Friday night I was prompted to update Media Player to version 8. I was afraid to do so because many "updates" from MS mess up my computer. However, I loaded the update. I noticed the new icons in the tray and on the Start Menu, so I assumed all was well.
On Friday nights I run my anti virus and anti spyware software. I started AVG anti-spyware. I checked on it 2 hours later and my boot-up screen was on the monitor. By bootup screen I mean, when my machine is turned on, it stops soon after the bootup begins and says something about the CPU was changed??? and prompts me to hit F1 to continue or Del to go to the BIOS Setup. I have always hit F1 and the machine always boots up just fine.
Something happened while AVG was running to shut down the computer, what I don't know and I don't know if it is connected to the Media Player update or to a virus I picked up the night before (4 of us use this computer, so viruses and adware are not uncommon - I automatically run Norton Anti-virus and manually run AVG, Ad-Aware, SuperSpyware and Lavasoft). HOWEVER, this time when I hit F1 the machine did not boot up but rather loaded my desktop but with NO tray, NO icons and no response from the Windows key on the keyboard, but with only the mouse pointer on the screen. I could get the Task Manager by hitting Alt-Ctl=Del, but nothing else.
I rebooted several times, and always the same result: My desktop but no tray, no icons, nothing.
I rebooted and tried my wife's and my two daughter's sign in. Same result, their desktop with nothing else. None of us have secure log on procedures and all have Admin Rights.
I tried to boot up in Safe Mode. Again nothing.
I loaded an old Windows XP CD from my daughter's Dell into the CD reader, changed the BIOS to boot up from a CD and loaded a second XP operating system in a folder named Window2. Now when I boot up after hitting F1 to continue, I'm prompted with which operating system to boot, Window2 is listed first and the machine boots up properly, (This is how I am connected and writing this posting.); Windows (the original operating system) does not.
I tried to use the Repair option [BIG MISTAKE] on the CD to repair the original XP; it does not work but prompts me with something like "Continuing Startup", but then it restarts the computer.
The original operating system is linked to all my programs, my Firefox, my Thunderbird, etc. I NEED the original system to bootup.
I have more:
I can no longer get to the desktop trying to boot up in Original. When I choose to bootup in Original, the Windows Logo screen come up, as is normal, and the little dots moving left to right start moving, when they stop, the screen goes to a light blue with the message, "Setup is being restarted..........." After several seconds the machine shuts down and restarts.
During bootup when the screen asks me which op system to use, it also says that I can hit F8 for troubleshooting. I hit F8 and then selected to boot up from the last known bootup that worked. Same result as above.
I then tried to boot up in Safe Mode. After a few seconds, I get a listing of many drivers, i.e. the screen lists look like:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\...--then a driver
It lists about 20+ drivers.
After a few seconds, the screen becomes black with the words Safe Mode in each corner and at the center top: BUILD .xpsp_sp2 (and more but I could not write fast enought to copy it all down).
Then the machine again shuts down and restarted.
In the options after I hit F8 is the option to disenable automatic shutdown - Should I disable this?
Perhaps if I boot up into New (which boots up just fine), could I then, using My Computer, remove the files/program/script that was obviously loaded by the XP Disc Repair module that keeps trying to "Setup is being restarted...." and when unsuccessful keeps shutting down/restarting.
AND MORE:
My computer was built in someone's basement/workroom. It has served me well for about five years.
I believe the motherboard is an ATA100/133; the CPU is an Intel Pentium 4; it has a Westen Digital Hard-drive (80Gig-I think). I have a 3.5 in. floppy drive, a CD drive, and a CD/DVD R/W drive. My sound card is a Diamond Xtreme Sound 7.1/24 bit card. The machine has 3 fans, two on the box and a big Arctic Cooling 4 fan on the mother board. I have 512 MB of RAM. The video card has a fan that died, I have a PNY AGP8x 5200 256 MB Graphics Card that I was going to install, but since no user ever runs games, the current card is working well and does not overheat even with the broken fan.
I have the cover off, so if you can tell me where to look for more descriptive items or how to find them in SYSTEMS or elsewhere, then I will do so.
Lastly, I have another problem. The XP CD I loaded to create the New XP was from a daughter's Dell, and I have been prompted to "register" it within 30 days. Since it was probably registered once before when the Dell machine was set up, will the Anti-Christ (Bill Gates) let me "use" it again. Also, I may not have all the CDs of the software loaded through the original XP (mea culpa - no one to blame but myself). Sometimes I long for the days of DOS where all programs were in their own sub-directory and not co-mingled with the operating system.
Is there no way to work on the files in WINDOWS (the original XP) when I am booted up on WINDOW2 (the new XP)?
Lastly, I downloaded and ran Key Finder and it found a Windows key; I also have another key I wrote out in a hard copy file drawer. I don't know if which key is for the Dell system and which (if any) are for my machine. Can you tell which is which from the key itself?
Jim
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