Windows XP problem, not booting

OK a few minutes ago I noticed a new update on Windows Update so I installed it. It needed of course to update the version of Windows update I was sing so it did that then I installed an update to Windows XP.... OK, fine, oh it needs a reboot, OK, reboot.

It then starts up, and when it came to the screen saying "Windows XP" and the three little blue bars scrolling scross the screen, it just sat there. Hmm, well it sat for a while so I shut it down. Start the laptop back up, and it tells me how it shut down imporperly.... OK, start normally. Nothing again, same thing.

I then shut down again, and tell it to revert back to when things were working.... It said this before booting up so I said OK go back to before there was a problem. Well it's on the same damn screen again showing the blue bars and no HD activity at all.

It's not hardware. Linux boots up fine.

Has anyone EVER seen this before? It just sits there saying it's booting up Windows with the bars scrolling, and sits there.


EDIT:

It booted into safe mode and I'm doing a restore to a few days ago right now. So right now it's restoring.... Hopefully this work. Can't understand why it did this..... There were no crashes, nothing. Can't think of a reason for it.


EDIT Part 2:

I fixed it.... It's now booting up. However I don't think I'm going to trust Windows update much anymore...

Hi Gore


Can you boot into safe mode? if so maybe you can go in to add/remove and uninstall the latest update, or do a system restore, there probably (if it is enabled/on) is a restore point just prior to downloading and installing updates, I believe Windows Updates does this automatically if the System Restore function is enabled/on.

The safe boot menu should also give you an option to go back to last known good configuration.

Edit: okay ignore previous paragraph....you guys type way to fast...... :p

Hope the restore works for you....

Right now I'm doing a scan..... Don't think anything is on there the only reason Windows gets booted is for some games. No email no web surfing.... I do all that in Linux or BSD where I don't need to worry about it.


EDIT:

After the scan I'm going to Windows update to see if I can pint out the updates I installed... That way the people here with XP can try them out and see if their installs don't work anymore.

The only thing I did with the system was install those updates and reboot as it said to so there is no way something else was at fault here. Not that this is anything new I've heard of countless people installing Windows updates and then something breaks.

From my experience updates usually knock out drivers.....

I would say its probably video....I have seen funkiness with sound and modems too

or maybe a conflict with some app during startup....

Like to know what update it was...


MLF

I got a problem similiar to this once, I updated windows, and reboot..but the bars just stopped scrolling across...1 out of the 2 times it happened on my computer, I just did a window restore, the 2nd time, i just shut down and turned it back on 30 minutes later and it worked fine...apparantly it needed to cool down?

The other time it happened on my brothers computer (because of a faulty shutdown), we fixed it by doing a system restore.... glad to hear you fixed it though, I haven't installed the new updates yet, gonna install it, see if I mess up my computer :-p

So far scans aren't finding anything, so I'm going to check Windows update for the exact names. It was not a critical update, but it said it had security fixes. Unless it was the update to Windows update itself...... Waiting for Windows update to load on my laptop..... FINALLY.


Updates I installed :

Windows Genuine Advantage Valid....

Update for Windows XP (KB912945)

Update for Windows XP (KB904942)

The updates are all for IE. Except that first one... After they installed I rebooted and it would no longer boot past the screen with the little blue bars WHICH I LOVE SO MUCH BECAUSE IT HIDES SYSTEM MESSAGES.

^Another reason I "Bash"... Why can't Windows show you something NOT pretty for a change? I would LOVE to see system messages instead of "Microsoft Windows XP [] [] [] "

Quote:

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Originally posted here by Raion
I got a problem similiar to this once, I updated windows, and reboot..but the bars just stopped scrolling across...1 out of the 2 times it happened on my computer, I just did a window restore, the 2nd time, i just shut down and turned it back on 30 minutes later and it worked fine...apparantly it needed to cool down?

