Computer won't boot past the Windows XP splash screen

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OK, it all started when i ran ad-aware se. it found some adware. i looked over them and nothing looked essential to the computer running, so i deleted them. so i reboot. after i reboot, i get a system network error right after i select the name i wanted to get on xp with. i cant remember exactly what it said but it gave me 1 minute before it would auto-shutdown my computer. i couldnt stop it, so i had to wait. then when my computer came back on, i couldnt get on the internet. i tried everythign, but it wouldnt connect. so then i thought that i had just deleted some important files when i ran ad-aware.

so then i decided to pop in my windows xp pro disc and do a repair. well the repair goes fine. then it reboots after it finishes repairing. well the first thing i see after i see my intel motherboard splashscreen, is an error screen (not blue, its black) that says there was an error and if i wanted to start in safe mode, safe mode network (i think), safe mode...something else, start back at the most recent configuration where my computer worked, or start windows normally. well i tried all of them and none of them helped me. with each i got the same error:

my computer would come to that black screen i just describe above, then no matter what i picked it would go to the windows xp slashscreen (you know, when it shows the bar loading). it would just hang there for about 2 seconds and then jump right to a blue screen. the blue screen stays on for about half a second, and then it restarts and keeps doing this loop.

please help me, i dont want to lose all my files. im a website developer and i have all my clients websites stored on my computer.
 
is there anyway to fix this w/o reformatting? i also have lots of programs on there that i dont have the cd for anymore
 
Try this, usually works. The problem is to with some spyware, and when removed (by adaware) causes the behaviour you are describing.


First off, boot your computer from your Windows XP restore cd/OS cd, when the menu comes up hit the R key to get to the recovery prompt.

The prompt should start off at C:\Windows. Type cd system32. The prompt should now read C:\Windows\system32

Type: copy userinit.exe wsaupdater.exe

Reboot
 
...

6 months after your problem. But I will post this for anyone searching.

Run the Recovery Console and press R. When at the command prompt type:

chkdsk /r

This will check and fix any errors. Reboot after its done. It problem still exists, run Recovery Console again and this time type:

fixmbr

If it says you have a non-standard or bad master boot record then select yes and run it.

I am a computer tech at a school district and have seen this problem a few times. The chkdsk fixmbr fixes some, but not all.

I believe another problem to be related to the motherboard because on one computer that had this problem, it was a brand spankin new drive that I just imaged from a good computer and this problem immediately appeared. I put the HD in another computer and it works fine. I swapped RAM and video card and still nothing. The computer I swapped with (where the HD worked) has the exact same hardware, so a bad mobo may be the problem. Possibly a BIOS update will work.
 
I have the saqme problem on a cold start up. When I tried to run the recovery console it asks me for a password. I go back into windows and create a password form the control panel and try the repair option again. Then it does not accept the password. Any suggestions?
 
If you can't run repair because of that password issue then it usually means a bad partition on your hard drive. Only way I have found to get around that is to format the HD and start all over with a clean install.

To save your files, get a second hard drive. Maybe take your hard drive to a friends house or something and then hook yours up as a slave. Boot your friends PC and you should see your drive in "My Computer" as like F: or G: or whatever. You should be able to pull your files over to your friends computer and then save em on CD or something.

I just had to do this with two hard drives here at work with that dumb password error.

Good luck.
 
the password for repair usualy refers to the admin password on xp, not the user/poweruser/admin-rights user.. default is none (just press enter) unless you've changed it then thats screwed
 
Copying Files From Old to New Hard Drive

My old hard drive's boot sector somehow became corrupted, possibly by a virus. Just after the boot screen the BSOD would flash and my pc would restart. I had a previously bought hard drive at home, so I installed Windows XP Pro on it. Now I have a working computer, but I still have important data (files and software) on my old hard drive.

I'm not sure how to copy these files onto my newly installed hard drive. I connected the old one as a slave to my new one, hoping it would appear on My Computer, but it didn't. If anyone has a solution, please reply as soon as possible.
 
slave drive - is it detected by the bios

Is the slave drive being detected by the bios? Enter setup for your computer and you may need to change the setting to auto in order to detect the slave drive.
Another possibility is to cable the drive to the secondary ide.
The "Guides & Solved Issues" forum has good info on this topicThis is my first attempt to use this editor to paste a link into the text.

If the partition tables has corruption, I used "Recover Lost Data" by Stompf to salvage data from a crash. The data must be moved to a drive that is healthy.
 
How Can I Recover the Files From A Corrupt Hard Drive?

My bios is detecting the hard drive. In fact when I boot up my new hard drive, Windows detects the old one. It just can't seem to be able to access it.

I checked out that recovery software that was suggested above, but I don't have the money to buy it, especially since there's no guarantee. If anybody knows any free data recovery software available, please list them.

I was also wondering if I could Raid the drives, but I don't have any experience in that. If anyone knows if Raiding them would fix it, I would appreciate it.
 
Hi, I'm a newbie, but anyways, I have a similar problem as Code7, but worse. It all started when my Cd Drive got unplugged, so I replugged it. Making sure there was everything the way it was, I rebooted, and it comes to the Windows XP splash screen. Really fast, a blu screen rushes by, and then my system reboots, over and over again. Also, when I tried booting the Recovery Disk, it reboots in the middle of loading it. Yesterday night everything worked perfectly. I suspect the problem is because our friend's daughter force shut it down? She is 7. Plese help me out!
 
Anyone? This is urgent. And by the way, I don't want to reformat, if it's possible. There's not any important files there, but reformatting is a pain in the neck. Plus, I haven't backuped, so.... Yeah, I know I should backup, but I just don't have that kind of time. Again, any help would be appreciatted.
 
quickie fix not likely

Reply to Kevincai96:
Based on reported symptoms, I suspect a memory problem. Restart on the hard drive and boot on restore cd both fail. Other common elements: power supply unit, motherboard.

