PCA Forums

friend of mine gave me a dell pc of his to fix
its a dell dimension 2300

when i load into windows i get this error
lord knows if i can even get into bios with this dell

heres the error

registry error
the registry cannot load the hive file
systemroot/system32/config/software



would i have to format the hdd?
any advice appreciated

dunno bout dells, but i just conquered an old compaq

dell has pretty extensive user forums - i'd go the dimension forums and search under that error

The error has nothing to do with BIOS. It's a Windows error.

The BIOS key on a Dell is usually F2 I believe.


Sounds like the registry is corrupt. I assume this is WinXP?

You should be able to restore the damaged hive file from an earlier backup of the registry using the Recovery console. Instructions here: http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_sys32.htm

If that fails then you can try a repair installation of windows. Boot from the XP CD, press Enter at the first menu, then the menu after the EULA agreement select "Repair".

This forces Windows to do a re-install. You won't lose any dat or installed apps, but you will need to install SP-1 (if it's not on the original install CD) and all the Critical updates.

HOWEVER, I'd also be concerned as to what caused this. Could be the HDD is dying and that's what corrupted it. Could also be a virus. Could have just been a fluke.

Did your friend give you any history as to what led up to this?

Last resort is a format if the repair doesn't work, but you'll want to try connecting the drive as a spare on another computer to copy his data off of it first.

Hope this helps...

reinstalled windows
xp home

such a bugger to get into bios but now its all sorted

honestly its a piece of shit pc


p4 1.8
onboard video
40 gig hdd
256 pc 133


and i belive he paid 1000 a year ago for it


what a rip


thanks guys

hehe we should start an old compaq/dell/hp/acer forum

Actually I like Dells. I recommend Dells or Gateways to all my clients. They use quality components - even on their budget systems. I've worked on a lot of 2350 and 2400 Dimensions. Nice clean units.

They also don't load their OS down with a ton of background and spyware apps like HP & Compaq. Dell keeps their installs very clean.

They even "fix" settings in XP that Microsoft doesnt' see fit to do. They disable the Messenger service by default in XP Home and reset the the IE Cache to a reasonable 149 MB instead of the aburd 1Gig that XP likes to use by default (which can cause a LOT of problems and strange behavior in IE).

I can't see buying a cheap POS like a Compaq or E-Machine, and having to ship the stupid thing back to the factory for warranty service. First year Dell and Gateway come to your home or office and fix it for free.

BIOS shouldn't be a problem - F2 key should get you right in. It's an OEM system so don't expect a lot of options in BIOS. They're all like that.

My only gripes with Dell lately is that they use a proprietary pinout for the motherboard PSU connector (WHY?) and their on-board NICs are slow to initialize. I often run into problems with Dell 2400s on Domain server LANs when you have mapped drives or mapped printers - the NIC won't be fully initialized when you logon and the mapped devices won't connect until you manually reconnect them. Easy fix is to just install a PCI slot NIC.

I also think it should be a crime that Dell (or any company for that matter) should be allowed to sell an XP system with only 128Mb installed, but that's another rant...

hell yes it is a crime
128 megs pc133 ram?
fuggin awful
he always complains about horrible frame rates in cs
i open his pc and what do ya know
onboard video



now that this hdd is clean u think i should upgrade it to xp pro for him?
or should i leave it with xp home?
mainly a internet machine
barely used for games...and if so the occasional cs

Leave it on Home unless he's a techie. To the average person Home & Pro make no difference.

Yeah the Intel onboard video is crap, but those systems aren't gaming systems. For that you should buy the 4600 with an AGP slot and an ATI or NVidia card.

It'll play the Sims and crap like that alright - should even play CS decently if you download the latest video driver and you have enough ram.

If he's only got 128Mb do him a BIG favor and oder him an extra 128Mb stick - it's cheap. XP should NEVER be run on only 128Mb. XP with no other programs running after a clean install uses nearly 100Mb all by itself. Playing games with 128 is hopeless - it'll be thrashing the hard drive with swap file accesses the whole time.

Microcenter has 256MB of PC133 for $25 after rebates.

which would explain the hdd making funny noises and taking forever to load
i believe it uses an intel extreme graphics controller?
is there any way i can update that?

so i left him with xp home and told him hes gonna have to cut some green my way for xp pro!!



i hate doing free work

you can pick up a 64 mb radeon or nv pci card on the boards for about $50 - makes a huge difference - i tossed a 64 ati card in my work box (p3 500, 8 mb onboard natrox) and it is actually able to run a lot of games at low settings - they may have 128 mb ones out there somewhere - a lot of modern cards do the processing on the gpu for lotsa stuff, so the lack of the agp bus isn't that much of an issue