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Unable to repair or reinstall Windows XP Professional
I have a client who called, complaining that his PC would boot to the XP Pro Splash Screen, the blue bars would just roll forever and it would not continue to boot.
I tried everything but got the same results. When I tried safe mode, it just went to mup.sys and stopped there at the DOS-like screen.
I removed the drive, put it in a USB adapter, hooked it up to another computer, and was easily able to copy all of his documents to the server (where they should have been in the first place). His boot files looked normal to me from that viewpoint.
I decided at that point to just reinstall XP. Couldn't hurt, right? I had his data safe. I thought it whould take less time to reinstall then to troubleshoot. My plan was to repartition, reformat, and do a clean install.
I booted from an OEM XP CD. Got to "Setup is starting Windows", and just stayed there. No further activity, nothing. I tried a different OEM CD. Same thing. Tried a retail CD... same thing.
Now I was frustrated, so I tried a brand new drive. Same thing... I tried a second brand new drive... same thing.
I booted from a floppy and ran diagnostics on system RAM. All 512Mb passed ( 2X). Ran full diagnostices. CPU is good. L1 and L2 cache passed. All other hardware tests passed ( 2X).
ANY ideas would be greatly appreciated. This one really has me baffled. (not that that is too hard to do).. One billion points to the correct answerer.
I tried everything but got the same results. When I tried safe mode, it just went to mup.sys and stopped there at the DOS-like screen.
I removed the drive, put it in a USB adapter, hooked it up to another computer, and was easily able to copy all of his documents to the server (where they should have been in the first place). His boot files looked normal to me from that viewpoint.
I decided at that point to just reinstall XP. Couldn't hurt, right? I had his data safe. I thought it whould take less time to reinstall then to troubleshoot. My plan was to repartition, reformat, and do a clean install.
I booted from an OEM XP CD. Got to "Setup is starting Windows", and just stayed there. No further activity, nothing. I tried a different OEM CD. Same thing. Tried a retail CD... same thing.
Now I was frustrated, so I tried a brand new drive. Same thing... I tried a second brand new drive... same thing.
I booted from a floppy and ran diagnostics on system RAM. All 512Mb passed ( 2X). Ran full diagnostices. CPU is good. L1 and L2 cache passed. All other hardware tests passed ( 2X).
ANY ideas would be greatly appreciated. This one really has me baffled. (not that that is too hard to do).. One billion points to the correct answerer.
try putting the HDD to IDE1 intead of IDE0
if the MB supports SATA you can also try SATA Drive just to verify that it is not IDE port problem.
if the MB supports SATA you can also try SATA Drive just to verify that it is not IDE port problem.
SOLUTION
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Hi there,
Sounds frustrating for sure.
First off, stop.
Try and think of anything that actually changed both hardware and software (users never give us the complete answer the first, second and third times).
I would unplug all unneccessary devices. Ensure only one cdrom plugged in, one harddrive, no floppy, etc...
Attempt to boot to utility CD. Either some flavor of *nix or one of my favorites Ultimate Boot CD. Whatever you use as your utility, try to make sure it has some harddisk tools on it.
If you can boot to utility CD, then wipe the harddisk. After this you should be able to get your Windows install rolling without the hangs.
If you still can't boot, then I would try to reset the CMOS and try again booting to utility CD and WIPE that drive completely.
Hope that helps
oh ya http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
Sounds frustrating for sure.
First off, stop.
Try and think of anything that actually changed both hardware and software (users never give us the complete answer the first, second and third times).
I would unplug all unneccessary devices. Ensure only one cdrom plugged in, one harddrive, no floppy, etc...
Attempt to boot to utility CD. Either some flavor of *nix or one of my favorites Ultimate Boot CD. Whatever you use as your utility, try to make sure it has some harddisk tools on it.
If you can boot to utility CD, then wipe the harddisk. After this you should be able to get your Windows install rolling without the hangs.
If you still can't boot, then I would try to reset the CMOS and try again booting to utility CD and WIPE that drive completely.
Hope that helps
oh ya http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
I will verify this soon but there is a point during the installaton where you are asked to press F6 to ... but instead of F6 press F7 and respond to the prompts as appropriate this will make XP perform the installation using only the basic drivers
I used this once and it bailed me out of a very similar situation
All the best.
AB
I used this once and it bailed me out of a very similar situation
All the best.
AB
ASKER
I did try booting from a Koppix CD.. That's where I first saw that the file syatem "looked" OK. But Koppix had a problem seeing my USB devices ( I had intended to burn everything to CD first). So then I took the drive out, mounted it in an external USB enclosure and pulled his documents off and sent them to the server.
Since then, besides trying to reuse THAT drive, I have tried 2 different, brand new, right out of the ESD bag, hard drives. I can't get far enough to access any of the installation functionality. It loads the Executable, then all the drivers, then goes to "Setup is starting windows", and stops at the blue setup screen. It has never shown an error since this whole thing began.
The user hasn't changed anything harware wise, because I have all of their computers strapped with tamper-proof seals. I can't see where he loaded any new software... the programs directory didn't show anything wierd. Anyway, that shouldn't stop a clean install.
It most certianly appears to be a hardware problem... I have tried switching the IDE ports, new IDE cables, reseated everything, unplugged the floppy. Set the BIOS to load defaults... Nothing special is there, just a plain-jane white box. I guess my next step will be to switch memory and see if that helps.
Since then, besides trying to reuse THAT drive, I have tried 2 different, brand new, right out of the ESD bag, hard drives. I can't get far enough to access any of the installation functionality. It loads the Executable, then all the drivers, then goes to "Setup is starting windows", and stops at the blue setup screen. It has never shown an error since this whole thing began.
The user hasn't changed anything harware wise, because I have all of their computers strapped with tamper-proof seals. I can't see where he loaded any new software... the programs directory didn't show anything wierd. Anyway, that shouldn't stop a clean install.
It most certianly appears to be a hardware problem... I have tried switching the IDE ports, new IDE cables, reseated everything, unplugged the floppy. Set the BIOS to load defaults... Nothing special is there, just a plain-jane white box. I guess my next step will be to switch memory and see if that helps.
SOLUTION
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In the BIOS there may be an option to specify with IDE to boot from.
Put the IDE drive as a master on the secondary channel and set the BIOS to use that one as the boot drive.
This will tell you if it is IDE Controller for Primary or not.
Put the IDE drive as a master on the secondary channel and set the BIOS to use that one as the boot drive.
This will tell you if it is IDE Controller for Primary or not.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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Just for fun sakes try a diffrent CDrom drive,
ASKER
The ultimate solution was that I replaced the memory and now everything is working normally. This is the first time, that I know of, that memtest86+ has let me down. It passes the memory 4 times, but obviously missed a problem somewhere.
I had tried reseating the memory amd swapping the two 256Mb DDR-SDRAM chips around, but it just kept testing good. Replacing the memory solved the problem immediately. Go figure.
Thanks to everyone who submitted suggestions. I awarded the points based on how hard you each pointed to hardware. Sorry.. No hard feelings!
I had tried reseating the memory amd swapping the two 256Mb DDR-SDRAM chips around, but it just kept testing good. Replacing the memory solved the problem immediately. Go figure.
Thanks to everyone who submitted suggestions. I awarded the points based on how hard you each pointed to hardware. Sorry.. No hard feelings!
Congratulations on finding the solution! Glad to have been any sort of help.
Could also be issues with the hard drive and/or controller.