MS DOS Window Warning – Not Enough Memory

Sorry, had to get away from this thing for a while.

I access Defrag in most conventional way-Start >…> System Tools > Disc Defrag.

All began from the crash (1st post) that took out my Adaptec CD creator along with WMPlayer and corrupted WMVCORE.dll to the point where it, the DLL, changed its size from the original 1.08mb to only 56kb. Windows wouldn’t let me access it even in Safe mode. To free up the grip any program could’ve had on it I began uninstalling (one at a time) all related applications. One ASF authoring program was very stubborn, leaving few components behind for manual deletion. After re-start (and I rebooted almost after every uninstallation) Windows Reg. Checker found the Registry to be corrupted and automatically, without allowing to cancel at least by CAD, replaced it with the previous one, naturally, with the one dated prior to when this last program was uninstalled. After more clean-up remnants of that program and dead reg. keys I repeatedly scanned for errors-none was found. I think I even Defragged after that, just to overwrite freed space. To have done that would’ve been a normal event for me. Rebuilt IE (mine’s 5.01 SP2), scanreg /fix’ed-nothing.
In attempt to overwrite corrupted WMVCORE.dll, which is part of installation package, I re-installed WMP 7 over itself. Didn’t work. Now I was unable to uninstall it either.
I did the same with Adaptec ECDC, resulting in same effect, yet didn’t try uninstalling it.

Here is why I went through all above manipulations while having perfectly usable, fresh, original copy of required DLL backed up to a CD. The entire copy of Sys Folder dates few years back to when my PC was new, clean with almost nothing on it. It’s my nature to back up things important to me, which in the future might come in handy.
Wish could’ve done it with the wife, when she was new, fresh “coming out of the box”.
Since then, naturally, many components were updated and/or modified as compared to the copy on CD. Thus, I was cautious letting Windows read its own folder, causing conflicts/confusion. I’ve had similar experience in the past in the different area but easily recovered.

Left with the single choice, CD was loaded and soon as I opened the (renamed, of course) SYS folder on it monitor flickered momentarily as if refreshing itself. I new it wasn’t good yet, continued since the choice had been made.

Copied the DLL from CD to a newly created folder on C:, removed CD and went to check corrupted WMVCORE.dll. While still corrupt (SFC Checked), now its size matched the original and I could access it to rename/replace. Note, I did not do anything to it. Renamed it to WMVCORE.dllOLD, copied the new one to SYSTEM folder on C:, restarted PC to register DLL. Now Adaptec ECDC and WMP worked.
Could not get to Defrag for a couple of days.
You know the rest.

Because of the above I tend to think that REM may not be the only possible cause. If Windows got “confused” and did refresh the system as described before (mon.flicker), then it might have changed some settings of the component(s) responsible for creating visuals.

1. This may explain several OLEOUT.dll page faults.
2. If Windows unable to create a visual object, then it can only give warning through WinDOC interface. Note: not real DOC.

These are my thoughts.

Thanks much for taking the time reading.

What do you think?

Just an addendum to my last post.

3. Earlier I mentioned that despite all the McAfee Defrag works in every mode. It means that it accesses the system’s REM to move/rearrange files without failure. Perhaps it uses its own module(s) to build visual interface, bypassing Windows component(s) but Windows must use those built into it.

You may have files that are not properly registered. I've used this tip from axcel many times to solve these kind of problems. You might want to give it a shot:
http://www.mdgx.com/newtip13.htm

Many other good tips n' tweaks on his site too...:)

Ridge, your last suggestion and link may be The solution. Not that I discount anyone’s advice, help and patience with this matter. I deeply appreciate everybody’s help.
While familiar with the site I, somehow, never had the time to really study it in detail.
Re-registering DLLs described in the AXCEL page reminded me of the Registry and, most importantly, *.OLE’s I cleaned after Windows Automatically re-inserted the Registry predated removal some of the programs, it’s in my previous post. That completely escaped me until your last post. I went through the back up folder created by RegCleaner I used then and found many Class Keys in Root that were removed. I’m certain that among them there are those responsible for my trouble now. Thinking my system’s clean, I ran RegCleaner looking for “dead” keys and deep OLE scan again. As before, it came up with a sea of both. The choice now is to either restore all from the back up or re-register only those DLL’s that are not self-registering. Either way, it’ll take a while to restore and clean again but will be done.
If curious, I used quite simple, older version - RegCleaner 4.3 by Jouni Vuorio. To register/unregister DLL’s I have a single Executable with Win Interface called RegSvr32.

