Windows XP Pro no longer wants to boot. :(

[Nalixor]

I have been googling and talking to tech savvy friends for hours now, but no matter what I have tried I cannot fix my problem.

Thus is my problem:
All of a sudden my shiny new laptop has decided that it shall not boot up. It gets to the progress bar screen and just freezes. No error messages, no nothing. I can boot up in safe modes, and thats how I am currently on. In safe mode with networking. I have generated a log of boot, and a whooooole lot of drivers do not load at all. I have uploaded the log here (http://everest.fit.qut.edu.au/~n4785967/log.txt). I just dont know what is going on. I was looking and looking, and lots of people have similar problems, but no solutions that I can find.
I have used StyleXP to skin my windows, and I did have a custom bootscreen and logon screen, but never had any problems with it. I might have a non standard version of ntoskrl.exe or something, which I read might be a cause, or something. Ah, hell. I dont know. Im just very, very tired and very, very upset.

I just dont know what is going on. I was using it just this afternoon and nothing was wrong at all. Now it wont boot unless its in safe mode. I already cannot finish one uni assignment because of this problem, so any help at all would be very, very welcome and appreciated.

Please, any help? :(

[Drakin]

Have you tried booting of the cd and running a repair?

Or boot safe mode and restore your video drivers to standard vga and rebooting?

[Nalixor]

Originally posted by Drakin
Have you tried booting of the cd and running a repair?

Or boot safe mode and restore your video drivers to standard vga and rebooting?

I didnt get a xp cd with my laptop, but I did get some sort of recovery cd. I might see if I can repair with that.

And as for that other option, yes I have. And it apparently isnt the graphics drivers, I think.

[urban_gorilla]

goddamn recovery cd's are ass.
they are usually a manufacturers prepared copy of windows, that is totally useless, and in some cases loaded with their bloat and spyware.

hopefully you can stick it in and check the "repair" option which sometime fixes shit.

standard question, did you update any drivers recently? you could try rolling them back

[MisterFlibble]

Try removing the eye candy stuff like the boot screen changer, and the style xp. The programs that do these things hack system files, so it's possible they are damaged.

Windows XP also automatically saves restore points at certain times... try using this to restore the system to an earlier state.

Also, most recovery cd's reformat your HD, so I would make this the last stop on the road to repairing windows.

Either way, back up any stuff that you need from your lappy.

[Nalixor]

Originally posted by MisterFlibble
Try removing the eye candy stuff like the boot screen changer, and the style xp. The programs that do these things hack system files, so it's possible they are damaged.

Windows XP also automatically saves restore points at certain times... try using this to restore the system to an earlier state.

Also, most recovery cd's reformat your HD, so I would make this the last stop on the road to repairing windows.

Either way, back up any stuff that you need from your lappy.

Already removed all the eye candy stuff, and also changed everything back I think.. Also rolled back everything to over two months ago, and still the same problem persists. Which makes me think it might be a hardware problem.

[tikdoph]

Originally posted by Nalixor
I have been googling and talking to tech savvy friends for hours now, but no matter what I have tried I cannot fix my problem.

Thus is my problem:
All of a sudden my shiny new laptop has decided that it shall not boot up. It gets to the progress bar screen and just freezes. No error messages, no nothing. I can boot up in safe modes, and thats how I am currently on. In safe mode with networking. I have generated a log of boot, and a whooooole lot of drivers do not load at all. I have uploaded the log here (http://everest.fit.qut.edu.au/~n4785967/log.txt). I just dont know what is going on. I was looking and looking, and lots of people have similar problems, but no solutions that I can find.
I have used StyleXP to skin my windows, and I did have a custom bootscreen and logon screen, but never had any problems with it. I might have a non standard version of ntoskrl.exe or something, which I read might be a cause, or something. Ah, hell. I dont know. Im just very, very tired and very, very upset.

I just dont know what is going on. I was using it just this afternoon and nothing was wrong at all. Now it wont boot unless its in safe mode. I already cannot finish one uni assignment because of this problem, so any help at all would be very, very welcome and appreciated.

Please, any help? :( I noticed that the log makes mention of Service Pack 1. Have you tried going into the Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs ... and uninstalling SP1?

You might also want to try running the System File Checker by going into DOS and typing the following:

SFC /SCANNOW

It should go through and replace any system files that may have somehow been corrupted, assuming that it finds any.

I'm pretty confident that the problem can be fixed. I think it's just going to take a process of elimination. Good luck.

[MisterBishi]

Originally posted by Nalixor
In safe mode with networking. I have generated a log of boot, and a whooooole lot of drivers do not load at all. I have uploaded the log here (http://everest.fit.qut.edu.au/~n4785967/log.txt).
The reason that it didn't load all of those drivers is because that's what safe mode is, it basically loads the bare minimum so that you can eliminate bad drivers, etc.

Originally posted by Nalixor
I might have a non standard version of ntoskrl.exe or something, which I read might be a cause, or something.

