WindowsXP pro. Need some ideas please.

Greetings.

My windowsXP pro box has decided that it doesn't want to work any more. Anyhow at first it was not loading up past the BIOS menu, it would just sit there and not do anything further.
So i went into the recovery console did a c:\Fixmbr and a c:\FixBoot. Restarted and it then decided that the NTLDR is missing or is corrupted error lol.
So to fix this i went back to Recovery Console and did the

copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\
copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\

Restarted the computer and it starts to load, it get's past the first windows xp screen with the little scrolley bar.

But when it starts loading up the blue screen where the login areas are, it seems to stop loading leaving the Windows XP logo stuff in the center of the screen.
{No User login area's are loaded up.}

The computer has been working flawlessly for the last 4months since the last format and re-install.

No hardware changes have taken place, and thus the current configuration is:

winXPpro SP2 fully updated.
3.5ghz Intel CPU
500Wt power supply
2x 80Gb Western Digital IDE drives.
256mb ATI radeon graphics
d-Link PCI network card.
1Gb Ram



Anyhow i'm just scratching my head trying to think of ideas, so i thought i'd start a thread and post this up[ and get some ideas thrown into the party and maybe get this machine working.:D



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Ok quick update.

I finally pulled the drive from the computer, and changed the jumper from "Master" to "Slave", inserted it into another computer running xp pro, the machine detected the drive, and in the "My Computer" on the other computer it shows the "slaved" drive, i can browse the files/folders on the drive, so all the user accounts are still there.

I have ran AV scans on the drive, with nothing found. I have also ran Spyware program. Also have just completed a chkdsk /r on the drive, and it didn't find any bad sectors on the drive itself.

Put the drive back as master and slap it back into the original machine yet the problem is still there..

blue logon screen, but the user accounts are not displayed, there's no option to go into classic logon menu ALT-CTRL-DEL don't work.

in the centre of the scren is the typical Microsoft Windows XP proffesional edition with the winXP logo.

:(

Did you try booting up in safe mode.

If this works, try disabling any un-needed services.

Sounds like a hardware failure. Try running a memory tester on it. If that comes back clean, you may be looking at a bad motherboard or CPU

I would while the drive is slaved copy needed data....somewhere off the drive

then try to write to it..check your event viewer for errors

I suspect a failing harddrive



MLF

You might give it a quick go without the network card. Strange things can happen when they go on the blink.

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Originally Posted by WolfeTone

Did you try booting up in safe mode.

If this works, try disabling any un-needed services.

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Tried booting into Safe Mode, if loads up, but it stops on the blue screen with no user accounts displayed, CTRL-ALT-DEL does not work either, so i cannot get into the basic login page either.

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Originally Posted by delstar

Sounds like a hardware failure. Try running a memory tester on it. If that comes back clean, you may be looking at a bad motherboard or CPU

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Ran a memory test, and it came up with zero problems, the motherboard is fine also, i took it out of the machine and put it into another machine witch has identical Gigabyte mother board, put CPU power supply graphics card memory etc etc into machine, and it worked fine.

Put the hard drive into that machine as master and still the same problem insist on happening.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by morganlefay

I would while the drive is slaved copy needed data....somewhere off the drive

then try to write to it..check your event viewer for errors

I suspect a failing harddrive



MLF

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Tried that also, while it was slaved, i was able to grab files/folders from various location,s and copy them onto another machines hard drive. I was also able to transfer files onto the hard drive also once permission were setup.

No issues in the event viewer, and no errors come up from a full drive scan either..

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Originally Posted by nihil

You might give it a quick go without the network card. Strange things can happen when they go on the blink.

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OK unplugged the network card, same problem, blue screen with windows xp and logo. No user account displayed, CTRL-ALT-DEL still does not work, but if i press the windows key and the T key, the narrator prompt appears lol :eek:

Also when i have the drive slaved i am able to see that the user accounts are still intact, and i am able to browse the Admin folder and the other non admin accounts also.

