Setishock asked for this one. Run sfc from C: drive instead of the CD.

[per]

Just copy the whole i386 folder from the XP cd to the root c:\ hard drive. Note that it'll take some 500 MB in size, but with today's large hard drives this shouldn't be a problem. If you didn't get a Windows CD when you purchased your computer, it is likely that this folder will already be on your hard drive.

The next step is to let Windows know where to find the files. Follow these steps:
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Setup
Double click the value SourcePath in the right pane, and enter the location where you copied the I386 folder (probably you copied the folder in the root of your C drive, thus the value would be C:\.
Close the registry editor, and log off from Windows, or restart your computer for the setting to take effect.
Almost forgot. For those not familiar go start-run-type SFC /SCANNOW. Note space between C and /.

Windows will keep track of updated system files that are introduced through the "normal" channels, such as Windows Update, Windows Service Pack installation using Update.exe, Hotfixes installed using Hotfix.exe or Update.exe and Operating system upgrades using Winnt32.exe.

The System File Checker tool is part of Windows XP's file protection, for more information read Microsoft Knowledge Base article 222193: Description of the Windows File Protection Feature

 

[dustinbumpy]

?

 

[per]

? What is ?. Read the post.

 

[setishock]

Ok...

Ok what it is and what it does can save you guys a lot of unnessacery reinstells. If you lose system files from removing programs or just from corrupted files, the file protection system will replace them. As long as a copy is available. If not you wind up not being able to do somethings with your system or have those deep dark mysterious crashes. SFC /SCANNOW will tour the files and replace what is gone or damaged. But sometimes the cache doesn't have what it needs. That's why it says to put in your xp cd. BUT there seems to be a hiccup in xp that after a while or right from the gate sfc /scannow just doesn't want to run. It's lost track of where the files are to make it simple. So all you do is copy the folder off the cd to the c:\ drive in the root directory. Change the reg to reflect where it is and reboot. After that the automatic file protection system will load the dll cache from that location. And when you run sfc /scannow it will look there too.
No more not running or not being able to find the files on the cd.
You guys should really check this out.

 

[per]

Hey Seti- I said all that!! LOL!! Thanks.

 

[setishock]

Oops!!!

Was trying to hype up a reason for me asking for it. A lot of mysterious problems could be resolved if the guys would just try this first.

 

[per]

Yeah, I know. Thats why I posted it at your request. See ya later.