I posted this in the drivers forum too, but am reposting here as you will see it is probably more of a software problem despite the error message given the way it occurred.
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Let me preface this by saying that I am self taught and am just computer literate enough to be dangerous. Anyway, here is my problem-
I have a Compaq Presario 5311 SR at home running windows XP home. I was downloading the service pak 2 last week and my toddler pushed the power button when it seemed to be about 75 % installed. When I turned the computer on I got a windows message saying that the installation did not compete and that I needed to uninstall the service pack in the control panel and then reinstall it from scratch. Anyway, I proceeded to do this and then when it was almost done uninstalling the computer froze. I turned it back on and it asked me if I wanted to boot using a previous operating system or if I wanted to run XP Media Center. This makes no sense as I never had this version installed and have only had XP home on this computer. The prevously installed operating system did not work and when I clicked to start media center, the XP home screen came up and it started to load . . . then right before the loading was complete, the computer rebooted. This problem was just a loop, and it kept rebooting itself every time XP tried to load.
OK, now I tried to get wise and put in the XP CD and ran a repair install. It seemed to work, but did not finish. It enountered a problem right near the end of the repair (35 minutes later) and rebooted itself. Now, when I turn the computer on, it at least gives me XP home as a choice and no longer says anything about Media edition. However, when I select that choice, windows starts to load and then gives me the BSOD that reads :
driver_irql_not_less_or_equal
I went to MS knowledge base to find out about this and it simply said it had something to do with drivers and to
1. Disable all third-party filter drivers, such as backup programs, virus scanning programs, and disk utilities.
2. Make sure that you are using hardware that appears on the Windows Hardware Compatibility List (HCL). To view the latest Windows HCL, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
I have no idea how to do #1 since I cannot start windows and #2 does not seem to apply since my problem was not caused when I added new hardware.
I have tried again to run the repair function on the XP disk, but after about 5 minutes it continues to give the same BSOD and then reboot itself on a neverending cycle.
I know this is a multi-step problem that was probably compounded by me, but I was hoping someone could help. At the very least, I want to save the files on my hard drive (.mpegs, jpegs, docs, pdfs, etc). I am sure this can be done through the recovery console from DOS if nessecary, but I am not sure how to do that either if I cannot get XP running.
Help me please.
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Let me preface this by saying that I am self taught and am just computer literate enough to be dangerous. Anyway, here is my problem-
I have a Compaq Presario 5311 SR at home running windows XP home. I was downloading the service pak 2 last week and my toddler pushed the power button when it seemed to be about 75 % installed. When I turned the computer on I got a windows message saying that the installation did not compete and that I needed to uninstall the service pack in the control panel and then reinstall it from scratch. Anyway, I proceeded to do this and then when it was almost done uninstalling the computer froze. I turned it back on and it asked me if I wanted to boot using a previous operating system or if I wanted to run XP Media Center. This makes no sense as I never had this version installed and have only had XP home on this computer. The prevously installed operating system did not work and when I clicked to start media center, the XP home screen came up and it started to load . . . then right before the loading was complete, the computer rebooted. This problem was just a loop, and it kept rebooting itself every time XP tried to load.
OK, now I tried to get wise and put in the XP CD and ran a repair install. It seemed to work, but did not finish. It enountered a problem right near the end of the repair (35 minutes later) and rebooted itself. Now, when I turn the computer on, it at least gives me XP home as a choice and no longer says anything about Media edition. However, when I select that choice, windows starts to load and then gives me the BSOD that reads :
driver_irql_not_less_or_equal
I went to MS knowledge base to find out about this and it simply said it had something to do with drivers and to
1. Disable all third-party filter drivers, such as backup programs, virus scanning programs, and disk utilities.
2. Make sure that you are using hardware that appears on the Windows Hardware Compatibility List (HCL). To view the latest Windows HCL, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
I have no idea how to do #1 since I cannot start windows and #2 does not seem to apply since my problem was not caused when I added new hardware.
I have tried again to run the repair function on the XP disk, but after about 5 minutes it continues to give the same BSOD and then reboot itself on a neverending cycle.
I know this is a multi-step problem that was probably compounded by me, but I was hoping someone could help. At the very least, I want to save the files on my hard drive (.mpegs, jpegs, docs, pdfs, etc). I am sure this can be done through the recovery console from DOS if nessecary, but I am not sure how to do that either if I cannot get XP running.
Help me please.
?
