Windows XP error- "Windows Low on Registry Space"

[hawedi]

About 33 days ago I wrote that our user in www.windows-board.de had reinstalled his Windows XP (using the old, origin drivers). And for a long period we believe that the trouble had gone.

Suddenly and without any exceptionally changing the same error shows up again. We believe that the real cause is in %SystemRoot%\system32\config. The registry system - hive - file increased from normal to 131.072 KB. Unknown what kind of cause-and-effect chain do so !

sincerely yours hawedi

 

[Perris Calderon]

thanx for that follow up...will look into that

 

[KJB777]

What is the current status on this problem?
I am currently experiencing the same problem. I have not updated to the new nViIDIA drivers and I am currently using Driver version 3.1.3.

My configuration is as follows:
Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (build 2600)
2.15 gigahertz AMD AMD Athlon XP +3000
128 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache

2048 Megabytes Installed Memory RAM
Board: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD MS-6570
Bus Clock: 166 megahertz
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD 6.00 PG 08/02/2004
NVIDIA NForce MCP2 IDE Controller
RADEON 7000 SERIES [Display adapter]
RADEON 9250 [Display adapter]
RADEON 9250 - Secondary [Display adapter]
MAG LT565 LCD Display [Monitor]
Proview PS576 [Monitor] (14.9"vis, s/n FFWZ37039540U, July 2003)
Proview PS576 [Monitor] (14.9"vis, s/n FFWZ37039706U, July 2003)

I have the Virtual memory set for 4096 which is the maximum that Windows XP allows...

Any suggestions to eliviate this problem?

Thank you,

 

[Perris Calderon]

welcoome to this board.

I don't think the user resolved the problem, and the only thing I can come up with new is possibly a corrupt registry...have you imported any particular hive often?...this used to corrupt the hive, but that was corrected way back in nt 4...I'm just grasping right now

if you do come up with a solution, please keep us up to date.

I hope you stick around even though we can't help much on this issue

 

[KJB777]

Thank, Parris,

The problem is still not resolved, although it does not seem to be causing any major problems with the system.....

Until today and I am not sure if the problems are related.....

I purchased a new HP Officejet 6210 with USB cable.....

I have not been able to install the Software or Hardware drivers as it stops installation just after the Printer USB cable is connected..... It finds the device but then abruptly stops.... with the message Unable to Load drivers USBHUB.......

Initially I ran into the message that the installation was not able to access LOCAL
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE_HARDWARE denied access.....

I then found that HP must have had some difficulties as they had a FIX for this call HpRegSecFix_V1_3_4.exe after running this fix I was able to continue the down load until....... the above problem....

I rang HP Service and after two hours following their protocal.... (check list) the same results... (I had already uninstalled and installed, cleaned etc..... but I am willing to admit I may have missed something, but alas, the same results)

I initially thought it was a USB problem because the HP Install program moved to the Windows Device install trying to install drivers, when I plugged in the USB cable....

I uninstalled the USB drivers and did a fresh install and after uninstalling HP files and folders, temp etc.... with the same results.....

HP concluded that the problem was with my USB configuration..... They all indicate no system problem.. and other USB devices work great......

In the back of mind I keep thinking that it maybe related to the "Windows Low on Registry Space" or at least some problem with the nVidia nforce setup I have with the AMD Athelon 300+ set up.....

I thought well no problem I have another computer networked to this set up, which is an HP pavilion a282n 2.4 Gig, 512 ram, the printer loaded in to that computer without a problem....

When I went to link the AMD 300+ to that computer via the network.... When I "Add a Printer" I am able to see the printer.... when I browse and then I must load the drivers..... after which I receive a "the server for the 'hp officejet 6200 series' printer does not have the correct printer driver installed. Search for the proper driver"

which I do on the CD and after everything is loaded to windows system32... I receive Printer driver setup error. Operation could not be completed....

HP says its a windows or Mother board USB problem and the others say it is a HP problem.....

Post Scrip the "Windows Low on Registry Space" only comes up when I leave the computer running for several days.... When I reboot several times it disappears....

Some how I get the feeling that these problems are not mutually exclusive events....

In that loading the HP drivers it must access the Registry to complete its operation and if "Windows is low on Registry Space and all other requests will be ingnored" the program will not continue.....

Long message...... Does anyone have any thoughts on this problem?????????

The several hairs I have left on the top of my head, will no longer have to worry about being lonely as they will soon be gone..... Joke actually I shave the head every day....

