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General discussion

Windows XP Will Not Boot Completely Part 2

Mar 6, 2004 12:09AM PST

For some reason the forum would not let me tack on a reply to my first post Windows XP Will Not Boot Completely. So I am posting this anew.


Checked the error logs and there were many red x's, detailing various problems. Many of these were caused by services that would not load in safe mode, from the last 3 times we booted the computer. The most frequent other one, was about a driver failing to load. The drivers that failed to load in this case were one call FIPS, and another called PROCESSOR.

Went ahead and did a clean system install of Windows, since nobody had any better ideas, and the computer worked great for about 2 hours. The software we installed after windows was:

Windows Updates
NAV Corporate Edition
PowerDVD
Roxio 5 Basic
Palm Tungsten
Avant Go
ePocrates
Documents To Go
Microsoft Office XP
Office Service Pack 1
HP Photosmart P1000 Printer
Imagemaker 4800 Scanner


It was in between installing the printer and the scanner that we got the first error where My Computer locked up, just a white window with no icons, and
Explorer crashed. Waited to end program on My Computer window, and once it did we had a blank screen with just a mouse and the desktop background.
Did a hard reboot by holding in the power button on them machine, recieved error about having to shut down explorer.exe, and the option to close now or cancel. We waited for the bar to go across the screen.

On reboot, got to the welcome screen just fine, but at that pointm you click on the user's icon to login, the windows startup sound plays immediately but it stays on the welcome screen loading personal preferences for at least 2 mins, and when it gets into windows, there is a mouse, and the desktop background but nothing else. Scanner lamp warms up, just as before, but nothing else.

Hitting ctrl+alt+delete brings up the task monitor, and under applications, there is something a little wierd. SVCHOST.EXE is running like 5 instances, but system idle process is still = 99%. When I closed one of the svchost instances, nothing happened, so I closed another. At this point, explorer opened, icons showed up, and everything, but I got a message from NT/Authority about being shutdown in XX seconds, and a countdown, similar to the same effect the MSBlaster worm had on systems.

Guys I am at the end of my rope. I have put in a service request with Dell and described the problems, in case it is processor related or hard drive related or whatever, because the users machine is still under warrenty for another 2 weeks. But I would like to be able to fix it without having to go through that.
Again, any help would be appreciated.

Discussion is locked

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New install opens the door to worms. These are not stopped by your Antivirus.
Mar 6, 2004 12:20AM PST
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Re:New install opens the door to worms. These are not stopped by your Antivirus.
Mar 7, 2004 10:38AM PST

It is not the blaster worm, or anything similar as we got all the windows updates done as soon as the machine came back up. Dell told the user to pull out all pci cards to see if they were causing the issue, he has removed them all, and the issue persists, and he has tried them one at a time, and yet the issue still persists. They also asked about system lights on the back of the case ABCD, saying they can give error codes. But they are not. I really don't know what to do here.

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Let's be sure.
Mar 7, 2004 10:52AM PST

That there are varients to the worms. Even if the first thing you do is to get the updates, the worm has enough time to install itself.

There are more varients than I will list. If you don't do all the tests to find it, then what can I write? The hardest problems I deal with are mostly about denial about the problem. Let's do the tests and be sure?

Here's the usual:

Parasite removal programs.

http://reviews.cnet.com/5208-6132-0.html?forumID=32&threadID=1313&start=0 notes the five scanning tools and removal tools that are fairly safe. If one does encounter an issue, its always been damage done by the MALWARE. The most common issue being Layered Service Provider replacement which you can use LSPFIX (Hint: use http://www.google.com to find).

The thread has follow on discussions about new links if you don't want to use Google to find an item.

Bob

PS. All the tools are free.

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Re:Let's be sure.
Mar 7, 2004 11:51AM PST

When I posted the problem originally, I searched the first 10 pages of the message boards for any other XP will not boot problems. Many of them suggested this same treatment. Ad-aware and spybot which the user used constantly found nothing but some cookies. CW Shredder and also Stinger showed nothing, and housecall would not run because something it didn't like about safemode.

I appreciate your help, but I am pretty sure this is not the answer. I also had the user step back the process and uninstall the printer and scanner to see if it would start working again, to no avail.

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Re:Windows XP Will Not Boot Completely Part 2
Mar 6, 2004 2:14AM PST

1. The TechNet article "Application and Service Tools" provides a list of tools useful for troubleshooting applications and services, and information concerning them.

2. The article [Q316434] discusses the issues that can occur because of an incompatible or corrupted program and how to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting to determine whether the problem is:

a. affiliated with the core operating system
=or=
b. with a program that is loading in the Windows environment.

3. The TechNet article "Using Service Tools to Diagnose and Resolve Startup Issues" discusses three tools that can help troubleshoot services. The System Configuration Utility (Msconfig), Services snap-in (Services.msc), and SC (Sc.exe) - a command-line tool that displays information about running services.

4. "Determining Which Services and Processes to Temporarily Disable" is the question which this TechNet article may help you with. It describes and discussing methods for determining which services and processes to temporarily disable that varies from one computer to the next.

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Re:Windows XP Will Not Boot Completely Part 2
Apr 8, 2004 2:15PM PDT

i have a similar problem with this printer and windows xp. i get the splash screen with the moving bar, the screen goes black and that's it. i am currently dealing with a microsoft tech to solve this problem.

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Re:Windows XP Will Not Boot Completely Part 2
Apr 19, 2004 12:43AM PDT

system idle process at = 99% is a good thing means cpu is 99% free , shuting down svchost will crash the pc. try runing BootVis.exe it is a boot and performance trace tool for use with XP systems http://www.windows-help.net/WindowsXP/tune-19.html
or at http://www.voodoofiles.com/5089
then look at Event Viewer Crash Errors Goto > right click My Computer >left click manage >system tools +>Event Viewer >click + >look at Applications and System on right side you will see a list of errors.

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Re:Windows XP Will Not Boot Completely Part 2
Apr 19, 2004 1:07AM PDT

First thing you've got to do is disconnect all external peripherals, especially the scanner. Boot into Safe Mode and remove or disable the scanner and printer drivers. Take it from there. Regards