Accessing an ETH wallet from 2017?

[Lycanthian]

It's been so long since I've looked at anything crypto related that I've pretty much forgotten anything I learned from back in 2017-2018 when I started to dabble in mining. That being said, I have some ETH in a desktop wallet that doesn't load any more and I have no idea how to go about accessing the the ETH stored in my wallet. I've spent a couple of hours trying to resolve the issue but every solution I've found has yielded no resolution to my issue.

When I try to run the latest version of Mist it gives me a "checksum mismatch in downloaded node!" error telling me to install the Geth node version 1.8.23 manually. When I try to run the Ethereum-Wallet.exe it just loads forever and doesn't get anywhere. I've tried the numerous guides you can find on Google on how to resolve this issue but I've had no luck.

Any thoughts?

[Es Cendol]

Maybe you can try to ceck the electrum version, sometimes it happens because need to update. You can try to use another way using seed phrase or even using private key if you have it. If updating electrum failed to load, and you doesnt have the key or seed, sorry to say, maybe you are losing your ETH.

[shinratensei_]

The question is have you ever back up your wallet before? if you have ever back up your wallet and you can open it on another wallet.
You should be more specific about that. What kind of desktop wallet that you have used before? I think that when you can provide more information about that and we can try to help you about this.

[Lycanthian]

I do have several copies of the keystore (UTC) file in addition to knowing the password and all that. The wallet I used was just called "Ethereum Wallet" and "Mist". I guess the developers have labeled this stuff as "deprecated" and they no longer support it. I originally got it from github.com/ethereum/mist/releases.

Can I just import my keystore file into a new, modern wallet and gain access that way? Like I said I've been out of the crypto space for a long time and forgot almost everything about it.

[virasisog]

That is one of my problems a while back when I tried to look at my old ERC-20 wallets and my Ledger. Good thing aside from Keystore and my passwords, I had kept all my "seed phrase" offline just in case something like this happens. I had expected that some wallets will become obsolete and will have to be updated on time and was afraid I might lose my old wallet after not opening them for a while. Seed Phrase will let you access your wallet from one source to another.

I tried updating my Ledger, but it takes me nowhere it keeps loading forever. So, I guess saving my seed phrase offline saved me from the same demise.

[TheUltraElite]

Mist has been deprecated as far as I can remember. Another blunder of a wallet by the developers of ETH.

If you have the keystore JSON file and know the password used to encrypt it, you can use myetherwallet.com to unlock the wallet and access the assets stored in it.

In case you are new to this and have not used MEW before, please be careful of phishing sites that attempt to clone the official MEW site. This is an advanced method but the only way possible for you to access it AFAIK. The link I posted is from my bookmarks but you can double check.

Go to myetherwallet.com>Access Wallet>Software>Keystore File, continue>Upload the wallet JSON and use the password to decrypt it.

Let us know here if this solves the problem.

[btcsmlcmnr]

Myetherwallet has a short guide to import Mist into this wallet, with Keystore file. Do you have access to Keystore file?
https://kb.myetherwallet.com/en/migration/using-geth-or-mist-with-mew/

Mist Migration Patterns. That article has more details and can help you.