Thanks

 

[Perris Calderon]

you didn't tell me if you've done a few registry exports and imports...this was a problem that caused corrupt registry, supposedly fixed, but a thought

by the way, a terrific read with your hp printers...I shaved my head last month too

 

[Dan04]

if all else fails, download latest versions of all your stuff, back up all your data and format your comp and start from scratch , normally when registry goes like that its best to format no matter if any "fixes" "fix" the problem as normally ther only bandaids to the problem i have found

 

[KJB777]

To answer: I have not performed any Registry Import or Exports...... When I first expirenced this problem I did a RegScrubXp and It seems to have corrected any registry link problems....

if all else fails, download latest versions of all your stuff, back up all your data and format your comp and start from scratch , normally when registry goes like that its best to format no matter if any "fixes" "fix" the problem as normally ther only bandaids to the problem i have found"

To quote Hawedi "that is a very ANGRY thing to do" I think he meant Drastic but the end result none the less is "ANGER".....

I am reluctant to Download the Newer Drivers of nVidia since it appears that's when the original post had begun to experience problems.... I have the newest BIOS, for MSI and that did not resolve the Windows is low on Registry Space.....

%SystemRoot%\system32\config. The registry system - hive - file is at 205,305 kb I am not sure what is "Normal" for this file . My HP pavilion a282n has a system file size of 6,656 kb. However this is a bare bones setup with very few programs hardware etc....

Thank you for your replies..... I am still searching......

 

[KJB777]

Hello All,

Back again I have come across the following suggestion to rectify the low registry problem...... as I am not 100% familiar with the effects and the numbers are much lower than what I am already using..... does anyone have experience with this and its effects......?????? It sounds like a better option than reformating and starting over.... any options????? Thank you

"What is the Maximum Size for Registry?

A. The maximum size is 102MB, however it is slightly more complicated than this.

The registry entry that controls the maximum size of the registry is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\RegistrySizeLimit. By default this entry will not exist so it will need to be created:

1. Start the registry editor (regedit.exe)
2. Move to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control key
3. From the Edit menu, select New - DWord value and enter the name as RegistrySizeLimit
4. Double click the new entry and enter a value in bytes (choose decimal as the type)

The minimum size is 4MB, and if anything less than this is entered in the registry then it will be forced up to 4MB. The maximum is 80% of the paged pool (which has a maximum size of 128MB, hence 102MB which is 80% of 128MB). If no entry is entered then the maximum size is 25% of the paged pool. The paged pool is an area of physical memory used for system data that can be written to disk when not in use.

An important point to note is that the RegistrySizeLimit is a maximum, not an allocation, and so setting a high value will not reserve the space, and it does not guarantee the space will be available.

This can also be configured using the System Control Panel applet, click on the Performance tab and the maximum registry size can be set there. You would then need to reboot.

For more information see Knowledge Base Article Q124594

There is another complication, during early boot, NTLDR loads some code, allocates working memory, and reads in parts of the registry. All of this has to fit in the first 16MB of memory regardless of how much memory is physically installed. The entire system file is read; enough memory is required to contain the whole file as stored on disk without regard to how much of it is useful.

Some problems

* The registry contains wasted space (sometimes a LOT). Try saving the SYSTEM key from REGEDT32 and then comparing the saved file size with that of the SYSTEM hive in \%systemroot%\system32\config\. On one machine, I reduced the SYSTEM hive from 9,720 KB to 864 KB in this manner.
* Creation of the LastKnownGood ControlSet (usually #2) soon after boot almost doubles the size of the file. Depending on circumstances, such as reclaimable space in the "gas", additions to the registry may require new space to be allocated beyond the end of the combined Current and LastKnownGood SYSTEM hive. Now after the next boot, another LastKnownGood is tacked onto the end of the file, adding about a third to its size. In my case, a registry with a "true" size of 4MB was thus inflated to 12MB and caused boot failure.

A number of ways to get rid of the excess space:

* If FAT, merely boot from DOS floppy, then replace the SYSTEM file
* If NTFS, boot from another NT partition and replace file in previous partition
* Use REGBACK/REGREST from the NT reskit. [maybe easiest of all]
* Run RDISK, shutdown, and repair the system. Make sure you use RDISK /s when using this to also backup the user database.
* Use ERD Commander from Winternals Software

To turn this off use REGEDT32 to add the value "ReportBootOk:REG_SZ:0" [zero] to HKEY_Local_Machine\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon This will prevent creation of the LastKnownGood ControlSet. If a boot fails because the 16 MB limit with NTLDR is exceeded, no dump can be produced and MS will not solve the problem. This 16 MB problem will not be changed in NT 5.

