Member Avatar for deezers2010

I have a dell laptop inspiron 1501 laptop with registry probems and its slow. I had stop sign firewall and i guess it got corrupted and stop working properly. I got another program that removed two trojans. I have a registry cleaner and everday it cleans up anywhere from 4-20 registry problems a day.

Anyone have any ideas? My mom had the same problem and the geek squad had to restore to factory settings, which fixed it.
Do i need to do the same thing? if so, how do you do it on my laptop, i've tried it and cant seem to find it. I do have the discs for it.

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Quick expert follow‑up to the thread (notes for and others): a full factory reset will usually fix persistent OS corruption, but it is risky if important files aren’t backed up first. Before wiping, make a full disk image, then check and repair system files and the drive itself so a reinstall isn’t done unnecessarily. (knowledgebase.macrium.com)

Immediate, practical checklist (in order):

  • Create a full image of the system drive to an external disk (image — not just file copy). (knowledgebase.macrium.com)
  • Repair Windows system files and check the disk. From an elevated Command Prompt run: 
sfc /scannow
chkdsk C: /f /r

SFC repairs protected system files; CHKDSK finds bad sectors and filesystem errors (the /r option includes /f). Both may require a reboot. (support.microsoft.com)

Next checks and scans (likely causes of slowness):

  • Run an up‑to‑date antimalware full scan (Malwarebytes or equivalent) to rule out persistent infections. (malwarebytes.com)
  • Check drive health (SMART) with a utility such as CrystalDiskInfo; a “Caution/Bad” result needs an immediate backup and drive replacement plan. Also review startup programs and Task Manager for resource hogs; HDD hardware failure, malware, or a nearly full/fragmented disk are far more likely causes of sustained slowness than a few registry entries. (crystalmark.info)

About the failed factory restore and recovery discs: that error usually means the restore process cannot read or complete using the recovery image (bad discs, damaged optical drive, or a corrupt recovery image). Try cleaning the discs, testing them in another drive, or booting from a USB/DVD recovery tool. If recovery media won’t work, Dell’s recovery/SupportAssist options and ordering replacement recovery media are the supported routes. If recovery still fails after imaging and hardware checks, a clean reinstall (using the recovery or retail media) is appropriate — but only after the image is made and network/chipset drivers are saved offline. (dell.com)

Connections to earlier replies: was correct that a reinstall is the definitive fix; ’s advice to check background tasks and disk usage is also important — do the diagnostics above first, then restore or reinstall as needed.

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Member Avatar for gurukid22

Windows is very bad at managing the registry and over time it gets very messy especially when installing and uninstalling programs. You can get resgistry cleaners but im not a big fan and never recommend it.

Yes, the best way to surely fix all problems is to format and reinstall or return to factory setting i would do this.

Backup your data first with dmailer backup.

And in newer verison of windows like vista and seven they do handle the registry a bit better so it may be a good idea to upgrade at the same time.

Member Avatar for mjdodd

many laptops have a fa

Member Avatar for mjdodd

oops to continue have a function key to do a rest at boot up. Others have a smallhole often underneath and in some cases a the back. insert a small objec tlike the end of a paper clip and there is a microswitch that willreset to factory settings.
Another route is to completely wipe the hard disk (using a disk eraser or a linux and reformat and then reformat back to windows on installation).
It is also worth noting that registry errors anything up to about 200 or so will have little effect on the computer speed. once you get to about 500 errors then you notice slow down. It would seem to me that the slowness may be due to other causes check
1 What is running in the background
2 is the hard disk needing defragmentation
3 Have you got a lot of gash / temporary files that need deleteing
4 is the hard disk too full
5 If the virtual memory file pinching too much (or worse too little space)
6 make sure you do not have any programs continually trying to access the internet see above
background

some AV progs also hog the machine and some progs use a lot of CPU cycles to do very little and hence slow it down. check the CPU cycle usage (event monitor in win XP and above)
M

Edited by mjdodd because: n/a
Member Avatar for deezers2010

Thanks so much for the extra info everyone. Here is an update. I did get a registry cleaner and when it finally finished cleaning up, it cleaned up over 700 reg errors. So I do have that. I do use clean disk alot and defrag.. I have Windows vista, but Im not a big fan of it.
I did try to reset to factory settings, it came back with "failed to nobulate media back to factory settings". which apparently is a dell thing.

so ok what does that mean and what can i do? or should i take it to someone?

thanks again!

Member Avatar for mjdodd

if you have cleaned up over 700 reg errors then hte ,machine should be rnning rather better. You give no further info on what is / is not happening and so diagnosis at a distance is difficult.
let us know what the probs still are.
M

Edited by mjdodd because: t else you have done and wha the probs still are!
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