Service Pack 2/Unable to boot Safeboot with Networking

[10bobh]

After installing SP2 I am unable to boot to the operating system in normal mode. I can boot to Safe mode but I cannot boot to Safemode with Networking. Seems nobody else is having a problem. Other than uninstalling SP2, does anybody have a suggestion how to troubleshoot this? Thanks.
Bob

 

[mcconmw]

Try disabling all peripherals (NIC's, Modems, etc.) and then reenabling them one at a time until you find the culprit.

 

[butchrecon]

What happens when you attempt to boot into normal mode? Do you get a blue screen? Does it just hang? If it boots safe mode then its a driver issue. What is the network card type? Could be a protocal problem or a problem with the NIC. Let me know the answers.

 

[10bobh]

Thanks for the help. There was no blue screen... just hung during boot process. The problem was solved by removing the nic (Realtek 1839) and rebooting then reinstalling the nic. Right after installation of SP2 and safeboot I looked at device manager. Under Network Adapters there were 4 entries. One was the realtek card, the other three were "WAN", TP-PCI", and WANI. I do not know where these came from but I could (and did) disable them without helping the boot problem. I tried to remove (uninstall) them but W2K would not permit that. After correcting the problem as above these entries are no longer in device manager. They were never there before either. Anybody have any ideas on this? I'm really curious as to why my upgrade did this. I have looked around both here and elsewhere and nobody seems to be having any problems with SP2. Thanks again.
Bob

 

[butchrecon]

Fisrt I have seen on that one. SP2 is still new so we will see if anyone else has any bad luck.

 

[10bobh]

I haven't found the cause of this anomaly yet but am not sure that it is related to SP2. When I try to boot using safe mode with networking the computer hangs as with the normal boot. However, I can boot into safe mode (without networking) and the following entries are present in Device Manager/network adapters. "Direct Parallel", "Realtek 8139 PCI Fast ethernet adapter", "WAN Miniport (IP)", "WANI Miniport (L2TP)", "WAN Miniport (PPTP)". Disabling the miniports does not lead to a successful reboot. I have tried uninstalling the Miniports but WIN2K will not permit that. If I pull the NIC and reboot all is OK and after reinstalling the NIC and cable the reboot is again OK and Device Manager/Network Adapters shows only the Realtek adapter. I think (and am getting ready to backup and test) that there may be an intermittent cable or NIC problem. I am using a cable modem (@home) for internet access. The modem is connected to a D-link DI-704 broadband router and the router is connected to the NIC and also to another computer running WIN98 using a Linksys NIC. What I don't understand (among a lot of other things) is why if the cable or NIC "faults" why do I get the miniports and the NIC when I boot in safe mode. This problem has only occurred since installation of SP2 but that may be coincidental. The other computer normally runs WIN98SE and has no problem but of course has a different cable and NIC. Any thoughts appreciated.
Bob

 

[Animatrix]

I have ran into the same thing, but I had the blue screen. This occured after doing a firmware update to xircom realport card. It appears that Win2k has some issues with certain nic drivers and does not handle them gracefully. I had to hack my registry to clear my issue up, but that is an extreme measure I don't recommend.

 

[a073235]

Hi - No good answer for you, but I can tell you the Miniport entries you're seeing under Device Manger are standard entries for Win2k and have nothing to do with SP2. If you enable the "Show hidden devices" option in "Device Manager" even outside of "Safe Mode" you should be able to see them. You shouldn't be able to remove them, but if you do count on more serious network problems than you're seeing. Just didn't want you to head down the wrong path too far Hope this helps!

Heath Racine
Principal Systems Engineer