System Restore won't work

iadom · 07-09-2004, 21:14

System. Win XP Home SP1 installed approx 22 months. Nvidia Riva TNT2 64.
Initial problems. Screen would freeze after booting when AV was attempting auto update. This happened a couple of times and C+A+D would not clear it and I had to press the reset button to get the PC to restart, which it did without any warnings.
A couple of weeks ago my AV supplier sent a product upgrade which turned out to have a small bug that refused to recognise correct username/passwords for auto update of deffiles. They issued a patch 2 days later but I had to uninstall and reinstall my AV several times over the past week or so to get it updating correctly again, this it did for a few days until last Sunday when the freezing started.
Today my PC did not even boot to the desktop but stuck before the welcome screen and once again C+A+D had no effect and I had to press the reset button. This time I got the warning that Windows had shut down incorrectly, I first allowed it to "Start Windows Normally" but when this also froze I selected "Use last good configuration". I then got a couple of error messages and the screen displayed in 4 bit colour/800x600 mode. One warning was about the low screen resolution and the other said,

Error loading C:\Windows\System32\Nvcpl.dll
A DLL initialization failed.

I was still able to use most functions so downloaded a fresh copy of NvCpl.dll and overwrote the copy in Win\System32.

This did not cure the problem.
I then tried "System Restore" using 5 or 6 different reference points, System Restore failed.
Using display properties I was unable to alter the screen resolution and so checked on the video card in Device Manager, it did not show any faults but I tried to use the CD Rom to reinstall the drivers and also got an error message saying that the task could not be completed. I checked Device Manager again and this time it reported that the drivers where not installed together with a warning triangle. I rebooted and to my surprise I was able to reset the screen resolution to 1024x800 32 bit colour. I am guessing that card is now using generic XP drivers????
However the PC is still unstable.
System Restore will still not work. If I click on Start/Turn off Computer the "Hibernate" button is greyed out and if I scroll web pages or Docs they move in waves as if the are being refreshed as I scroll.
Also I cannot get Windows update to work, it fails at the last step.
Any Ideas.

Can I use my XP CD to repair or reinstall Windows without doing a full format ( I want to avoid that at all costs for the moment) or would updating to XP SP2 be a possible cure.

Scrubbs · 07-09-2004, 21:38

My initial suspects would be check cards on mobo, cables etc
'cos it looks like it is not repeating the problem i.e. you can get full res and then you can't

It could also be lots of other things....unfortunatly like cards and mobo's on the way out

clevererer people will be along soon

(I hope )

darkangel · 07-09-2004, 21:41

Nvcpl.dll is a part of the nvidia driver so the problem may be there have u tried removeing the driver?

paulyoung666 · 07-09-2004, 21:42

have you done a virus scan ???????? , i suspect that you have been infected with something

nffc · 07-09-2004, 22:49

NVid driver- reinstall your gfx drivers preferably the one from nvidia site. This will sort your shutdown problem as well, not sure about system restore though.

iadom · 07-09-2004, 22:50

Thanks for the replies folks,
Scrubbs: The screen res is now stable but the scrolling is a real pain, I have downloaded and tried to install the latest Nvidia drivers. The installation reports success, however Device Manager still informs me that the drivers are not installed. Can anyone confirm that if the drivers are not installed, the card is using generic Win drivers because the screen display is now perfect apart from this awful stuttering scrolling.??

Darkangel: I have already downloaded and installed a clean version of NvCpll.dll but the problem persists.

Paulyoung666: Very much doubt a virus problem. I was on holiday the week before last and have been so busy since I returned that I have done very little online since. A full AV scan with deffiles dated 9/7/2004 is clean, as is a Pest Patrol/AdAware/Spybot scan.
My main concern is to try to get System Restore working again, why should video driver problems prevent System Restore from working.?

Paul K · 07-09-2004, 22:58

Did you remove any prior drivers for the graphics card and then reboot before installing new ones? I would check add remove programmed for any related software for the card and also look in device manager (show hidden devices) and remove all traces from there before installing new drivers. What drivers are you installing for it??

MadGamer · 07-09-2004, 23:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by iadom

Thanks for the replies folks,
Scrubbs: The screen res is now stable but the scrolling is a real pain, I have downloaded and tried to install the latest Nvidia drivers. The installation reports success, however Device Manager still informs me that the drivers are not installed. Can anyone confirm that if the drivers are not installed, the card is using generic Win drivers because the screen display is now perfect apart from this awful stuttering scrolling.??

Darkangel: I have already downloaded and installed a clean version of NvCpll.dll but the problem persists.

Paulyoung666: Very much doubt a virus problem. I was on holiday the week before last and have been so busy since I returned that I have done very little online since. A full AV scan with deffiles dated 9/7/2004 is clean, as is a Pest Patrol/AdAware/Spybot scan.
My main concern is to try to get System Restore working again, why should video driver problems prevent System Restore from working.?

When making a system restore You first need to disable your anti-virus software before you make a restore. The cause is that the anti virus and/or system restore is protecting certain files.

Post back and let us know how you get on.

Stuartbe · 07-09-2004, 23:08

Its allso a good idea to temporarily disable system restore if you are running a full anti-virus scan. It can sometimes interfere with the scan and I have seen virus's lurking in the system restore files before.

paulyoung666 · 07-09-2004, 23:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stuartbe

Its allso a good idea to temporarily disable system restore if you are running a full anti-virus scan. It can sometimes interfere with the scan and I have seen virus's lurking in the system restore files before.

that was the point i was getting at , lurkers

iadom · 07-09-2004, 23:16

Quick update. The drivers I mentioned in my last post #6 had been downloaded a few months ago, I have just downloaded and installed Nvidia drivers that have just been updated very recently. The install went perfectly and the scrolling and greying out of the "Hibernate" button are now fixed and Device Manager reports no problems.

All I have to do now is try System Restore. NB.. My AV has never interfered with this in the past.

nffc · 07-09-2004, 23:21

Why do you need to run SR in the first place?

MadGamer · 07-09-2004, 23:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stuartbe

Its allso a good idea to temporarily disable system restore if you are running a full anti-virus scan. It can sometimes interfere with the scan and I have seen virus's lurking in the system restore files before.

Am i guessing NAV?

iadom · 07-09-2004, 23:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wayne A

Am i guessing NAV?

No, A much better product, (IMHO)

nffc, I don,t "need" to run SR at the moment, much as I do not want to try out the air bags on my car, however I would like to know that they would work if I needed them.

nffc · 08-09-2004, 10:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by iadom

No, A much better product, (IMHO)

nffc, I don,t "need" to run SR at the moment, much as I do not want to try out the air bags on my car, however I would like to know that they would work if I needed them.

OK- but you're not going to crash your car for the sole raison d'etre of testing the airbags.

System Restore is useless- there are enough people on here who could help you out if you ever needed it.

Just wait until you get a problem then I'm sure people on here will be queueing up to help. Sorry if this sounds crass, but you don't need to worry about it.