Link to Guides & Solved Issue in a sub-forum @TS is a wealth of info from reloading XP to basic troubleshooting.

Direct link to obtain memtest86+: http://www.memtest.org/ . Program executes from floppy disk minimum use of ram.

Other discussions here talk about starting with a minimal computer & add components until it breaks again. The reverse strategy begins with the last 'touched' device - cdrom in this case.

Here is a source for multiple tools on a CD: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/convert.html.

Here is a source for a "windows environment" on a CD: http://www.nu2.nu/bootcd/ (it will point to the load site).

Other threads speak of LiveCD. I did not pursue, yet.

These links are useful if the XP load is corrupted and you do not have a copy of the XP software on a CD. Most oem restore CD's take you back to "out-of-the-box" conditions.

This discussion assumes that the computer could not come up in Safe Mode.

A random thought - unplugged cdrom? This could suggest rough handling of the computer. Any vigorous movement of the computer with the hard drive in-use could damage the heads and/or media. Ditto if the cdrom was in-use.
 
Nope, the computer was off, and the hard drive wasn't in use. But can someone explain to me why I need all these? I just want 1 to fix the problem, or someone explain how to use these tools!
 
Plus, I can boot UBCD from the CD drive, but I don't know which tool I should use. Please state it. Here are my system information:

3 Hard drives (don't ask me how) Samsung, Maxtor, and I don't know
2.3 gHz processer Intel
NO floppy
Cd/cd-rw drive
Don't know motherboard
Power supply is ok
 
memtest86+

Using UBCD demonstrated control over the rolling boot situation. The memory test is the easiest utility to use .

Choose Memtest86+: MainBoard Tests ! Memory ! memtest86+

It begins immediately. It displays the amount of memory. The keyboard gives you control of the test by typing 'c'. Based on reported 'rolling boot' scenario, if the memory is faulty, failures should occur during the first pass. Some posts here declare memory faulty if a failure occurs during any of 7 passes.

If test has failures, and if you have more than 1 memory module, then you can adjust the address range to isolate the problem to one of the modules. Alternatively, you could arbitrarily substitute modules until the guilty is found. Memtest86+ can be run against individual modules. XP requires 256MB as a minimum. If test #5 is the only failing test, this block move function has limited reach into normal operation.

If memtest86+ records no errors, another utility executes a function similar to 'chkdsk'. It makes no correction. It merely records a pass/fail result.

Hard Disk tools ! diagnostic tools ! SeaTools Desktop v3.02.04. It will take several minutes to load. All hard drives should be detected by this utility. Check mark your boot drive to run the 'file structure test' or more. Do not run the surface check at this point.

Run the suface check separately. If it detects errors, it will mark bad blocks & attempt to move data to good blocks.

One remaining test has limitations. It calculates a quality index for the cdrom drive. However, the media used has a direct bearing on the index. Completion of the test halts the program and this could cause confusion. It would be interesting to compare ratings for the 'restore cd' versus another cd.

MainBoard ! Benchmark ! CD index ! follow prompts. I was not able to control the cdrom drive selected for the test. Your situation is a solo cdrom, which should make it simple.

This pretty much exhausts the usefulness of UBCD for this case with 1 exception to edit boot.ini to add a line to offer boot to safe mode. And this is helpful only if we have trouble using f5 after the POST screen.

It would be helpful to know if your machine can be booted into Safe Mode. If memory is good and if the hard drive is good (physically), then we need to get serious. If neither safe mode nor normal boot can achieve a stable environment, some of the earlier references to Bart PE and recovering hive/registry from restore points saved on the hard drive need to be researched.

Normally, the Recovery Console (careful not to select 'r' @ first decision point) and the Windows XP CD are used before mucking with Bart PE. It is time consuming to load & re-apply all updates, but it removes the uncertainty about the quality of the software. However, Murphy's Law can result in a gotcha when the reload of the OS cannot get to all applications.

So, anyone reading this post: Is there a way to conclude if the registry is corrupt or if the drivers and/or XP itself is corrupt???
 
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Hi, I tried a tactic from another website, to press F5 before splash screen, and freeze error screen. It said there was a system failure and if it's the first time seeing it I should restart, but if it's seen more than once all hard drives except the one with system partitions (C://) should be removed. At the very bottom there was technical information, which was composed by the following numbers (or codes).

0x0000007B (0xf99c4528,0xc0000034,0X00000000,0x00000000

PS: I will run memtest today.
 
Stop 0x0000007B or INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE

Quoting from "Windows XP -Inside Out" (Microsoft):
This error message means that Windows XP is unable to locate the system partition or boot volume during the startup process. The problem may occur after repartitioning disks, adding new disks, or upgrading a disk controller and its drivers. In that case, entries in the Boot.ini file no longer point to the correct partitions. If the error occurs after upgrading the disk controller, verify that the new hardware is configured properly. Then start your system with the Windows XP CD, log on to the Recovery Console, and use the Bootcfg command to scan for available Windows installations and repair the Boot.ini file automatically.

This assumes that the hard drive is working properly and no defects in the media. And, of course, the boot process is executed from memory.

As for the quote, I am skeptical about everything past the first sentence.
 
I found a suspected cause: a loose RAM chip, so I secured it, but after reboot, the same thing happens. ??? So I run Memtest86+, and it takes 8 hours, with no errors. I think this problem is not very shallow anmore. It seems like a virus of some sort, but I don't think it could be, since I have very strict anti-virus and anti-spyware tools, not to mention I also use a firewall... HELP!!!
 
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