In-Place Upgrade of Windows Vista,7, Server 2008

One of the nice things about Windows XP and Windows 2000 was what Microsoft called an in-place upgrade. It was also commonly called a repair installation. This very powerful feature would fix many problems that could not otherwise be fixed. This process completely rebuild Windows while preserving your files, programs, and settings. The method in which this was done was the same method used by upgrading the operating system from an older version. That is why Microsoft calls it in-place upgrade.

An in-place upgrade can still be done in Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, and all versions based on the Vista kernel. This blog entry will show you how. But first, here are some things you need to know:

• You will need time, lots of time. Once started, the process cannot be stopped and it will take hours. Plan to have the computer down for no less than 2 hours and likely more than 3 hours.
• An in-place upgrade must be done while Windows is running. This means that if your Windows will not start and the startup repair procedures do not work, you will have to start over.
• Be sure to have a backup of all your documents. You never know, you need to be safe.
• Also have a backup of your drivers, especially the one for your network adapter and modem (if you do not have high-speed internet).
• You cannot perform an in-place upgrade unless you have the same version DVD or make your DVD version free. If your current installation is Windows 7 Professional 64-bit, you must have a 64-bit version-neutral DVD or a Windows 7 Professional 64-bit DVD. If you do not have the appropriate DVD, Techs-on-Call can make you one for a small fee. But you must already have a valid license to use Windows. The DVD requires your license code, which is either a sticker on the computer or in the retail box. If you have a retail or OEM DVD direct from Microsoft, follow these directions to make the DVD edition neutral.
• You must re-activate Windows after the process. Activation may fail if you have installed Windows within 90 days, in which case you will be required to call Microsoft. They are very friendly, just tell them you did an in-place upgrade.
• All security updates must be re-installed.

With that, here are the steps to take.

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0 comments - Posted by Wade Burchette at 1:40 PM - Categories: Computer Repair Notes

Windows 7 Freezes When Resuming From Standby

This was a problem that I had a lot of trouble with. When I first installed Windows 7, I could put the computer in sleep mode and resume without problems. The nice thing about sleep mode is that the computer uses only 1W of electricity but and awaking, or resuming, from sleep mode takes less than 10 seconds

When I first installed Windows 7, I had an old hard drive installed. Unfortunately, Windows chose to install all the boot files on that hard drive. I bought a new 2000 GB hard drive and removed that old hard drive. (This actually has a bearing on the problem, but I did know that at the time.) The startup repair took several hours to install the boot files on a new hard drive. After it did that, then I started having problems with Windows 7 coming out of sleep mode. I would get three STOP code on the infamous blue screen of death (BSOD): 0x00000077 KERNEL_STACK_INPAGE_ERROR, 0x0000007A KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR, and 0x000000F4 CRITICAL_OBJECT_TERMINATION. What was weird was that everything would act normal for a few seconds, and then suddenly one of those BSOD appeared. Since the problem occured after I removed my old hard drive and installed a 2000 GB hard drive, I thought it had something to do with fixing the boot files of Windows. I tried searching for the problem with no success. I tried searching for 0x00000077, 0x77, 0x0000007A, 0x7A, 0x000000F4, 0xF4; I tried adding the words Windows 7 and sleep in the search along with all 6 of codes, but got nothing relevant.

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0 comments - Posted by Wade Burchette at 8:20 PM - Categories: Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) | Computer Repair Notes

Unable To Change Low And Critical Battery Levels In Windows 7

Here is a bug that is in Windows 7. If your computer has a UPS backup battery supply, you may be unable to change the battery level in the power options. Here is how you fix that.

Press the start button and type "gpedit.msc".  Expand Computer Configuation. Then expand Administrative Templates. Then select All Settings. Search for Critical Battery Notification Level, Critical Battery Notification Action, Low Battery Notification Level, and Low Battery Notification Action. Open each one of these and choose a value you wish. The picture below is an example of what to look for.

