Win xp will not load.

[urbandragon]

Ok here is what is going on.

Windows XP sp2 been installed for a few months.. No recent updates done.
System specs intel celeron 2.5 ghz with 256 MB ram.

What happened.
Storm in the area caused DSL,another computer, router, and switch to die...

What I have done...
Booted to Custom Util disk and ran Mem test and disk doctor.... no errors found.

Have tried all options for booting to SAFE MODE but when booting to safe mode last line on the screen says agp440.sys and system goes no further....
When booting into normal mode system locks up on a blue background with an active mouse cursor.... Unable to CTRL+ALT+DEL no response, also when hitting num lock to enable/disable num lock keyboard non responsive.

Tried going to Recovery console and doing chkdsk /r ..... No luck
Tried fixmbr and fixboot as well with no luck.

I was able to get into safe mode at one point and disabled all startup programs thinking the problem could have been with a program causing problems... no luck, and afterwards can not get to safe mode at all.

Here is the kicker... This box is a relatives computer and he does not want to loose any info + this is a crappy compaq box with the recovery partition so repairing XP is not possible because compaq doesn't give a cd..... Does anyone have any ideas on some things to try... If i cant get this piece fixed here soon i am just gonna daisy chain the hdd to my box and pull his crap off... to bad for him having to set his box back up....

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

[just_a_nobody]

Check out this Microsoft sight: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324764

 

[urbandragon]

I will give that a shot when i get home.. i am at work 'sigh' I thought it had something to do with the video adapter, but the drivers have not been changed/upgraded or anything like that, and i throw a pci video card in it but no luck...


I will let ya know if that takes care of it..

thanks for the kb article, i should have been more specific when searching microsoft.... lol

 

[urbandragon]

Well i did disable the agp440.sys but it still doesn't boot to safe mode.. oh well i guess i am stuck with wiping the box.

 

[just_a_nobody]

Try a repair install. Go and activate those programs that you selected not to start.

 

[urbandragon]

would do a repair if i could.. but its an OEM box with the stupid OEM recovery partition and not an actual XP CD.

But all is well, just gonna take me a few extra min to throw the hdd in my hot swap bay and pull the files.

 

[just_a_nobody]

I think one of those programs that you stopped from starting at startup, may have something to do with your safe mode problem.

 

[just_a_nobody]

I like having that recovery partition, just do a non-destructive restore.