[KenPC]

I have a HP M1160N desktop computer running Windows XP (media center version - standard issue) and I can NOT get through the WinXP system startup process now. Yesterday it worked just fine but today when I logged on, it does an "automatic restart" at the point where it gives the message "loading your personal settings" (sometimes it makes it part way through "painting" the desktop icons, but then it does the auto restart thing).

Interestingly the computer seems to work just fine using a Puppy Linux boot CD (I made this to fix a laptop problem a couple of weeks ago), in fact I am running Puppy right now to send this request for help. I do have a WinXP install CD (regular XP Pro version) but since this machine is media center I was hoping I could "fix" it without doing a complete reinstall of the non-media center version of WinXP

I am guessing I got a virus (or other nasty bug) but I am at a loss as to where to start to fix this. I was looking at some of the other topics in this forum about recovery but I do NOT have a recovery CD/DVD. The computer has a recovery partition (H:\) but I can only get to it if I am in the "DOS" mode and I do not know what to "run" once I get there.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Edited by KenPC, 10 September 2008 - 11:01 AM.

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Try this first.

http://www.webtree.c...0Configuration:

If that does not work go back to the website and read up on what you can do.

http://www.webtree.c...p/repair_xp.htm

SRX660

[SRX660]

Try this first.

http://www.webtree.c...0Configuration:

If that does not work go back to the website and read up on what you can do.

http://www.webtree.c...p/repair_xp.htm

SRX660

[KenPC]

Thanks for your reply.

As you suggested, I did the F8 key during the boot-up process and selected the "Last Known Good Configuration" and it seems to have worked. Now my question is have I "lost" anything (I really do not know the date of the Last Known Good Configuration) and so I really do not know if any updated files (e.g. Windows and Office updates) were "lost". Also, is there any possibility that I still have a potential problem lurking somewhere in the background?

I am using McAfee Internet Security and I am running a full system scan to double check for viruses. Should I run any other "diagnostics" or "clean up" programs to make sure I am really in good shape now?

an UPDATE ... the virus scan did not find any viruses and things still seem to be OK. Any thoughts about might have caused this strange situation?

Thanks again for your help.

Edited by KenPC, 11 September 2008 - 07:03 AM.

[SRX660]

The basic idea behind the Last known Good Configuration is that when Windows boots successfully, it makes note of the current configuration, marking it as good. If a catastrophic configuration change were to occur and Windows is unable to boot, then the system still has a record of a configuration that is known to be good. A boot menu option will allow you to boot Windows using this configuration and restore the known good configuration.

In case you are wondering, the Last Known Good Configuration option reverses the most recent system and driver changes within the hardware profile. The system and driver configurations are returned to the state they were in at the time of the most recent successful boot. When you boot using the Last Known Good Configuration, Windows also restores the registry settings found beneath the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet key.

Microsoft recommends using the Last Known Good Configuration option as the first technique for repairing a system that won't boot properly. However, some seasoned pros prefer to try and boot the system into Safe Mode and attempt to manually correct the problem.

I doubt that the LKGC goes back much further than a week to 10 days. Further back you need to use the restore feature to go back further to setups over 10 days old.

You probably got some trojan type software loaded to your computer from a website causing your problem. I use Avast AV software for my computers simply because it seems to work as well and any of the others and does not seem to use as much resources to run in the background. I also have spybot and run it once in a while, and i use a Hardware wireless router with firewall for my cable internet. I keep all my ports except what is needed closed in the router. I also never use Internet Explorer, and try to keep my computer as clean as possible with weekly defrags, junk file removal, and system checks at certain websites.

I would read as much as possible from this website at H-P. It should explain how to do a lot of things on your computer.

http://h10025.www1.h...;product=434549

Here is how to use the recovery CD. The only problem with this is you lose all data you have put on the computer because the recovery CD takes you back to when you bought the computer brand new.

http://h10025.www1.h...;product=434549

If you are not backing any data you do not want to lose at least once a month, you are just asking for a disaster. I started backing up files and systems with my first Windows 95 computer. MY Packard bell pentium 200 computer crashed and i lost many programs and files i had downloaded. I decided that would never happen again and started using floppys for saving data. When burnable CD's came out i was in heaven.

You should be able to look at your updates to see the last date there was a update( usualloy onec a week it happens to me). If you look in the windows folder in Explore you can do a properties on the folder to see when it was created. Every update installs a "Uninstaller Folder" in the windows folder. You can delete these if you feel you will not need them. I usually do so after six months or so.

SRX660