 

[hawedi]

Well, in fact all this attempts of our user were in vain. Like ......

create, increase or decrease the RSL
System Restore , Last Known Good Feature
format und reinstall with Windows XP SP1 and Windows XP SP2
alternately nidia's genuine board drivers to the latest realise

All unconcerned except the registry hive named system. At least it will come up to 131.072 KB = 128 MB. Monitoring this increase during a lot of weeks it seems that this enhancement is not linear. It happens extemporaneous an monitoring with Regmon (Mark Russinovich) brings no coherent results. For example after a constant size of about 32 MB over a period of more than two weeks, there is a suddenly jump to its duplication

This days we assume that using Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) with two network interfaces in this hardware cause such a problem. But why ?

 

[KJB777]

Hawedi Danke Schone, for your update and feedback...

Since the "Window Low on Registry" would ultimately lead to a Error - 1450 because added request would be ignored..... I have located the following information.

I have come across the the following link by Lars Hederer

http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/ntregopt.txt

The freeware progrom is NTREGOPT v1.1h, 03/06/2005

So it is rather current. The program does NOT change the contents of the registry in
any way, nor does it physically defrag the registry files on the drive
(as the PageDefrag program from SysInternals does). The optimization
done by NTREGOPT is simply compacting the registry hives to the
minimum size possible.

Known problems
--------------

NTREGOPT sometimes fails with error 1450 when trying to save an
optimized registry hive. I have not yet been able to reproduce this
error, which means "Insufficient system resources exist to complete
the requested service", on any PC, and reports from affected users
indicate that it also pops up when trying to back up the critical hive
using Microsoft's REGBACK program. This makes it unlikely that there
is anything I can do on my (the programmer's) side. Some users
reported however that they were able to work around the problem by
running NTREGOPT in Windows' safe mode, and in one case uninstalling
a Symantec software suite solved it permanently.

I will run and let you know the results.....

 

[KJB777]

Well the Program was able to reduce the size of all hives by 1% not much....

I did receive the error 1450 unable to optimize SYSTEM hive due to "Insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service"

I will try the safe mode boot and try again.

 

[KJB777]

ALLELUIA, ALLELUIA....... EUREKA!!!!!

By using Lars Hederer NTREGOPT program

http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-o...nt/ntregopt.txt

The freeware progrom NTREGOPT v1.1h, 03/06/2005

in Windows "Safe Mode" I have been able to successfully reduce the SYSTEM hive from 205, 056 kb to 5,120 kb!!!!!!!!! 80% reduction and everything is A.O.K again.....

I have been able to load in the HP 6210 printer now..... It was as suspected limited system resource available to add more programs, hardware etc..... Although operations for normal use did not seem affected.

Reason for the growth of the system file is still unkown..... HOWEVER....... with this program by Lars Hederer we now have a means of preventing this from getting to far out of hand.... by following his recommendations for running before and after new software and hardware additions.....

Hope this helps others that have had this persistant troublesome problem.....

AND thank you to all of you who have contributed in the past to this thread, your help has been instumental in directing me to the proper EASY, QUICK SOLUTION.....

 

[hawedi]

Well done ! - This tool was the break through ! - Thanks a lot !

I am surprised, because trials with PageDefrag by Sysinterals were without success.
For the future we will try to create our own little tool for monitoring this especially event when registry hives accumulate and give an account of this soon.

 

[KJB777]

Apologies to all I did not provide the link to download this progra.

For all those wanting to download

http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/

Hawedi, you may want to contact Lars Hederer as he is located in Germany also.....

 

[Perris Calderon]

great stuff guys...I'd still like to find out what's making the registry grow, so if anyone finds out the cause, let us know

 

[hawedi]

Hawedi, you may want to contact Lars Hederer

The response

Das Programm habe ich natürlich geschrieben, weil ich eben weiß, dass die Registry sich mit der Zeit immer weiter aufbläht - allerdings wusste ich nicht, dass es in diesem extremen Maße passieren kann. Ich hatte schon mit einem User Kontakt, dessen NTUSER.DAT plötzlich 140 MB groß war und übrigens auch durch NTREGOPT nicht wieder verkleinert werden konnte - hier: http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=de&lr...ntuser.dat+file
können die entsprechenden Threads nachgelesen werden, aber die Ursache für das Problem haben wir leider auch nicht gefunden.

Well, our user did so and the conclusion of the response is that the programmer wrote this tool since he experienced that reg hives do their own defragment. But he did not believe such enormous increase. In fact he has neither an educated guess nor a solution.