Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of musicalmidget
musicalmidgetFlag for United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

asked on

Cannot start Windows XP Home edition

Hi.

The secondary computer in the house has started playing up this morning.  The computer has two hard drives.  Windows XP Home Edition is installed on the master hard drive, and Windows 98SE is installed on the secondary hard drive, which is used mainly for storage and older programs that are not compatible with Windows XP.

On turning the computer on this morning, the usual "Select Operating System" screen appeared.  When Windows XP Home Edition is selected, a screen appears stating that Windows did not load up correctly last time, and am then asked to select an option from the following, "Start Normally", "Start in Safe Mode", "Start in Safe Mode with Networking", "Start in Safe Mode with Command Prompt" and "Start with last known good configuration".  I've tried every one of these options two or three times now, and every single time, the computer waits a few seconds and then restarts.  Sometimes the "loading bar" appears briefly, but then the computer restarts again when the bar gets to the end.  Hence, we are stuck in a loop of starting the system, selecting an operating, selecting a boot option from the error screen and then restaring and doing the same again.

However, when attempting to load Windows 98 instead, the computer loads with no problems.  Additionally, I can still access drive C (Windows XP - problem drive) and all the files on it from Windows 98 on drive D.

Unfortunately, I wasn't the last person to use the computer before this problem started, and the person who was the last has a very limited knowledge of computers.  However, from what I can gather, he was using a program for video editing called "Magix Movies on CD and DVD", or something to that extent.  He was having problems exporting a video project onto DVD, so edited the DVD driver settings (without any knowledge of the implications of doing so).  On doing so, he was prompted to restart the computer in order for the settings to take effect.  That is when this problem began.  This "Magix" software has seemed to cause nothing but trouble since the day it was installed, so it wouldn't suprise me if that was to blame, however I can't be sure.

So, if anyone out there has any idea what may be causing this problem, or better still, how to fix it, then I would be very grateful indeed.

Thank you.
Avatar of nobus
nobus
Flag of Belgium image

uninstall magix and reboot; if it persists try from the recovery console the commands fixboot and fixmbr

nobus
Avatar of musicalmidget

ASKER

Thank you for your reply.

I'm afraid using the recovery console seems to be out of the question, as it appears that the console itself can only be installed from within Windows XP, and not from Windows 98 or from MS DOS.

Uninstalling Magix (using 98 to uninstall it from the XP drive) was the first thing I tried, and it appears to have had no effect.

Does anyone have any other suggestions or advice?

Thank you.
Avatar of dcrawford999
dcrawford999

You can boot from the WinXP install disk and try the repair option.  I'm not sure if it'd be necessary but you could unplug the 2nd drive (Win98) to ensure it remains safe.
Sorry, i misread your post. But you can boot in safe mode (tap F8 key during boot) and select boot to DOS .
You can execute the commands  from there

nobus
Try loading into safe mode if when loading into safe mode your computer hangs at mup.sys you have a very annoying and random windows bug. sometimes disconnect usb device or clearing out your pci slots fixes the problem.  

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/20584708/windows-2000-hanging-while-starting-Mup-sys-cause.html

and this

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/t1047532372

hope that solves =)
I would make sure your Bios is set to boot from CD first, then Insert the Windows XP Install CD like crawford said. Once you get into setup you should be able to repair the install. Try that and get back to us.

-DEW
>>But you can boot in safe mode (tap F8 key during boot) and select boot to DOS<<

nobus,

I've posted to you before. Your not reading the threads and you are offering solutions
that provide no help what-so-ever. musicalmidget explained in detail about results
from trying Safe Mode and all other pre-boot menu selections.
If you don't read the threads in their entirety how can you grasp the problem.

Also XP does not "boot to DOS", that's Windows 95/98/98SE
sorry mighty spiderfix, i first replied thinking it was Xp, then he said that was out of the question, so i gave him the win98 options.I only wanted to help. But if i offended you in anyway please say so i retreat from this cosy happy forum

nobus
nobus,
i'm sure he/she's not offended. It's just frustrating when your trying to help someone and you get others posting things that do not help at all or have been said in a previous post. It just clutters up things. XP does have a boot to command prompt just to let you know though... Just try to read all the comments before posting nobus so you can see if your suggestion is already said or your information your tryin to give is correct for the situation. Everyone appreciates help, don't give up!

