Registry Problem

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My Win2000Pro SP2 machine has suddenly started giving me the following message when I try to open the Oxford English Dictionary CD – “SystemCurrentControlSetControlVirtualDeviceDrivers .VDD Virtual Device Driver format in the registry is invalid – Chose ‘Close’ to terminate the application” Two buttons available – Close and Ignore.

Chosing Close terminates the program, chosing Ignore allows the program to run, but prevents the local network and printer operating properly.

Today I tried to remove a program through the Control Panel – Add/Remove Programs and got exactly the same message.

In the registry the appropriate key appears to be –
MyComputerHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlVirtualDeviceDrivers.

There are two keys under that key –
(Default) REG_SZ (value not set)
VDD REG_MULTI_SZ C:Progra~1SymantecS32EVNT1.DLL

The file C:Progra~1SymantecS32EVNT1.DLL does exist in that folder.

Please tell me how I can fix / repair this problem both to allow OED to operate – it has been operating perfectly OK until a few days ago, and to enable removing programs.

I am prepared to edit the registry – brave but not foolhardy!

Noel

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You could try uninstalling and reinstalling any Norton (Symantec) software first.

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..specifically you need to refresh ‘symevent’. The Symantec web site instructs.

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Thank you SparkyPatrick and MerC,

I followed your advice – first following the instructions in the Symantec web site to refresh Symevnt. That allowed me to remove programs in the Control Panel / Install/Remove programs, but did not remove the message when I started OED.

I then uninstalled and re-installed Norton Anti-Virus, but no change.

I am thinking of removing the registry key that points to VirtualDevice Driver, then re-installing Norton System Works. But before I do that – do you think that is likely to work? I don’t want to get into even more trouble! Any other ideas?

Your advice will be very welcome.

Noel

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Was OED installed before or after Systemworks? Have you run all the diagnostic/repair tools of Systemworks?

Before altering the registry, I would try uninstaling and reinstalling first OED, then Systemworks. Although it is supposed to work with 2k, I am not sure that that systemworks really does. Apart from the fact that 2k needs to disable NAV during boot, the packages that should integrate into Systemworks don’t seem to as well in 2000 as in 9x.

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Thank you. Both programs have been installed for over a year, but I do believe that OED was installed after Norton System Works.

Since my last post I unistalled and reinstalled first Norton System works and WinFax, and removed all Symentec folders in both C drive and the programs drive, then re-installed them, then unistalled and reinstalled OED. No change.

I tried deleting the key in the registry that points to the Virtual Device Driver VDD – but after those uninistall and reinstalls there were now three keys all referring to the same Symantec file S32EVNT1.DLL ( which was restored into the C drive by the reinstallation.

But with all references in the registry to VirtualDeviceDriver.VDD removed I am still getting the same message as before – “SystemCurrentControlSetControlVirtualDeviceDrivers.VDD Virtual Device Driver format in the registry is invalid – etc”

I am at a loss what else I can possibly do. My only other thought is to restore an older copy of the registry from when it all worked as it should, but I imagine that means re-installing all the software and patches installed since that copy of the registry was made – a daunting task.

Any other ideas, please?

Noel

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Did the S32evnt1.dll file restore to said folder when you cleaned it up?

I have said file in said folder on three PCs:
W2k with Norton AV 2001, file size 36k dated August 2000
W2k with Norton AV 2002, file size 36k dated August 2001
XP-RC1 with Norton AV 2002, ditto.
Norton System Works for W2k is not one of my favorites – it has jammed up dual boot a couple of times.

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Thank you Moniq.

Frankly I assume that it did, as it gave a message saying that all needed files had been updated, but a search for files named S32EVNT1.DLL showed one in the Program FilesSymantec folder dated 02/0/01 and one in the WinNTSystem32 folder dated 27/09/01. Big surprise, because there was only one copy of this file before I uninstalled and reinstalled all the Symantec programs.

So I guess a good start may be to copy the later dated file over the other (they have identical file size – 36 K).

After all the effort I am no further advanced so I guess that is worth a try.

Thank you for your suggestions.

Noel

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Did you try to unregister that dll?

(At Command prompt, type
regsvr32 /u S32EVNT1.DLL
with spaces before and after /u)

Maybe it can help.

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Thank you Kaplinb,

You have taught me something I did not know!

I shall try that as soon as I get off line and come back to you.

Thank you for the suggestion.

Noel

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Dear Kaplinb,

I tried your suggestion, but after entering the command at a command line as you instructed I received this message – “S32EVNT1.DLL was loaded but the DLL unregister Server entry point was not found. DLL unregister server may not be exported, or a corrupt version of S32EVNT1.DLL may be in memory. Consider using PView to detect and remove it.

Tried typing PView at the command prompt but got File Not Found. A search of the HD found no such file.

I decided to follow up the corrupt file hint and copied the latest version of the S32EVNT1.DLL file (in the WINNTSystem32 folder over the same file in the C:Program FilesSymantec folder.

I restarted the computer and reinstalled Norton SW, without uninstalling it first. During that process I got a message “uninstaller setup failed to initiate. You may not be able to uninstall this product.” But the installation program went ahead and unistalled and then installed Norton Utilities anyway!

The good news is that the error message about VirtualDeviceDriver VDD format in the registry being invalid has now gone away.

I hope that is the end of this saga!

Thank you to all the people who offered ideas.

Noel

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