Under XP Pro Nero Burning Rom v. 5.5 refuses to work or to unistall

lsthorn · #1 (**permalink**) 30-08-2006, 10:27 PM

A few years ago I received Nero 5 Burning Rom (version 5.5.6.0) along with a CD-R/RW drive that I bought. Though I was never able to make it function in connection with CD-RW disks, I was quite content with its ease in writing CD-R disks, which I used for several years as high-capacity backups and also occasionally to make duplicate copies of audio CDs. It worked well under Windows 98 SE and then, starting a year ago or so, under XP Professional -- until yesterday.

Intending to copy an audio CD, I opened the program, and instead of being greeted in the usual way by a wizard asking what I wanted to do found myself facing a dialogue "Choose Recorder" that I do not recall ever seeing before. Apparently the dialogue is supposed to be populated with a list of available recording devices, presumably including my CD-R/RW drive. It had in it, however, only an "Image Recorder" line that did not seem to connect to anything, and I found no way to get past it. The Nero Help said nothing about that "Choose Recorder" dialogue or about "Image Recorder", and the Nero (Ahead Software) website apparently is now concerned only with version 6 and above.

Not wishing to waste any more time on the recalcitrant program, I decided to uninstall it, and replace it with another (yet to be chosen). But when I used the XP Add/Remove Program to do this, again and again (after rebooting in each case) I got a fatal error:

"Error 1316.A network error occurred while attempting to read from the file C:\Windows\Installer\Nero - Burning Rom.msi."

The program remained installed, and remained malfunctioning as described above.

Next I thought that, if the Windows Add/Remove facility did not work, maybe I could use the original Nero CD to reinstall and/or remove the program. Trying that, I found that the screen that came up did not offer an option of installing (on top of or in another place than) the current installation but permitted only an uninstall option. This uninstall option failed, this time with a different error message:

"Error 1904.Module C:\Window\System32\ImagXpr5.dll failed to register. HRESULT -2147024770. Contact your support personnel.",

with the good old Abort/Retry/Ignore trinity of options, none of which is any help, and the utility backed out of the uninstall attempt. Again, repetition after rebooting produced no change.

So the program remains installed, and (if possible) even more useless, since it now thinks it is an expired demo, but refuses to accept my product serial number. Any ideas what to do?

jephree · #2 (**permalink**) 31-08-2006, 02:33 AM

Here is a good guide to a manual uninstall process:

Quote:

Uninstall Programs Manually

Just because Windows XP has the Add/Remove Programs feature it doesn't mean your application will appear in the list. Furthermore, even if it does appear, it's no guarantee that the uninstall feature will work. When you run across one of these situations the items listed below will help in getting rid of the application. Be aware that these steps may not remove everything associated with the application and can impact other applications on the computer. Have a backup or restore point and use caution.

*

Find the directory for the application and delete all the files in the directory. Delete the directory. e.g. click C: under My Computer then Program Files etc.
*

Open regedit (start/run regedit) and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE and find the folder for the application. Delete the folder.
*

Open regedit and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE and find the folder for the application. Delete the folder.
*

To remove the application entry from Add/Remove Programs (if present) open regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Uninstall and find the folder for the application. Delete the folder.
*

Some applications have Services attached to them. If this is the case, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es, locate and delete the service.
*

In Windows Explorer, navigate to the individual user settings and delete program references. Common places to check would be:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs and delete relevant entries.
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup and delete relevant entries.
C:\Documents and Settings\%YourUserID%\Start Menu\Programs and delete relevant entries.
[Do this for each User ID listed]
C:\Documents and Settings\%YourUserID%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup and delete relevant entries.
[Do this for each User ID listed]

If no entries were found in the previous step and the application launches automatically, navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows
and delete the entry.

A good free Registry Cleaner here: RegSeeker

It is a good idea to backup your Registry before cleaning. This is a good free tool for that:

[ERUNT] Registry Backup and Restore for Windows
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/

[ERUNT Download URLs]
http://www.aumha.org/downloads/erunt.zip
http://www.aumha.org/downloads/erunt-setup.exe

[Installing & Using ERUNT]
http://www.winxptutor.com/regback.htm
http://www.silentrunners.org/sr_eruntuse.html
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-o...erunt/erunt.txt

....................................

Altering system files; & or modifying the registry can be risky and D-A-L.com and its members cannot accept liability for any adverse effects caused by following advice freely given on this site.

You might also want to remove any Nero entries that this app shows:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;290301

lsthorn · #3 (**permalink**) 01-09-2006, 04:58 PM

Thanks, Jephree. I followed your advice on a manual uninstall, and got rid of the program. including making as many of the recommended registry changes as I could. The program is off the Start Menu list of programs, and though it is still in the Add/Change Programs list it has lost its option boxes for "Change" and "Remove".

jephree · #4 (**permalink**) 02-09-2006, 12:22 AM

Do you check this key:

To remove the application entry from Add/Remove Programs (if present) open regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Uninstall and find the folder for the application. Delete the folder.

lsthorn · #5 (**permalink**) 02-09-2006, 04:55 PM

Thanks Jephree for the advice for ridding Add/Remove Programs of the entry for the deleted Nero software. In the Registry key that you specify there are indeed listed under Uninstall a considerable number of keys/folderx with program names given in English, but none of these connects with Nero or its maker Ahead Software. No doubt Nero is hiding in the disguise of one of the still more numerous Uninstall folders that have unintelligible names consisting of seemingly random strings of letters and numbers. For many of these the right-hand pane with its Name, Type and Data columns serves to identify the program, but in none of them do I find Nero or Ahead Software. But what really needed doing I was able to do by following your earlier advice. Thanks again.

LST