Cannot start or reload XP

[joblog]

I had a win XP setup running just fine on an ABIT KV7 mobo with 768mb ram and an XP2100 processor.

Now it won't boot from the harddrive. So far i have tried removing all PCI cards and disabling all integrated devices in the bios, but this made no difference. Tried upgrading to a later bios and also made no difference.

I cannot re-install XP becuase it hangs on "setup is starting windows" which it also never did before.

Just to prove the hardware i temporarily installed a different haddrive and loaded Win98 to it without any problems.

I have already browsed around the web and one possible cause was ACPI - i cannot disable this in my bios - only set it to S1 or S3 or S1&S3.

Any suggestions where to go from here would be very gratefully received as i'm fresh out of ideas right now.

 

[bcastner]

Is this a stand-alone, or a workstation connected to a Domain?

. download the from hard drive manufacturer of the original drive their setup/diagnostic utility. Do a non-destructive testing of the hard disk drive.

. reset your BIOS to its defaults. There should be a fast way to do this as an option. If it was working previously under XP, an ACPI issue is unlikely.

. if you have added a high-end video board, revert to something more modest during the install. Upgrade later.

Usually the pause is either video board related, or network adapter related, if this helps.

 

[joblog]

Thanks for a prompt reply.

The graphics card is unchanged - the hard drive starts to boot XP - but i can't start in safe mode, normal mode or last known good configuration, etc - the screen clears and the machine hangs. Running in safe mode stops after MUP.SYS is loaded.

I'll try changing out the graphics card from VGA to a PCI one but don't think that is the problem

 

[bcastner]

Leave all the hardware alone at the moment, other than disconnecting any non-critical USB device.

. Use Recovery Console with a CD boot from the original XP CD. chkdsk /f

Does this complete or repair without serious issue?

. If it appears the hard disk is clean enough for XP to continue, but it does not, and you have no Safe Mode, etc.

See:

http://www.digitalwebcast.com/2002/03_mar/tutorials/cw_boot_toot.htm

There is a quite common malware going around that is a variant of the "BlazeFind" trojan that can lead to this situation.

 

[joblog]

I am unable to get as far as loading the recovery console when trying to boot from the XP installation CD - hangs at "setup is starting windows". ASR wants a floppy disk that i don't have so that's a non-starter as well.

 

[joblog]

Also worth pointing out that the system does not run e-mail, has norton anti-virus patched to the latest level and sits behind a linux firewall - i would be surprised if this problem turns out to be a virus.

Would also have thought that the virus would be unable to come into play with cold boot from xp installation CD with a different hard drive installed.

 

[bcastner]

It is not a virus. It still might be malware. As a guess, a varient of "WebBlaze".

Your antivirus has nothing to do with malware such as this. (The Symatec folks are doing a reasonable effort under product Win2005).

If it is impossible to run Recovery Console, boot from the orignal XP CD and do a repair reinstalll:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;315341

And then head to the Windows Update site.

 

[joblog]

After the instal CD loads i get the option to hit F2 for ASR or F6 for loading SCSI device drivers - neither are applicable, so i allow it to proceed. After all the drivers have loaded it says "setup is starting windows" and hangs, so i cannot get into anything else off the installation CD in order to run CHKDSK, etc as i normally would.

By the way bcastner - thanks for hanging in on this one!

 

[bcastner]

At that point in setup, XP is trying for the first time to enter full 32-bit mode.

. any USB adapters connected but not crical?
. any fancy video board installed that can be changed?
. disconnect all printers and external modems

 

[joblog]

USB disabled in the BIOS, Video card is GF4MX that has been installed for about the last 12 months and there are no printers/modems (all parallel/serial/USB/LAN/Audio options on the motherboard are dissabled).

 

[bcastner]

Using USB Mouse or Keyboard?
Leave the "legacy" devices enabled in the BIOS.
Set the BIOS to then reset to default settings.

If still no joy, do a DOS-based install:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307848&sd=tech

 

[joblog]

Standard PS2 style mouse/keyboard being used.

I'll re-anable the legacy devices and try again - already tried fail-safe bios option and that made no difference.

I'll look into the dos based install - thanks for the info.

 

[joblog]

OK- i have sorted this now.

I substituted a PCI graphics card - got odd characters appearing on the POST and then the machine locked.

I reset the CMOS ram (again) via the jumper on the motherboard and set the system to failsafe defaults and the machine booted XP from harddisk without problem.

I think the CMOS ram was corrupted in an area that affected chipset paramters but was not available as a modifiable bios option - i don't know if this theory holds water, any comments welcome