Resolved XP Home SP3 freezes on boot

Up to last night PC was running fine. Normal shutdown. This morning, it boots only as far as the black splash screen with the big Windows logo and the bar below it with the scrolling three <strike>green</strike> blue blocks. These scroll for a while, then stop, and the system is frozen. Protected mode won't start, either.

I've tried running the restore option from the original CD, but that only gives me a list of DOS commands, none of which helps at all. (Ran chkdsk on all drives; it found some errors but apparently fixed them because when I ran it again, it found no errors.) I've tried F8 at bootup and then "last working configuration" (not sure of the exact wording in English) - no change.

I'd like to avoid reinstalling from the original CD (SP2) and then updating to SP3, partly because it will probably take a whole day, but also because I'm afraid of what I might lose/overwrite - for example, will I lose my Outlook email archive and contacts? I'd prefer to find some less invasive solution if it exists, but if I have to I'll bite the bullet and reinstall and update.

I've got the Ultimate Boot Disk v. 5, if that helps, but not sure what I could do with it to solve the problem.

 

If by protected mode you mean safe mode and that doesn't boot you may not have much choice but to do a repair install. However, I strongly recommend you create a slipstreamed SP3 disk before you do so.

See: Slipstreaming Windows XP Service Pack 3 and Create Bootable CD

And: How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install

 

HI wildfire, and thanks for input. Yes, "safe mode" in English - sorry.

I was afraid of that. I don't even know whether my wife's laptop I'm using now can burn CDs! I'll start trying to do a slipstream now, since it could always come in useful, but I'm praying someone else will come up with a less labour-intensive suggestion before I'm through...

 

However, since it looks like I need a clean reinstall, is there a checklist anywhere for what I can/need to put in a safe place and bring back after the install is done? Are all my applications going to need reinstalling and reconfiguring?

 

Geoffrey, no need for a clean install, read the second link I provided regarding a repair install. Again I'll repeat my warning to only do this with a slipstreamed SP3 CD.

 

OK, TVM. Am working on it and shall report back on success (or not).

 

I hesitate to suggest this because it sounds too simplistic but it worked on a friend's computer a few weeks back. His symptoms were very similar to yours and "draining the flea power" restored his to normal operation. His computer would start the boot process and would hang while the progress bar was working. I had never heard of this before and when I Googled it I found that this seems to be a problem pretty much restricted to Dells. - but it might not hurt to try it.

This link explains how to do it http://en.allexperts.com/q/PC-hardware-CPU-1023/wrong-PC.htm

 

Hi Robert, it doesn't seem related and to be honest it's the first time I've heard the term "drain flea powder" , though I have heard of the procedure and recommended it in the past.

Geoff, it won't do any harm to try it though

 

You're right that it did no harm to try.... unfortunately it didn't solve it :-( But it would have been a great new trick to have up one's sleeve. Thanks for the tip, Robert. I didn't mention before because it seemed too obvious, but of course I had tried switching everything off and waiting 10 minutes, which sometimes resolves the most recondite problems. Maybe the "flea power" is a slang expression for static charge or similar?

Well, I've now slipstreamed, but I can't burn a bootable CD: neither WMP nor Nero Express seems to have that option. My eyes have gone square - I've been struggling with this all day. If I don't go downstairs for dinner now my wife will kill me. After that I'll try with the currently unbootable SP3 CD and report back on progress.

Oh, yes, thanks wildfire: I did notice you specified "repair install "; I mistyped "clean install" (#4) in my desperation.

 

Nero Express won't burn a bootable CD because it demands a bootable emrgency floppy to copy some files off for the boot process, and this laptop dosn't have a floppy drive. But it occurs to me that a workaround might be to add the necessary files to the slipstreamed folder top level and then re-burn the slipstreamed CD.

Does anybody know which files are required to make a CD bootable? If so, I'll try it and report back.

 

All the information required was posted in Link 1 of post #2 Geoffrey, perhaps reading it again and pointing out where exactly you are having problems would help.

 

Sorry to be so thick! Yes, in your first link it did indeed say what files to extract, but I assumed "Microsoft Corporation.img" was just an image file, a logo maybe.
I'll try again ...

 

No not a Logo, it's a boot image Looking forward to (hopefully) hearing success, please keep us informed.

 

Wildfire, is this relevant to the problem:http://windowssecrets.com/newsletter/building-your-own-xp-service-pack-4/

Hotfix 961555 maybe the answer. Neil.

 

Very relevant Neil, once Geoff resolves his issue he should read that article.

I personally have bookmarked it, thanks.

 

When I read the article about a week ago, I followed the process and Downloaded and installed 961555 on one of my comps which was having Random freezes on Startup.
So far it appears to be stable on Startup - time will tell. Cheers Neil.

 

Yeah, problem is Neil that Geoff can't boot the system at all, ie it's not a random crash

 

Thanks Neil; yes, I'll read it. Sorry to have dropped out of sight - I've finally burned the slipstream CD but my box doesn't recognise it and demands a valid bootable disk, so it's back to square 1 and I'll go though the whole procedure again, carefully, step by step. (Odd, because my wife's laptop does recognise it, which I find ominous.)

 

OK, now I'm really stuck. I've successfully created a bootable, slipstreamed SP3 CD; had to download and install an updated version of Nero to do that. Than I carried out the instructions for a repair install, following faithfully the second link kindly provided by wildfire. However, the situation remains exactly the same as described in my post #1 - system hangs when the progress bar has scrolled for a few seconds.

The only solution which comes to mind is to do a complete, fresh install from the original SP2 CD and download first SP3 and then the other 1004 updates there have been over the post coupla years from Windows Update...

If I have to resort to this, I'd love to know in advance what I'm going to lose if I can't copy it somewhere safe first.

 

So does the repair install succeed but further boots recreate the problem or is it the same when initially trying the repair install?