0 comments - Posted by Wade Burchette at 5:34 PM - Categories: Computer Repair Notes

"You Have Exceeded Your Profile Storage Space" Error

Here is an easy fix. After performing an in-place upgrade (repair installation) of a Windows XP damaged by a virus, the user had this error. There was a red circle with an X in the middle by the clock.  Double-clicking on the red circle X brings up an error that starts with "You have exceeded your profile storage space". There were some more information. The pop-up window then proceeded to list a bunch of file in the My Documents folder.

The fix is very easy. Open the registry editor (Windows Key + r -> regedit) and browse to the hive HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ System. Then change the registry key EnableProfileQuota to 0. The problem should immediately disappear.

This is a feature for workplace computers which are managed by a central server. This is not a feature for home users. In this case, it appears some malware made the change just to make life more annoying and thus making removal more difficult.

0 comments - Posted by Wade Burchette at 6:40 PM - Categories: Computer Repair Notes

Fixing the STOP 0x0000007E Error

I had a laptop computer with that had the STOP 0x0000007E blue screen error code. It happened while starting Windows, even in safe mode. I knew from the customer told me that he had a malware problem. Since I could even get into Windows, I didn't know what exactly was causing this issue. Every article I've read said it was a driver issue. And I think that is correct considering it happened before Windows even loaded. The two knowledgebase articles (here and here) that I found from Microsoft did not help. Neither did a simple disk check.

I pulled the hard drive out of the laptop and scanned it with an antivirus and antimalware program. There was some very nasty stuff on that computer, even a rootkit. After cleaning up the malware, I put the hard drive back in the computer. Still, the STOP 0x7E message was there.

This meant I had only one option left: the in-place upgrade, commonly known as a repair installation. I find that the in-place upgrade option can fix bad drivers because you are forced to re-install them during the setup process. If the driver is bad, you can simply delete the file before it detects it. Pressing the SHIFT + F10 keys brings up a command prompt which can use to find the bad driver file and delete it. In any event, performing the in-place upgrade fixed the problem.

Not every installation of Windows XP can perform an in-place upgrade. But if it can, it is my experinece that 95 times out 100 it fixes any problem you have with getting Windows to start. It is time consuming, but effective.

0 comments - Posted by Wade Burchette at 7:46 PM - Categories: Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) | Computer Repair Notes

Winlogon Error at Windows Startup

This week I had a computer that was loaded with malware. While I was working on the problem, I had to restart the computer. Upon restarting the computer, the first thing that appears is a pop-up box about winlogon.exe with the error message: 'The instruction at '(some address)' referenced memory at '(some address)'. The memory could not be "read". Click on OK to terminate the program. Click on CANCEL to debug the program.' Of course I did not write the addresses because that was irrelevant. What stood out to me was the fact the word "read" was in quotes.

The options were to click OK or CANCEL. When you click OK, Windows immediately restarts. However, if you just move the pop-up box out of the way, I was able to sign in no problem.

Many of the answers I was finding were saying bad memory. I knew it wasn't bad memory. I knew it was malware. I ran Malware Bytes, it cleaned the computer up, and the error never came back. This particular computer was loaded with close to 500 Vundo trojans but not much else.

This computer was a business compuer and required an interactive logon, that is the logon that requires you to type the username in instead of selecting the user by an icon. If you need to get to the interactive logon window, just hold down CTRL+ALT and then quickly press DELETE twice.

Posted by Wade Burchette at 9:07 AM - Categories: Computer Repair Notes | Malware

When Windows Logs In and Then Immediately Logs Out

Sometimes, a virus or malware will modify the registry so that when you log in, a malicious file is processed instead of the standard windows file. There are several types of viruses that do this. Fortunately, the fix for all is the same.

When Windows logs in, a file listed in the registry is processed first. (More on this in the fix.) If that file is not there or is corrupt, then Windows logs out right away. What happens is a virus changes the file which Windows looks for when logging in, and then something else deletes or renames that file. The result is the log in, log out routine. This is something found on Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Home Server. The file that should be loaded is the userinit.exe file. However, even that file may be replaced with a malicious one.

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Posted by Wade Burchette at 1:50 PM - Categories: Computer Repair Notes | Security