Topic: System Restore Not Working

[castro]

My PC, running Windows XP, has suddenly decided not to function correctly after three trouble free years.
The problem came to light when Sage Accounting software suddenly demanded a password even though I have never set a password.
I uninstalled and then reinstalled the software but the problem remained.
I believe the problem is to do with security and the relevant files are in the registry and are not deleted with the uninstall.
I have no idea how to resolve this issue apart from trying a system restore to a point previous to the problem occurring.
Unfortunately, when I ran system restore I got the message that it was not possible to restore to the selected point.
I have no idea whether these two problems are connected.
Is there anything I can try or do I need to do a complete Windows reinstall?

[Simon]

Hi Castro,

The System Restore point issue is not unusual, and always occurs when you most need System Restore to work.  I think M$ designed it that way, but it's otherwise known as 'Sod's Law'.

You could try a utility such as Your Uninstaller, which should completely remove the Sage Accounting software, including registry keys, but bear in mind it will also remove any saved settings, etc.

Come back to us if you need further help. 

[chorleydave]

I know this might sound really silly, but have you tried simply hitting the Enter key when it asks for a password?

[castro]

Hi guys.
Thanks for replies.
I will try the Your Uninstaller at the weekend and report back.
Unfortunately hitting the return key when the password is requested does not solve the problem.

[Lona]

I used to have sage on my pc and after uninstalling it whenever I go into Excel a message comes up saying two dll files can't be found.  They both have sage in the names.  I can still use excel but it's annoying always having that message show up everytime I open it.

[Rik]

Try running CCleaner, Lona, hopefully it will get rid of the registry entries which are causing that.

[castro]

Installed Your Uninstaller.
Selected Sage and set it going.
Main program uninstalled ok, presumably using the Sage uninstall.
When it came to the clever stuff in the registry I got a message saying it was unable to delete the files in the registry.
And I thought that was what it was supposed to do.
So not much good there.
The good news is that it found and fixed two problems in the registry.
I then tried system restore and it worked.
The bad news is that even though I restored to a point prior to the Sage problem occuring, the password problem remained.
 

[Simon]

I've never come across that with Your Uninstaller - maybe the registry files were locked?     The only other thing I can suggest is to uninstall it again, and use CCleaner, which Rik recommended above, to try to remove the registry keys.  If it doesn't work in normal mode, try it in Safe Mode, but I'm not sure this would make any difference if the registry keys are locked.

[gmax]

System Restore is snake oil, clone your C drive to another partition or hard drive.

[Lona]

I've tried ccleaner but excel still keeps looking for these dll files. I tried installing sage again to see if that helped but it made no difference.  I tried re-installing office but same thing. Somehow excel is linked to sage for some reason. I have office on my other pc which has never had sage installed and it works fine.