While working at it I’ll keep watching the thread anyway and post result when done.

Thank you all again.

These past couple of days I‘ve looked into the possibility of restoring some of the deleted Reg. Keys. So far, I’ve restored some of, maybe, pertinent keys but other then getting back functionality some of the minor apps, which I was unaware of not working, WinDefrag still doesn’t work. Unfortunately, copy of registry I had made prior to cleaning somehow got corrupt and had to be deleted.

If copy of Registry is initially Exported from within Registry Utility and later restored, then it should simply merge into existing registry without altering existing keys.
If this kind of logic is sound, then merging any “good” registry ( made at the time when Defrag worked ) into existing one should restore missing or removed keys.

Other then some cleanable “dead” entries, how conflicting could this procedure turn out to be?

I’d be interested in your opinions.

Quote:

---

Originally posted by Train
Now why are you using the ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 ?

---

Good question.

I thougth you should onyl use that when you are not letting windows control virtual memory ie you specify wher and how much you want to use.

But you are not doing that or you would have entries similar to what Train had:

Quote:

---

PagingDrive=C:
MinPagingFileSize=153600

---

Quote:

---

Originally posted by odysseus79
then it should simply merge into existing registry without altering existing keys.

---

NO.

It will replace missing / deleted keys, but any key that already exists will be overwritten with the value from the backup.

Nix, in reference to Conservative Swap file Usage I can only offer a guess: In addition to Swap file CacheMan controls, thru appropriate interface, either manually or automatically: Minimal /Maximal Disc Cash-2,048kb-12,288; Chunk Size-512; Name Cash, Path Cash etc., all within its own modules, without writing into the System’s Properties where it could be seen. Undoubtedly, it works during light and, especially, heavy loads s.a. graphic work. My sys.monitor’s always on and on rare occasion would it indicate REM’s need to unload. Without CacheMan CPU and HD never have idle time. That’s the area of my expertise on this issue. Sorry.

Much appreciate your tip on Reg. Restore. Having to uninstall ALL applications in order to use old (but good) back up would probably be my very last resort, but at least it’s a chance, while not very elegant.

In RegCleaner’s back up I just found 3 interestingly looking keys that I should try restoring. One is for McAffee Utilities’ Task Master, removed from start menu.
The other two are also from start menu:

1. [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]
"Whet"="C:\\WINDOWS\\Application Data\\olpl.exe"

2. [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run]
"Wnsc"="C:\\WINDOWS\\SYSTEM\\wnsintsv.exe"

While the Task Master is the most attractive variant, since it controls many Windows functions and should’ve been removed from Start through MSConfig or own option,
the 1 and 2 may not even be part of the system. Need to try.

Thanks for keeping an eye on the thread.

Found this
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Taskl...tasklist_w.htm
Task which is dropped onto your PC when you run the free “hidden pornography” scanner from PuritySCAN.com. At the time of writing, 9‑May‑2004,


It is listed in the Winservn box as a alias and seems to be one mean one.

Thanks for posting about wnsintsv.exe, Train. Now I recall removing this thing that came in bundled with another application I planned on testing. I do not think I ever ran the EXE, but even if it did automatically, I certainly didn’t allow it delete anything. I ran Spybot, Stinger, Trojan Scanner and VScan before and after removal. In second instance all came up negative.
Thank you.

Task Mastered restored. Still No Defrag.

RegScan shows many dead keys in ROOT under CLASSID. OLE scan brings too many of the same, including Interface references. So it must be that proper reg link(s) where removed.

Must go on searching.

