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Cant boot after SP2, no safemode/recovery console


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#1
dorima

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background:

i have a laptop that runs on XP, and i recently upgraded to SP2 from SP1.
after installation and restart, blue screen stop error came up with 00000019 BAD POOL HEADER and i cant boot into normal mode, so i accidentally went for the last known good configuration, but i forgot that i cant use that right after an SP2 upgrade, and this is where i think the problem is, the last known good probably restored my system and registry to SP1 stuff.

symptoms:

right now i can barely boot into safemode, it first takes a long time to load even the login screen, after i login, icons appear but no start menu or taskbar, taskmanager also shows blank under the user column, i know this is caused by the terminal service not being started, after checking with eventvwr, services and msconfig, i realized that the 2 required services for SP2, RPC and DCOM server process launcher would not start (it stays in pending to start mode forever) and therefore other services wont start and i cannot launch most of the other applications. cant use remove programs to remove SP2 because it halts in the middle of checking configuration (possibly due to the lack of the required services), the only system tool that is fully functional now is regedit(fortunitely). i know i can use the recovery console, but unfortunitely my rom drive on the laptop is broken so repair disk is not an option, ive already tried to install recovery console with "winnt32.exe /cmdcons" but it came up saying im using a newer version of windows (SP2) than it would allow me. so now i cant uninstall SP2, and safemode is heavily crippled, cant use system restore or anything, explorer cant even open windows properly, normal mode cant start with the STOP error. and i hv no access to cdrom

i want to know if theres a way to force an install of the recovery console, or a way to forcefully uninstall SP2, or at least a way to start my safemode normally, or any other possible ways to fix this problem, if i can do any of these i can fix the rest myself, thx alot of any help
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#2
gerryf

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http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875350

this sounds like what you are looking for....you do not need to install the recovery console--you can run it from the xp cd.
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#3
gerryf

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btw---you want the fourth method

Use Recovery Console
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#4
dsenette

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this is what the MSDN says about the bad pool header

Error Message:
STOP: 0x00000019 (parameter, parameter, parameter, parameter) BAD_POOL_HEADER

Explanation:
This is a Windows 2000 Executive character-mode STOP message. This indicates an invalid pool header.

User Action:
If this is the first time you have booted after installing new hardware, remove the hardware and boot again. Check the Microsoft Hardware Compatibility List to verify that the hardware and its drivers are compatible with Windows 2000. For information about the hardware, contact the supplier. If you are installing Windows 2000 for the first time, check the Windows 2000 system requirements, including the amount of RAM and disk space required to load the operating system. Also, check the Hardware Compatibility List to verify that the system can run Windows 2000. If Windows 2000 is loaded and no new hardware has been installed, reboot with recovery options set to create a dump file. If the message continues to appear, select the Last Known Good option when you reboot. If there is no Last Known Good configuration, try using the Emergency Repair Disk. If you do not have an Emergency Repair Disk, contact your technical support group.


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#5
dorima

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btw---you want the fourth method

Use Recovery Console

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thx for the reply, but as ive mentioned in my post
i DO NOT hv access to my cdrom(since its broken)
and i already know that i can do it from the recovery console
but the thing is i cant run it from cd, thats y i was trying to install it internally...

do u hv any more ideas on this problem?
btw, ive already read through every single MSDN related article before coming here about uninstalling SP2 and the stop error, and it does not hv a solution for my situation and thats y i turned to alternate sources for help such as here
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#6
dsenette

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i think your only real option is to borrow a cd rom
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#7
dorima

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i think your only real option is to borrow a cd rom

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it happens so that i fixed it myself by changing just 1 entry in a registry key
its weird how that one entry can break the entire XP OS...
anyway thx for the help tho
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