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Cannot boot, XP machine stops at agpCPQ.sys driver when booting into safe mode

I have a problem where an XP Home machine will not boot normally or into safe mode.  It stops at the agpCPQ.sys driver and then hangs.  

The customer says no addional hardware/software has been installed recently.  I have tried a repair on the OS reverting back to XP home SP1 but still I have the same problem.  

Any ideas?
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justinmoore14
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Hello Helpint, have you tried booting into the recovery console (Off of the XP Disc) and running chkdsk /r


Also, are you able to boot into vga mode?? Hope this helps.


Justin
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helpint

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Thank you for your quick response.

I have tried VGA mode yes but still no joy.  I will try using the recovery console to run a checkdisk!

I have googled this problem and have found that this issue seems to be common on FAT volumes and converting to NTFS may fix the problem.  Can I do this suing the recovery console as I obviosly cannot boot into windows to do this?
Or have you tried booting to the "Last Known Good" configuration?

Looking online, one suggestion is to update your BIOS if it's an IBM machine.  Lots of other suggestions include faffing with power management settings, video card drivers and even HAL types.

You could always boot to the recovery console and try:
   disable agpcpq
Note down what it said the original start type was.

If that helps, I would remove and reinstall your graphics driver.
If it makes no difference, you will probably want to re-enable the service again, using the enable command from the recovery console:
   enable agpcpq service_boot_start (or whatever the original startup type was)
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The machine is an Iqon with a AWARD bios.  I have tried to find an updated BIOS for this but cannot find one for this machine.  I have looked at power managemnt seetings in the current BIOS there is nothing to suggest disabling or changing these options.  

The fact the last driver to display is the agpCPQ.sys would suggest it is the next driver in the list that is at fault wouldnt it?  I did initially get it to boot although very slow and re install the vid driver but this didnt fix it.  Now the machine wont boot at all.  

I think I will try running check disk in recovery console first and then perhaps if possible convert volume to NTFS in the reovery console. is this possible?
You can try running this command to convert it to NTFS from the Recovery Console. See link below. Hope this helps


http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb456984.aspx



Justin
My initial thought also had been that the last driver shown would be one that was OK, but I found an MS KB article on a similar issue where the agp440 driver was the last to be shown and they recommended disabling it from the recovery console.  It's easy enough to re-enable it though afterwards if it makes no difference.
Definitely try a chkdsk though.  I very much doubt that the filesystem is relevant and I'm sure you can't run the convert command from the recovery console.  Can you boot to "Safe Mode with Command Prompt" - you can perhaps run it from there if you really want to try that.
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I cannot boot to last know good config or safe mode with command prompt.  

Ok, ill try running the check disk first and then if no joy ill try disabling the agpCPQ.sys driver using the recovery console.  

Many thanks and ill update you asap
Helpint, I stand corrected, Cantoris is correct, you can not convert to NTFS from the Recovery Console. My mistake...Sorry about that.


Justin
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Cheers for all your input Guys.

I will try the checkdisk etc later when I get home.  I did mention that I had already performed a repair on the OS.  Im guessing that as this did not fix the problem then wiping the disks clean and doing a re install of XP wouldnt fix it either?  I just dont want to take a that lenghly step if you can tell me that it definatly will not work given what I have already tried and the problem I am experiencing
It might well be worth checking the RAM: http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp
Another thing I do is open the case and visually inspect the capacitors as I see a lot of blown ones and they cause bizarre problems: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

It would still be worth trying a clean install rather than giving up on the machine though.
I also, agree with Cantoris on trying the clean install before giving up on the machine. Remember on a clean install (If that is the route you choose to go) you will not have any Viruses, corrupt system files, many drivers, etc... to deal with.


Justin
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Hi guys,

I have just opened up the machine and disconnected the 2nd slave drive, i then booted the machine to the one remaining OS drive and it worked, although very slow.  I am now running a check disk on the NTFS disk anyway.  I then slaved the 2nd disk on another machine but it just weeerrrrss.  Even after a reboot, cannot read any data from it.  

I cant see how this would have caused the problem initially though as it didnt have the OS on. but ill see how the checkdisk goes and then reboot.  

Thanks for all your help so far....
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Hi Guys,
I was wondering if you could at all explain the following.  

I had two disks. When I boot with both disks plugged in to HDD1 I get the problem explained above and the machine will not load past the windows splash screen.  

However when i unplug the HDD2 and just boot from HDD1 the machine boots into windows just fine.  I have slaved HDD1 and it does seem to be knackered as it just werrrrss and windows cannot read it.  

I guess my question is...  how come when im booting to HDD1 and have HDD2 plugged in will windows not boot?
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justinmoore14
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There must be something occurring later in boot that is affected by the drive being poorly.
Perhaps the drives operate in a more basic mode early in boot but different drivers kick in later on and they are less tolerant of the dead drive being on the IDE channel.
Or maybe it's when some hardware detection routine starts up - eg HKLM/Hardware  is dynamically built on each boot.  Or maybe something like the logical disk manager or other process that's device or storage related?

What if both drives are set to Master but put on different IDE channels?
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Cheers once again for your input and very quick response

I will have a look when i get home this evening with the channels, and jumper settings etc.  Just also to note that the second drive although unreadable does show up in the BIOS
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Very useful in troubleshooting what in the end appeared to be a dodgy HDD
Helpint, I am glad you got it all worked out.



Justin