Thanks for all the ideas boys and girls. :) Anymore ideas or suggestions, as i would really really like to get this issues solved. Saves just grabbing the needed data and doing ye' ol' format and re-install lol

I know you ran fixmbr

I would try chkdsk /r

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/d....mspx?mfr=true

This recently worked for me on a couple of machines that wouldnt boot

also...sometimes copying original files from install disks can cause more issues...as they may be different versions then other system files due to SPs and hotfixes..causing other issues. .

Seeing you have everything backed up...you could also try a repair, or drop an install on top of itself, or a parallel install....for recovery. This should tell you if you have a hardware issue...or software\driver issue

If you have the time to play around of course....sometimes the format and reinstall is the quickest way to get a system up and running again

MLF

Quote:

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Originally Posted by morganlefay

I know you ran fixmbr

I would try chkdsk /r

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/d....mspx?mfr=true

This recently worked for me on a couple of machines that wouldnt boot

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I have ran the chkdsk /r when i first did fixmbr and fixboot in Recovery Console. I also re-did the scan while it was "Slaved" onto the other computer.

Just tried it again, and it still picks up no errors etc. It's getting fun trying to do it though as i am starting to time to see how long it takes to do the chkdsk /r and see if the running times are different lol..

Quote:

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also...sometimes copying original files from install disks can cause more issues...as they may be different versions then other system files due to SPs and hotfixes..causing other issues. .

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Yes i agree with this, and i'm starting to think that when i repaired the NTLDR with the
copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\
and the copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\

That maybe the ntdetect.com might have some play in why it's giving this error. I just got this feeling that this might be the Gremlin..

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Seeing you have everything backed up...you could also try a repair, or drop an install on top of itself, or a parallel install....for recovery. This should tell you if you have a hardware issue...or software\driver issue

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I have thought about this option, but then once the Repair has been done then it would present me with a computer with the default settings programs intact. Then i would have to re-apply the sp2 and hotfixes. And this could cause some legacy programs to not function correctly. Witch is one of the reason's im more leaning to finding a fix so that i don't have to resort to spending some time getting programs to work properly again..

Quote:

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If you have the time to play around of course....sometimes the format and reinstall is the quickest way to get a system up and running again

MLF

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I've got plenty of spare time to play around, and try different suggestions/Ideas, i'm on Christmas holidays until laate January. So if it's still not worked out then. Then i'll maybe wave the White Flag and Surrender this round. :p

Hi Mate!

NTLDR repair tool is here:

http://boost-pc-performance.com/inde...FQFZQgodNTn4Wghttp://www.tuneupadvisor.com/fix-exe.aspx

http://www.tuneupadvisor.com/fix-exe.aspx

It should still be free :)

After trying to install XP 64bit I recieved an error after booting for the CD that my NTLDR was corrupt. I just formatted and put a clean install of XP 32 bit on there. No idea how or why the NTLDR is corrupt :) Maybe I must just stay away from 64 bit version of windows.

I'll try the NTLDR repair tools.

Greetings.

Ok sorry for not keeping this thread nicely updated. But anyhow Johnno i grabbed those tools that you recommeneded?
And installed and ran them, I had to have the drive "slaved" into another computer and then after finally working out what i was doing. {Brain is on holiday so i'm a walking drooling zombie. :p}.

Ok ran them, it said problem fixed. Un"slaved the drive returned it to it's home, booted the computer still no go.

So i went back to Recovery console deleted the ntldr and ntdetect.com files.
i then repeated the "slave" drive in other computer, re-run programs.

Put drive back and what do you know the damned thing works:D .

Anyhow thanks everyone that popped into this thread and offered there ideas, it is great to see there are still some helpful members lying around the site. ;)

Now i just waiting for nortan ghost to finish making and .image of the drive, so that if this ever happens again i'm prepared lol.

Hi there Teabags, glad to hear you got it fixed. OK you had to run it twice, but that is "the wonder of Windows" is it not? :D

Now, to business............

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it is great to see there are still some helpful members lying around the site.

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I know that I reported earlier that the UK taxation authorities had lost 25,000,000 records.............what I want to know is how my tax return got to Australia so soon? :lildevil: