Won't boot after Service Pac 4

Scratching my head on this one.

2000 Server
Tyan Tiger S2668AN
Dual Xeon 2.0s

When I install SP4 it hangs on reboot at WINNT\system32\config\system
Thats only the 4th line in the boot process.
If I boot from the CD and do a repair install it runs fine.
SP4 seems to be the culprit but I don't know where to start looking.

 

Hmmm must be a MS thing.
Server 2003 runs like a champ.

 

I installed windows 2000 recently and installed SP4 and had no tourble at all. did u do updates before the install of SP4? usually thatswhat i do before installing a service pack

 

ssmith10pn - since you mention 2003, can we assume your 2K SP4 is no longer an issue?

 

No, I gave up and did a clean install of 2003 and all was well.

However I would like to know where to look for the problem when the boot hangs at WINNT\system32\config\system

 

At a guess I'd say you need to look at hal.dll since you may well have originally been using a vendor-specific one and there may be issues there. There may have been a bug of some sort in their multi-processor HAL version.

Or you may have done what I did to myself at one point when the update asked about replacing a vendor-specific file version and I said OK. BAD IDEA.

 

Service Pack updates

I don't know if I am 'special' also but I have drawn an extra share of M$ service pack upgrade problems when I try to use the straight SP upgrade file. Now, whenever a new SP arrives (Win2K or XP), I have resigned to take the extra step and slipstream the service pack into a full Windows install CD before I do anything else. Then I do an "In-Place Upgrade" with the slipstreamed CD. It seems to reconnect everything back together correctly with the new service pack.

From --> http://www.windowsreinstall.com/install/other/motherboard/win2k.htm
What an In-Place Upgrade Changes:

· It does NOT change the installed components and programs.

· It does NOT change any passwords.

· It does NOT change third-party registry entries.

· It rolls back any hotfixes, service packs, and Microsoft Internet Explorer upgrades to their base versions.

· It refreshes the registry and restores default registry values.

· It reapplies default permissions.

· It reregisters Component Object Model (COM) components and Windows File Protection (WFP) files.

· It reenumerates Plug and Play devices, including the hardware abstraction layer (HAL).

· It reenumerates and changes drive letters, based on the current drives and partitions that are seen during the in-place upgrade and on the rules that are documented in the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q234048 How Windows 2000 Assigns, Reserves, and Stores Drive Letters

Good Luck
Top Dog