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Windows will not start.


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#1
digitalbath24

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I'm working on the computer for a friend from church. I'm not familiar with the manufacture, its a DEC performance computer. On start up I'm given an option to boot in safe mode, safe mode with networking, last known good config or normally. When starting windows normally I see the windows splash screen and then darkness forever and ever. Start in any other mode and it just reboots and continues this never ending loop. The owner had no recovery cd or windows cd's. I did create a boot disk to access the recovery console. Selected R, and began the chkdsk /p/r When finished I didn't receive any errors. Tried to boot again with same results. :) I'm open to any suggestions. I would be great full for any help. Thanks
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#2
Broni

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If you have Windows CD...(if you don't have Windows CD, scroll down)

1. Insert your Windows XP CD into your CD and assure that your CD-ROM drive is capable of booting the CD.
2. Once you have booted from CD, do NOT select the option that states: Press F2 to initiate the Automated System Recovery (ASR) tool.
You’re going to proceed until you see the following screen, at which point you will press the “R” key to enter the recovery console:

Posted Image

3. After you have selected the appropriate option from step two, you will be prompted to select a valid Windows installation (typically number “1″).
Select the installation number, and hit Enter.
If there is an administrator password for the administrator account, enter it and hit Enter (if asked for the password, and you don't know it, you're out of luck).
You will be greeted with this screen, which indicates a recovery console at the ready:

Posted Image

4. There are eight commands you must enter in sequence to repair your problem..
I will introduce them here, and then show the results graphically in the next six steps.
NOTE. Make sure, you press Enter after each command. Make sure, all commands are exact, including "spaces".
These commands are as follows:

CD..
ATTRIB -H C:\\boot.ini
ATTRIB -S C:\\boot.ini
ATTRIB -R C:\\boot.ini
del boot.ini
BOOTCFG /Rebuild


Note about the above command.
BOOTCFG /REBUILD command which searches for pre-existing installations of Windows XP and rebuilds sundry essential components of the Windows operating system, recompiles the BOOT.INI file and corrects a litany of common Windows errors.
It is very important that you do one or both of the following two things:
A.) Every Windows XP owner must use /FASTDETECT as OS Load Option when the rebuild process is finalizing.
B.) If you are the owner of a CPU featuring Intel’s XD or AMD’s NX buffer overflow protection, you must also use /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN as an OS Load Option.
For the Enter Load Identifier portion of this command, you should enter the name of the operating system you have installed.
If, for example, you are using Windows XP Home, you could type Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition for the identifier (it's not crucial, however what the name is, as long, as it's meaningful).
Here is your computer screen:

Posted Image

5. Following command verifies the integrity of the hard drive containing the Windows XP installation. While this step is not an essential function in our process, it’s still good to be sure that the drive is physically capable of running windows, in that it contains no bad sectors or other corruptions that might be the culprit:

CHKDSK /R

6. This last command writes a new boot sector to the hard drive and cleans up all the loose ends we created by rebuilding the BOOT.INI file and the system files. When the Windows Recovery Console asks you if you are Sure you want to write a new bootsector to the partition C: ? just hit “Y”, then Enter to confirm your decision:

FIXBOOT

7. It’s time to reboot your PC by typing
EXIT
and pressing Enter.

With any luck, your PC will boot successfully into Windows XP as if your various DLL, Hive, EXE and NTLDR errors never existed.



If you don't have Windows CD...
Download Windows Recovery Console: http://www.thecomput...om/files/rc.iso
Download, and install free Imgburn: http://www.imgburn.c...hp?act=download
Using Imgburn, burn rc.iso to a CD.
Boot to the CD...let it finish loading.
When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
Then, follow instructions from Step #3 above.
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#3
digitalbath24

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First, Thank you for your help.I'm pretty sure I followed your instructions correctly but unfortunately it had no effect. The pc still fails to boot windows. I will try to repeat the process again to make sure but I believe I entered it correctly. I think I failed to mention earlier that when I do select how I want to load windows(safe mode, safe mode with networking, last known good config, or normally) I'm then asked to select original configuration or profile 2. I did ask the owner of the pc if she has seen this before and she said she has and has always selected the original config option. I'm not quite sure why I'm giving this option but I would find it annoying.
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#4
Broni

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If you have more than one RAM module installed, try starting computer with one RAM stick at a time.
If you have only one RAM stick installed...
...run memtest: http://www.techspot....topic62524.html
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#5
digitalbath24

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Thanks, I'm running it now. I'll let you know the results shortly.
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#6
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:)
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#7
digitalbath24

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Anything I should know about this test? I have just been letting it do it's thing. Right now it just keeps testing and testing.
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#8
digitalbath24

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From what I can tell, memtest Gets to test #7 and then starts over.
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#9
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It's best to leave it on overnight, so it can make several passes.
If it finds any errors, it'll tell you.
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#10
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Gets to test #7 and then starts over

That's only 1st pass. Each pass runs same tests.
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#11
digitalbath24

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Okay. I let it test over night. It appears that there were no errors. I was hoping we would find something.
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#12
digitalbath24

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I'm still not able to boot. Any suggestions? :)
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#13
digitalbath24

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It seems right before the system reboots again, a blue screen comes up but is gone as fast as it appears. I'm thinking possible BSoD. But since it flashes so quickly I'm unable to read any of the codes. Anything I can do? Thank you in advance!!!
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#14
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If you have more than one RAM module installed, try starting computer with one RAM stick at a time.


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#15
digitalbath24

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This PC only has one RAM stick. I was thinking, If I could disable the auto restart I might be able to catch a glimpse of that BSoD. I cant seem to figure out how to do that without being able to get in windows to make the change.. I'm lost. My only guess is that the BSoD has a error code we could use to determine our problem.
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