m running Vista Premium on a Dell Dimension 9200 using Adobe Reader 8.1.1.It will not install updates or uninstall Adobe Reader–Error 1402 Could not open key. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Softwareclasses\CLSID\(D38064DA). Adobe will not provide tech help as it was a free download except for a lengthy instruction which involves fiddling with the Registry–which I dare not do.I could not find any reference in your archives.Thanks.

It sounds like something is tying up your Adobe installation. You may want to try starting the computer in Safe Mode and seeing if it is possible to uninstall Adobe that way.

If it isn’t possible, then disabling any Adobe products that are starting with the computer is the next step. You’ll need to open the System Configuration Tool and take the ticks off anything referring to Adobe in the Startup tab.

Finally, you could try creating a different administrative user and seeing if this repairs the problem.

If none of these work, you’ll have to call in a technician to fix the registry problem.

Sometimes it’s necessary to create a new user profile on your computer. To do this, click Start, Settings and Control Panel. Then choose User Accounts. In Windows Vista, choose Users.

Choose Create a new Account and follow the wizard which will include giving the account a name.

When you are asked if you want the account to be an Administrator or Limited User, we recommend Limited User for day-to-day use and Administrator for running maintenance tasks such as installing software and removing viruses.

I am running my new Toshiba Satellite A210 laptop on the same dial-up phone line as my old Compaq PC with windows xp. My PC now seems to have same start window as the laptop with vista, all old icons have gone and the PC needs much prompting to start. What have I done with windows XP?

The problem sounds like your user profile has been damaged. Given your system is having trouble starting our first thought is the hard drive is failing.

You need to get this computer to a technician as soon as possible to check the drive and recover any data.

I am facing a problem at the time of start up of my Laptop. Ut is showing messages like “windows cannot find Winsafe in a particular location, type the name correctly & search it again”

Can you please tell me the solution, so that this message should not come afterwards .

The problem is due to Windows looking for a program that no longer exists. To stop the message appearing, run the MSConfig utility, go through the start up list and take the tick off Winsafe.

When you reboot the message will be gone.

I cannot access administrator account. I think it got happened while i was playing with computer management.

Not having a Administrator account can cause all manner of problems with Windows. So you’ll need to get this back.

First check if the Administrator account still exists. To do this, click Start, Run and type  Control userpasswords2. This will get you into the User Accounts screen.

If Administrator exists there, click change password and that should reset it. You may have to re-enable the account.

The next step is to do a System Restore.  We have instructions on a previous post.

Should these not clear it then the Windows Vista Forums have a detailed post on how to fix the problem. The instructions are quite complex and involve some knowledge of using the Windows Registry.

If you don’t have this knowledge then we’d strongly suggest contacting your local computer tech.

I am a windows XP SP2 user. Everytime on start up i get the following error message “windows cannot find KHATARNAK.EXE. Make sure you typed the name correctly and then try again. To search for a file, click the start button and then click search”.

Below this i get another dialogue box with the message “windows cannot find ‘c:\WINDOWS\inf\other.exe”. Make sure you typed the name correctly and then try again”

If i click ok or close this dialogue box i get one more dialogue box which says “could not run “c:\WINDOWS\inf\other.exe” specified in the registry” and on closing this another one which says “windows cannot find “c:\windows\system32\config\win.exe’ .make sure u type the name correctly and then try again”

On closing this my normal desktop screen appears. What is wrong ?? What is the solution ??

 What’s happening is Windows wants to open some programs when it starts.  It can’t find them so you are getting these errors.

The good news is these programs are spyware and viruses. What it seems has happened is you’ve been infected but the infection has been cleaned from the computer.  Whatever cleaned your infection, it didn’t remove some of the pointers to the problem.

To fix this, open the System Configuration tool and take the ticks off the startup options pointing to KHATARNAK.EXE and the other items that are coming up as “not found”.

It’s also a very good idea to scan your computer for other infections and change any important passwords such as banking details.

I have had Vista Ultimate for three months now and the temp files folder is filling up with temp\RAC.tmp files which Windows Disk Cleanup or EasyCleaner will not delete.

When I track them down and open them they open up I Tunes. Can I delete them? Also some called tracing\RASMAN.OLD and other old files. I have AVG,Spybot S&D and AdAware.

Thanks for your site,  James.

Hi James,

This problem sounds like there’s an errant Virtual Private Network or dial up connection on your system.

The first step would be to look in the Network control panel and remove any connections that are not being used. If you are using a VPN then it’s probably best to talk to your system administrator about why these errors are being generated.

With removing these files, it’s best to start in Safe Mode and run the disk clean up utilities from there.

I have an HP Compaq nx6330 notebook running XP Pro SP2. The hard disk is 50GB in size. When I check the free space it says 3GB; however when I run WinDirStat there is an “Unknown” file of 25GB. I have run chkdsk /F/X on startup but this does not fix the problem. How can I recover this space from the “Unknown” file.

First, check this is not related to the System Restore process. Make sure you have a recent backup of your system then right-click My Computer and select Properties. Click the System Restore tab and tick Turn off System Restore on all drives.

When you reboot the computer check the file has gone. Turn system restore back on and restart the computer.

If the file is still there, check you don’t have a compressed files, a third party backup or file protection system as these can create these hidden files. You need to be very careful in deleting as they can be something very important.

If you do have one of these programs use the application settings to change the file sizes or to disable the program.

System: Windows XP.  On start up I’m getting a message “C:\WINDOWS\system32\igghxjtd.dll

The specified module could not be found”.

This is since my PC was cleaned up after being infected by PC Cleaner. On the other hand it is also after my son removed some old games.

The problem is some remains of the spyware is still around on your system. In this case, the reference to some of it in the startup processes. When the computer starts it looks for the igghxjtd.dll file, can’t find it and so warns you.

To fix this, you need to run the Microsoft System Configuration tool (msconfig), choose the startup tab and take the tick off the igghxjtd item.

It’s worthwhile also giving the system another scan for viruses and Trojans as well.

i have error message stop:- c0000218 (registry file failure) the registry cannot load the hive stystemroot\system32\config\software or its log or alternative, it is currupt, absent or not rewritable. Physical memory dump complete. i cannot start in safe mode as the keyboard does not work until the blue screen with the above error message appears. thank you

You have a corrupt registry file. The four registry files; security, system, sam and software, are essential to the computer and Windows cannot load if any of them are damaged.

The fix for this is relatively simple but requires an experienced tech to do it. It involves booting the computer off a boot disk such as BartPE or the Windows install disk then accessing the registry backup files in the System Volume Information folder as Microsoft describe here.

Those files need to be copied to the %windir%/system32/config folder, the old software file needs to be renamed and the recovered file named to software.

Once this is done, the computer needs to be checked for disk errors, virus infections and anything else that could damage the registry.

This is a job we’d strongly recommend you get done by a qualified computer technician.