BTW, following Ridge’s tip on re-registering DLLs, OLEAUT32.dll for me, eliminated page faults, thus far.

Let me throw another wrinkle into this thread. odysseus79 your post of the contents of your config.sys file showed:
DEVICEHIGH=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\DRVSPACE.SYS /MOVE
Question: Is your C drive compressed?
If you open My Computer and right click on C drive and select Properties, you should see a header for compression.

If you are not running any compressed drives, having compression turned on wastes conventional memory. That could cause memory problems, especially in DOS windows.

I am running my Windows 98 on a compressed drive. And it could be normal on your system. However, if you have accessed a compressed disk, Windows will often create a DRVSPACE.INI file which loads Drivespace at boot. That is not necessary if you are not booting from a compressed drive.

Just another thing to check.

------------------
My
Two Cents
Dennis
Visit Politalk

Thanks for taking the time replying, Eeyore.
No, my C: isn’t compressed. In fact, in my C>Properties there is no mention of compression anywhere. Still, I appreciate everyone’s advice.
Meantime, from RegBack up I’ve restored some promising-looking entries, but without any luck.

I may be wrong, but I continue to think that problem, somehow, has to do with Windows object creating process. If you remember, the entire “saga” began with an application crash taking down WMP, corrupting WMVCORE.dll. Then, quite frequent OLEAUT32.dll page fault, until I re-registered it. Monitor Test-Visual application also can’t start. All visual interface related. Monitor Test could probably be fixed by deleting its INI file, but don’t want to do it yet.

Finally, reason “insufficient memory” shown by MSDOS may be attributed to the fact that Defrag must run Scandisk first, which may be carried out in DOS. However, since Defrag is not DOS-based, Scandisk needs to create Graphic Interface, but can’t. Something’s missing. A link?
Lastly.
On or about the day many apps were deleted, File/Folder utility found (among few DLLs, VXDs…) these also where modified:

1. Scpthdr.dll
2. Msihook.dll
3. Knlwrap.exe
All in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Install Shield\engine\6\Intel32

Please note, that on start Defrag’s Dialog asking which drive you want to defragment is overlapped by Intel Logo.
My be a connection…

Quote:

---

Finally, reason “insufficient memory” shown by MSDOS may be attributed to the fact that Defrag must run Scandisk first, which may be carried out in DOS.

---

There are two scandisks: SCANDISK.EXE which is DOS based, normally used before WIndows starts, and SCANDSKW.EXE which is what you normally use in Windows. DEFRAG.EXE runs exclusively in Windows.

You might run SFC (Sytem File Checker). This can restore original files and report changes.

As to the compression, at the DOS prompt type:
cd c:\
attrib -r -s -h drvspace.ini
copy drvspace.ini drvspace.in_
attrib -r -s -h dblspace.ini
copy drvspace.ini dblspace.in_
del drvspace.ini
del dblspace.ini

When you reboot compression will no longer be loaded. You can delete these if all is well, or copy them back as they were originally if the compression is needed. This should free up about 50kb of memory.

------------------
My
Two Cents
Dennis
Visit Politalk

After searching trough hundreds of Internet pages this entire time still can’t initialize either Defrag no Monitor test. Even checked the cluster size, to make sure nothing changed it.
Reset Conservative Swap file to normal and had Cacheman boot for Low Memory system – No result.
Run SFC and Scandisk regularly-all normal.
BTW, I have no compression installed on C, somehow, missed it the first time.
More ideas will be most welcomed.

Several days ago I noticed that I no longer have been able to compress drive A - get that same MS Dos “insufficient memory” window. Trying to Defrag already compressed 3.5 floppy with McAfee defragmenter, which still works otherwise, results in a blue screen Windows warning: Insert disc in drive A. Closing this window, gives second message: Unable to read contents of drive A. Closing this box brings Windows back to normal.

McAfee VS, that I had to re-install and update the engine prior to this entire deal, seems to work. However, I suspect the install is somewhat crooked. But then, one never knows for sure with their applications.

Perhaps, this will give someone a clue.
Thanks.