-DEW
>>sorry mighty spiderfix<<
Just because you've been singled-out for posting without reading that is no reason
to get defensive.

Your posting at a website that has a plethora of qualified experts. Many who are
employed in the industry and offer their services here for free. Point-gathering
is not the preferred Modus Operandi here.

DEW has pointed out a very diplomatic explanation of the point here. I, on the other
hand, am more of a get-with-the-program type. The goal here is to help musicalmidget
not "clutter up" their thread.

DEW's last "fix" post about doing a repair install is the next logical step and we await
the results from musicalmidget executing that.
Good evening.

I've tried Dews idea, and I have managed to make a little progress, but not much.  I successfully managed to load the Windows XP recovery console, and then entered the commands "fixboot" and "fixmbr".  Both commands executed without any problem, and the computer restarted.  Now when I try to start Windows XP, the boot process gets a few seconds further, but then restarts again, even in safe mode.  Now the loading bar gets to 100% and I actually see a couple of seconds of the Windows XP startup screen.  However, after literally only a second or two, I get a quick flash of a blue error screen, and the computer reboots itself once again.  Unfortunately, the blue error screen flashes on and off so quickly that it is impossible to read what the actual error is.

Perhaps this gives you another idea or too?

Thank you so far for the help.
In the XP recovery console there is also...
bootcfg /rebuild
...the thing is [as I understand] it only deals with (searches for) NT kernel operating systems.
nt 4.0 (Windows NT)
nt 5.0 (Windows 2000)
nt 5.1 (Windows XP)

I have no idea what it's going to do with your Windows 98. You may want
to backup your boot.ini before running bootcfg.

bootcfg also has the /scan parameter (bootcfg /scan). It searches for O/Ss and
this may let you know if bootcfg can see Windows 98. You may want to run that
first to let you know if Windows 98 is visible to bootcfg.

>>However, when attempting to load Windows 98 instead, the computer loads with no problems.
>>Additionally, I can still access drive C (Windows XP - problem drive) and all the files on it from
>>Windows 98 on drive D.
If you can see Windows XP while booted in Windows 98 then Windows XP was formatted
FAT32 and not NTFS so again, I have no idea what bootcfg is going to do with that.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of sciwriter
sciwriter

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Hi again.

I followed the steps above posted by sciwriter for repairing the existing installation, however, half way thourgh the installation, I am presented with an error message entitled "unregmp2.exe - Entry Point Not Found".  The message reads "The procedure entry point GetIUMS could not be located in the dynamic link library MSDART.DLL.".  On clicking OK, the error message just pops up again.  Is there something I can do to fix this error and continue the installation repair?

Once again, thank you for the help so far.
SOLUTION
Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
I managed to find a solution to this installation error.  I'll post it below, just incase anyone else ever experiences the same problem.

When the error for "unregmp2.exe" appears, hold Shift + F10 to open the command prompt.  Type taskmgr.exe and wait for the Windows XP task manager to open.  Then, click the "Processes" tab and find "unregmp2.exe", select it and click "End Process".  Then exit the task manager, exit the command prompt and let the installation/repair continue.

I would once again like to thank all of the people who have tried thier best to help me fix this problem, and would especially like to thank sciwriter for providing the answer which worked for me.  The efforts you all put in to help really are appreciated.

Thank you.
Wow -- that sounds like a CD drive problem, is it having trouble reading the installation disk?  Is there a cancel button, it might just pass through to the next file.  If not, you have corrupt or missing files, and you might need to do a clean install (which will force you to reinstall all your apps, not an easy task, to say the least).
Before I finished typing the reply above, it seems nobus found the exact same fix as I did.  Sorry I didn't see it sooner.

Thanks all the same.
Thanks for the Shift-F10 tip MM, it is a good one.  Best luck always ...
sciwriter, there wasn't a cancel button, but my CD has seen better days I think.  Maybe it's time for a new one.

Even so, I did eventually manage to solve the problem (with your help of course), so I'll now close this question and award points where necessarry.

Thanks a lot.