The other time it happened on my brothers computer (because of a faulty shutdown), we fixed it by doing a system restore.... glad to hear you fixed it though, I haven't installed the new updates yet, gonna install it, see if I mess up my computer :-p

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**** like this and I get flamed for "Windows bashing".... No APs in cosmos because people were being negged for their opinion. But if you do the same thing about an OS and you are actually showing reasons why you're pissed, you get negged or flamed anyway.

*Sigh* Watching it scan for "spyware" now. Anyway, I'm goign to play on my Slackware boxes. And load Windows update on that.... Lol.

Gore

Did you ever install the beta IE 7.0 on the box??


MLF

edit>

OK I just ran Windows update...and all I got was the validation tool...no other critcal updates

I did not get the KB912945 update...active x ??

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/912945

and I cant find any reference to KB90492

ummmm :confused:

MLF

Took that and everything else off. And now it works..... I scanned with two different tools and they found nothing... Anyway, I've taken off all the "extras" like new IE and so on.

Ah geez, gore you just love bashing windows...

I've had problems with linux as well, like having to do extra work just to make my NIC work... You don't see me bashing linux do you?

So you messed up your MBR, nothing a simple system restore couldn't fix...

Quote:

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Originally posted here by morganlefay
...OK I just ran Windows update...and all I got was the validation tool...no other critcal updates...

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Same here, just KB892130 for the validation tool. I do have auto-updates on and the last was 18 Feb 06

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The Duck: So you messed up your MBR, nothing a simple system restore couldn't fix...

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:rolleyes: :D :rolleyes:

just gonna let it go tonight...lol

cheers

I'm don't mean to sound like it's ok for windows updates to mess up like that. But I'm willing to bet that if linux replaced windows, it would have it's fair share of problems as well, regardless of what distro you use...

But I want to avoid this debate as well :D.

FYI

MS offers **free** support for any problems related to updates.......

So if it becomes an issue...may be an avenue

MLF

Daffy duck, how would a MBR be screwed up? That's strange considering Grub is on the MBR and it loaded fine as did Linux, windows started to load fine, and then stopped. The MBR hasn't been touched in ANY way..... How did you come up with that exactly?

As for Linux doing the same thing, no, not at all, it's running on every box in this house except one, and it's what I use mainly, and this has never happened there.

And what does your NIC not working properly have to do with an update from an OS developer screwing up? Your NIC not working has nothing to do with what was being discussed, that has something to do with your NIC's designers not supporting Linux, or you not knowing what you're doing.

Just curious how you decided it was somehow the MBR. Or how "Linux is no better"....

Quote:

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As for Linux doing the same thing, no, not at all, it's running on every box in this house except one, and it's what I use mainly, and this has never happened there.

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I didn't say they had the SAME problems... But linux does have it's share of problems as well. Not even the biggest linux fans like yourself can deny this, gore :).

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Daffy duck, how would a MBR be screwed up? That's strange considering Grub is on the MBR and it loaded fine as did Linux, windows started to load fine, and then stopped. The MBR hasn't been touched in ANY way..... How did you come up with that exactly?

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By MBR I really meant NTLDR/boot.ini, I know bad comparison and not exactly the same thing, but you know what I meant ;).

My mistake on not being specific, but the general idea still stands.

So how did the boot time **** get touched at all with updates to IE?

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So how did the boot time **** get touched at all with updates to IE?

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Magic.
:cool:

Hi Gore,

Get Belarc Advisor, that is a pretty good tool for software version monitoring. It also checks Windows updates and tells you if they failed.

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So how did the boot time **** get touched at all with updates to IE?

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Corrupted download and the reboot process failed?

:)

Yea right man. Rebooting has always been a Windows strong point. Windows failing a reboot is like Bush passing a spelling bee.

I use auto update as well, and those ones you listed are software optional updates, and shouldn't be part of the auto update.

Normally you would select "express" to check for important updates, and the genuine validation tool would be the first.

The first one genuine validation tool is needed so the other updates will show when it scans again, unless it's critical, you don't really need to install these, and if it's IE related, use Firefox, until IE7 comes out of beta......or not...

