LookinAround
Posts: 6,429 +186
OK. Now, I’m the one asking for help this time. Have spent much of the day working on a friend’s computer
=> Update their BIOS (i saw it's 2 years behind current release)
=> Try a ghost image recovery of a backup
Is it the virus? And/or Driver corruption? And/or hardware failure?? or ?? And why the heck is Windows in a "Setup is restarting" loop?
Any thoughts to fix???? Anyone see any thing with similar symptoms? (especially this “Setup is Restarting” loop?)
- Dell Optiplex 320 running XP Pro SP3
- Problems started with malware symptoms
- Clicks on Google search links were sometimes re-directed
- Regedit and command prompt window wouldn’t open
- AVG updates were failing to connect to AVG server
- Windows updates also didn't appear to download/install
- After I tried some changes, it began to BSOD on Windows XP startup with Stop 0x0000007B
- Tried Safe mode, same BSOD Stop 0x0000007B on Windows XP startup
- I tried an XP repair install.. Starts good
=> It copies files from the CD
=> Reboots (when it should) and starts the normal XP installation / progress screens
=> Reboots itself again when done (as it should)
=> XP startup windows appears BUT THEN it's followed by a new screen stating “Setup is Restarting”, and it loops back to XP installation/progress screens (an endless loop!) - I tried Dell’s hard disk diagnostics. No errors
- I tried the Windows Recovery Console,
=> Ran chkdsk /r. No errors
=> Ran FIXBOOT. No difference - I tried booting from a Gparted-Live CD. Won’t work. Also tried a Knoppix CD. Won’t work
- I tried booting from an Acronis True Image v10 Recovery CD
=> If i select the normal True Image start option, it fails with USB error message
=> But when i select True Image's safe mode start option, it starts and does find the external USB drive as well
=> Update their BIOS (i saw it's 2 years behind current release)
=> Try a ghost image recovery of a backup
Is it the virus? And/or Driver corruption? And/or hardware failure?? or ?? And why the heck is Windows in a "Setup is restarting" loop?
Any thoughts to fix???? Anyone see any thing with similar symptoms? (especially this “Setup is Restarting” loop?)