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I am using a PIII 700MHz, 64 MB system with 10 GB hard disk. Two months ago, the system started hanging frequently with Explorer errors or studio errors. I reinstalled Win98, which is and was my OS.

After installing this, during booting, when the win98 logo screen (in himem.sys) flashed, the system would flash to blue screen with title as `Microsoft Registry Checker' with status as Backing up system files.

Finally it would report that a good registry backup has been restored and would prompt me to restart with restart command button. (This is a very common thing and I have come across this many times)

But even though I restart it, it goes again to the Microsoft Registry Checker. This loop continues every time I restart. Then I installed Windows ME at my friend's house with my hard disk as primary.

It went smoothly and I ran applications for a day.

Then another error started appearing, stating `Windows Protection Error', and I was unable to enter Windows.

My service engineer again installed Win98. We faced `explorer' and `suwin' error during installation of Win98 with success after tiring repetition of reinstallations. It worked well with other motherboard (mercury) than mine.

But it did not work with my motherboard, Mircrotek (error this time: some .vxd error while booting with blue screen most of the times with address).

My Service engineer then asked me to change the motherboard, as he felt there was a mismatch of speed between the processor and the motherboard.

I then changed my motherboard to Krypton, and installed Win98.

Two days later again it went to Microsoft registry checker, but this time it did not loop as in the first situation.

Sometimes it booted properly and sometimes did not (engaging with Microsoft registry checker or with some .vxd error). I cannot predict its good booting.

This time around, the `booting failure' , frequency is low. If it boots, it works absolutely as an error-free system. We have checked the HDD, RAM, and the processor.

My service engineer now feels the problem lies with the SMPS. How can a bad SMPS affect the system on booting? During booting, the driver package installed on motherboard reports 12.6v to the required 12v to motherboard. Please suggest a solution to the problem.

Arun Somi

Looking at your problem description, it is more likely to be a problem related to your RAM than the motherboard or SMPS. What actually happens when Windows starts up is, it detects that the registry residing in the main memory (RAM), as it is probably residing in the damaged memory area (in your case). The registry checker marks it as damaged, and when Windows starts up, it runs the registry checker in the real mode (Scanreg.exe) to repair the damaged registry.

But the problem is that the real mode registry checker may not detect any damage if the defective memory is not used in real mode, and that is why the registry damage message keeps looping.

There are two ways to can solve the problem. One is you can use another memory module to test the system performance. Or secondly, you will have to test your memory module using some third-party memory-testing utility.

There are freely downloadable programs like the DocMemory, RAM v1.4 with which you can have your RAM tested. It definitely needs a lot of time, as the program take quite a lot of time to do a scan. RAM v1.4 is simple and comparatively faster, you can have it downloaded from the following URL: http://www.nu2.nu/nu2files/ram14.zip

Basically it tests the RAM by writing data on to every bit of the RAM and has it tested for write errors. You will have to copy the ram.exe file to a bootable floppy, boot the system with the boot disk and run the ram.exe.

Solution by G. Rajah

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