Where did you read this? Ntoskrnl.exe is a pretty important file, I'm not sure what you're getting at with non-standard? Corrupt maybe?

It sounds to me like a reinstall of Windows is in order. What the restore CD you have probably does, is overwrites your hard disk with an image of the hard disk as it was when the PC was new, ie. you have windows and the manufacturer's s/ware packages, but all of your data may well be lost, so be careful before you use it. There will be a warning on the disc itself or during boot if data loss is likely.

If that's the case, then back up your files somewhere first, whether it's a bunch of floppy disks, another hard disk or whatever depends on your circumstances (you're not going to be able to burn CD's in Safe Mode).

[Nalixor]

Originally posted by MisterBishi
The reason that it didn't load all of those drivers is because that's what safe mode is, it basically loads the bare minimum so that you can eliminate bad drivers, etc.



Where did you read this? Ntoskrnl.exe is a pretty important file, I'm not sure what you're getting at with non-standard? Corrupt maybe?

It sounds to me like a reinstall of Windows is in order. What the restore CD you have probably does, is overwrites your hard disk with an image of the hard disk as it was when the PC was new, ie. you have windows and the manufacturer's s/ware packages, but all of your data may well be lost, so be careful before you use it. There will be a warning on the disc itself or during boot if data loss is likely.

If that's the case, then back up your files somewhere first, whether it's a bunch of floppy disks, another hard disk or whatever depends on your circumstances (you're not going to be able to burn CD's in Safe Mode).

Firstly, that log is a log of normal boot up, not safe mode.

Also, I read it on a forum, and I did see something about StyleXP edited ntoskrl.exe in order to change bootscreens, or log on screens, or something like that.

But anyway, guess what, everyone! I tried booting up this morning, and it booted up fine. No problems AT ALL. Which really shits me, because its still completely unexplained. And it has not had any trouble booting all day. Which makes me think it might have been something hardware related. Its still shitting me, though. Everything /seems/ normal, but I am still very suspicious. Meh.

[tikdoph]

Originally posted by Nalixor
Firstly, that log is a log of normal boot up, not safe mode.

Also, I read it on a forum, and I did see something about StyleXP edited ntoskrl.exe in order to change bootscreens, or log on screens, or something like that.

But anyway, guess what, everyone! I tried booting up this morning, and it booted up fine. No problems AT ALL. Which really shits me, because its still completely unexplained. And it has not had any trouble booting all day. Which makes me think it might have been something hardware related. Its still shitting me, though. Everything /seems/ normal, but I am still very suspicious. Meh. Phew... sounds like you didn't need to reinstall Windows afterall. ;)

[Lurgen]

Originally posted by Nalixor
But anyway, guess what, everyone! I tried booting up this morning, and it booted up fine. No problems AT ALL. Which really shits me, because its still completely unexplained. And it has not had any trouble booting all day. Which makes me think it might have been something hardware related. Its still shitting me, though. Everything /seems/ normal, but I am still very suspicious. Meh.

Start thinking hardware dude... I had a machine that gradually became less stable as it warmed up. On hot days it was completely unusable. If I pushed the IDE cables in to make sure they were seated it would work for a while. Turned out I had a tiny crack in the motherboard. As it expanded it probably flexed ever so slightly. Pushing the cables in probably pushed back into a position where everything connected.

This bug took me months to figure out - to work out the root cause I figured out how to reproduce the problem (just let the machine run for a while with Quake 3 in TimeDemo mode to get it warm), then pulled components out one by one until it was stable. In my case it took a long time, the motherboard is the hardest component to isolate, but it's worth thinking about doing this sort of testing. Start with RAM, especially if you have two modules (take one out, see if it helps, then put it back in and take the other out).

Finally, rebuilding your machine might be in order even if it's stable right now. Better to do the rebuild on your own terms, rather than in an emergency (less chance of lost data, and you're less likely to set fire to the machine in anger).

[Nalixor]

Originally posted by Lurgen
Start thinking hardware dude... I had a machine that gradually became less stable as it warmed up. On hot days it was completely unusable. If I pushed the IDE cables in to make sure they were seated it would work for a while. Turned out I had a tiny crack in the motherboard. As it expanded it probably flexed ever so slightly. Pushing the cables in probably pushed back into a position where everything connected.

This bug took me months to figure out - to work out the root cause I figured out how to reproduce the problem (just let the machine run for a while with Quake 3 in TimeDemo mode to get it warm), then pulled components out one by one until it was stable. In my case it took a long time, the motherboard is the hardest component to isolate, but it's worth thinking about doing this sort of testing. Start with RAM, especially if you have two modules (take one out, see if it helps, then put it back in and take the other out).

Finally, rebuilding your machine might be in order even if it's stable right now. Better to do the rebuild on your own terms, rather than in an emergency (less chance of lost data, and you're less likely to set fire to the machine in anger).

While being a very good idea, there is a slight problem. This is a laptop which this is happening on, so pulling stuff out and whatnot might not be the best idea, nor would I really know how to do it properly anyway. :P