Quote:

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Yea right man. Rebooting has always been a Windows strong point. Windows failing a reboot is like Bush passing a spelling bee.

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Gore

You have to learn the windows reboot hoo doo dance

Consists of crossing your fingers and toes.............. closing your eyes while spining counterclockwise and muttering BOOT BOOT BOOT over and over .....until you see the logon screen

Works for me ;)

As for updates...I only get critical...unless there is a specific issue where I need a hotfix or some patch.....

MLF

Hi

I think it is of importance to understand the startup process of
an operating system to troubleshoot such issues. I have found
the "Troubleshooting the Startup Process"-Guide[1] a good read.

In particular, you can disable the "blue bar" and enable a listing
of the drivers currently loaded by a minor modification of c:\boot.ini. Add two
options to the default loader:

Code:

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multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /sos /noguiboot

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I have found the option "/bootlog" useful as well.


There are various ways to track down the particular source of error while
startup. Note that you have several layers, which can be responsible for it,
among them the boot loader phase, the hardware detection and configuration
phase, the kernel loading phase, the logon phase.


Cheers :)


[1] http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro...c29621675.mspx

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So how did the boot time **** get touched at all with updates to IE?

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Cause you shut it down on boot. When a known update was still being applied.

To answer your question on boot messages, yes Linux is MUCH better at displaying boot messages, google the magic word.... bootvis. (in addition to what sec has mentioned.)

I shut it down after about 5 minutes of no disk activity and it just sitting there.

I have to admit I am so paranoid of server reboots that I always make a backup of the system state and make an ERD before rebooting. Seriously though I wait a long time before shutting a system down. Don't forget gore that IE is PART of the OS. It doesn't just hang off as an application.

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So how did the boot time **** get touched at all with updates to IE?

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Well the update obviously did something to the "boot time ****" because the problem occured after you updated and rebooted... If you're disagreeing with this then that means the update had nothing to do with your computer not booting and therefore your 'complaint' is useless. In other words, if your argument were true, you would be proving yourself wrong :p...

RoadClosed pretty much summed it up pretty well in his last post...

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Don't forget gore that IE is PART of the OS. It doesn't just hang off as an application.

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Well it was worth a shot to get something going in here. No one wanted to say what part of the booting IE could have touched, just that it did?

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Well it was worth a shot to get something going in here. No one wanted to say what part of the booting IE could have touched, just that it did?

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Now, I know that it's always good to have as muich knowledge as possible, knowledge is power... But honestly, do you really care enough to know EXACTLY what happened? What part of the update changed which setting in which file in one small part of the boot process? I for one do not, It is not necessary to know all of this to fix the problem, you proved that...

Here's my challenge to you gore... If your really interested then I suggest you do some research on the subject. Then come back and educate us all...

I doubt your as interested now, as it is quite a boring subject :).

Hmmm,

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No one wanted to say what part of the booting IE could have touched, just that it did?

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Who cares? That sort of thing happens with Billy Windows, and you have destroyed the evidence. I would suggest not using the automatic update. The two favourites are a corrupted download or a deadly embrace.

Now, where you are getting this kind of crap consistently/regularly, then you should boot into safe mode and check the logs and the boot log. That should tell you where it is happening, which might give you a clue.

I bet you were running all sorts of crap when that happened, which is why I suggested a deadly embrace ;) What amuses/amazes me is that MS produce this fancy auto updater, then want you to shut down all other programs processes etc. when they know damn fine that it will prompt you smack in the middle of something?

As you might have guessed, I don't use the auto-updater, and have had no update problems (apart from losing the internet connection) in the past couple of years.

I find it somewhat disappointing that this does happen fairly regularly, yet AV and other security products manage to update without any significant problems. OK I know that is generally not so complex, but even when they are updating the engines, they work OK.

I guess the difference is that most of the MS stuff are patches to faulty code/systems whilst the other guys are just doing regular updates like geting your automobile serviced?

:)