3 years later. NTLDR problem

[jeffkrol]

OK SP3 threw me back 3 years to the time of my sp2/new motherboard problems:
See this for a history:
https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic38170.html
Being the extremely stubborn type and also smart enough to believe that eventually my ntldr swap trick will fail I am again attempting to get to the heart of this problem.
Not to mention (since I chickened out doing the ntldr swap_ that I'm getting tired of starting XP in "base video" mode.
Soooo..... anyone know why my silly system has such problems w/ "new and improved" ntldr files but boots perfectly w/ the original on my XP CD?
Tried every solution from MS (Yes it's an AMD CPU, no the intel drivers are not loading on startup causing a BSOD)
VNF3-250 Moterboard w/
nVidia nForce3-S
AMD 64 2800+
NVidia NX5200 GPU
From the original thread:
Preboot BSOD 0x0000007e Only boots in VGA mode
(and safe mode and the thing I forgot sos mode...)
NO OTHER Stop: 0x0000007E fixes have worked....
I'm not alone....... Bet I could have fixed that for him/her
http://www.ocforums.com/archive/index.php/t-339740.html
EDIT: Checked the SOS switch and that works fine sooo to recap:
Boots fine in safe mode
Boots fine in vga mode
boots fine in sos mode
Doesn't boot fine in "normal" mode

 

[rf6647]

I offer encouragement to go dig deep on this problem. It is also a bump.

I venture to say you will find a "legacy" problem. I interpret your hardware description to indicate video is integrated on the mobo and you have upgraded to a gpu. Chipsets from nVidia are indicated for both.

You would need to perform an A/B comparison for the device drivers for the gpu on a "normal" system against the device drivers listed on the "troubled" system. Based on that detective work, you would remove the culprit or force the correct version to be used.

My method would be to create a 'slipstreamed' SP3 version of the XP installation CD, and load it on a spare HDD (original HDD removed). Come up on the new load and observe if different results are obtained. I would investigate differences from this point.

There may be easier methods -- I often overlook the obvious.

 

[jeffkrol]

I offer encouragement to go dig deep on this problem. It is also a bump.

I venture to say you will find a "legacy" problem. I interpret your hardware description to indicate video is integrated on the mobo and you have upgraded to a gpu. Chipsets from nVidia are indicated for both.

You would need to perform an A/B comparison for the device drivers for the gpu on a "normal" system against the device drivers listed on the "troubled" system. Based on that detective work, you would remove the culprit or force the correct version to be used.

My method would be to create a 'slipstreamed' SP3 version of the XP installation CD, and load it on a spare HDD (original HDD removed). Come up on the new load and observe if different results are obtained. I would investigate differences from this point.

There may be easier methods -- I often overlook the obvious.

Lot of work for one driver BUT I tried the slipstream method w/ SP2 and it failed same as in the above situation. As I said, if I install XP. Everything is fine till a SP is installed (which replaces the orig ntldr) Restoring ntldr from the "old" XP worked fine.
CURRENTLY I'm running in SOS mode (basically it slowly loads all drivers and does a short HD scan before loading Windows) and I shut of the boot.ini nag screen.
system runs perfectly fine. I guess if I had to guess it's just some sort of timing issue or 1 driver loading before another is ready.. or some such nonsense.
Actually adds more mystery then it solves.
/sos
The /sos switch displays the device driver names while they are being loaded. By default, the Windows Loader screen only echoes progress dots. Use this switch with the /basevideo switch to determine the driver that is triggering a failure.
........... maybe it's the dots BTW I don't use it with the /basevideo switch and since video loads up just fine (full rez and refresh rate) unlike the vga mode switch I assume it's not a default requirement.
Some more history:
http://forum.sysinternals.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=3050
Actually I'll have to look here. This is someting I wasn't aware of years ago. I have a feeling the answer may be here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875352

 

[rf6647]

Your post informs well

Your post and links to what you've covered in the past can be used by others who are likewise frustrated by the Windows update. Lacking minidumps and error reports takes a big leap to attack the problem. It is disheartening that Microsoft did not go further once it was observed that using switches for the ntldr demonstrated an effect, and that using an earlier version of ntldr had the same effect.

The KB article that interests you sounds like the classic 'gigo' syndrome. If ntldr can't handle the condition, then at least it may be something that you can easily remedy.