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Author Topic: win xp pro blue screens on bootup, but safe mode with network works okay  (Read 3334 times)

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aubreyrme

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    This is an older hp desktop with amd Athlon2200+ cpu, 768mb ram, 80gb hd and the current problem is a blue screen whenever windows tries to start in normal mode which reports no file name,  but the numbers 0x0000007e, and then some more in brackets like 0xc00006, 0x80ga37a9, 0xf7dc266e8, 0xf7d2634e4. Are these memory locations? Do they really mean anything to anybody?  I tried using boot logging, to see if it stopped after loading a certain driver, but after renaming the old boot log, it didn't create a new one, so it seems like it doesn't get far enough to actually start writing a boot log. I have tried using a different graphics card, like the blue screen suggested, but that made no difference, so I went back to the original onboard agp port. I searched my registry for any intelppm reference, but found none. It seems like it should be possible to get this running, since it boots up fine now in safe mode with networking, and I can get online, so I am looking for some help, before I just give up and reload xp, and spend the next 3 weeks reloading software.

    Here is the history of the problems: Computer suddenly locked up and wouldn't reboot. I suspected just a corrupt pagefile.sys, but deleting that didn't help. I had a corrupt boot.ini, so I copied an old version.  I booted with a third party cd, ultimate boot cd for windows made with Bart's PE, and restored an older copy of the registry, and after going back a few days, it was able to boot in safe mode, but still wouldn't load normally. I disabled reboot on errors, and found the blue screen actually was reporting c0000218 unknown hard error. I tried using the repair function from the windows cd, but it still wouldn't boot normally, and the install couldn't complete in safe mode, so I restored the old registry again, to get back to safe mode , and now I still had a blue screen, but the error had changed to BAD_POOL_CALLER. I downloaded the standalone service pack files, reinstalled service pack2, still blue screened on boot. Installed service pack 3 in safe mode, reboot reports sp3 is installed, but I still have the blue screen. I have tried using msconfig to try to boot with no system.ini, or boot.ini, but still no luck. I also tried some of the other options, but sometimes lost my safe mode booting, and had to boot from the ubcd and straighten it out again. I ran some disc diags, and there was a corrupted tmp file, and maybe some others, so I ran 3 different defrag programs, just to make sure my drive could be written to okay. I suspect there are some other corrupt windows system files, and I was hoping loading the service packs would help, but it didn't.

    Is there any debug mode utility available that will step through the boot process? I remember years ago it was possible to step through a windows 98 boot, and try leaving out certain drivers while it was booting.

    One suggestion from ms was to upgrade the system bios, but I don't know the model, since the case has been changed, and the hp detection won't work when the browser is in safe mode. Any ideas on some other utilities I can use to debug my boot-up?

    I remember calling ms before, and sometimes they told me I had to reregister dll files, but I think those problems were further down the boot process than this. Anyhow, are there some simple tricks like that, that I can try?

    lostcoast



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    Re: win xp pro blue screens on bootup, but safe mode with network works okay
    « Reply #1 on: November 19, 2008, 05:26:12 AM »
    Sounds like your in deep...you may have already spent as much time as it takes to install windows new and fresh. I have no answer to your problem but my advice is to go ahead and save any needed files off the drive and make it new again. I keep a hard drive ready, loaded with windows and all needed programs ready for when this happens as to not lose time when busy.
    I am  Moderator of Computerhope Chat, for live help and assistance please use/click Free Help in the upper forum toolbar.

    aubreyrme

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      Re: win xp pro blue screens on bootup, but safe mode with network works okay
      « Reply #2 on: November 19, 2008, 08:16:07 AM »
      Yeah, but it's not just about the time, it's more the principle of the thing. If it is close to workingm properly, it should just need some fine tuning. If we always reinstall, we never learn anything new, and repeating the same process over and over is tedious. It also bugs me that Microsoft sells products that, it appears to me, need a lot of maintenance and tweaking, to run smoothly, and they charge big money to help support their own products. So, it's partly about beating the system, by finding out how to fix things without following microsoft's suggested method to just start over fresh, and lose years of history and custom settings, etc.

      patio

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      Re: win xp pro blue screens on bootup, but safe mode with network works okay
      « Reply #3 on: November 19, 2008, 09:12:10 AM »
      0000007e:
      Quote
      0x0000007E: SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
      (Click to consult the online MSDN article.)
      A system thread generated an exception which the error handler did not catch. There are numerous individual causes for this problem, including hardware incompatibility, a faulty device driver or system service, or some software issues. Check Event Viewer (EventVwr.msc) for additional information.

      Quote
      0x00000019: BAD_POOL_HEADER
      (Click to consult the online MSDN article.)
      A pool header issue is a problem with Windows memory allocation. Device driver issues are probably the msot common, but this can have diverse causes including bad sectors or other disk write issues, and problems with some routers. (By theory, RAM problems would be suspect for memory pool issues, but I haven’t been able to confirm this as a cause.)

      Seems the errors point in different directions but here's a few things you can check in the meantime:
      RAM
      DLoad and run MemTest. Follow the directions to create a bootable cd.
      Boot to the CD and let it run at least 2 hours...any errors at all and you have a bad stick of RAM

      Hard drive
      DLoad and run the diagnostics (FREE) from the drive manuf. site...again these are used to create a bootable CD.
      Run the long test.

      Otherwise it may be a faulty/wrong driver...check in Device Manager to see if there are any yellow !!'s.
      " Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. "

      aubreyrme

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        Re: win xp pro blue screens on bootup, but safe mode with network works okay
        « Reply #4 on: November 19, 2008, 09:25:23 AM »
        Thanks for the reply. I'll check out those ms links.

        This computer has 2 sticks of ram, so I tried pulling the first out, and booting up with the second stick in the first slot. This should have made a change if one of the sticks was bad, and it didn't make a difference, (except the system ran slower running on less ram.) I also thought of the possibility of a hard drive problem, but if defrag can complete, it can't be too bad, right? It seems unlikely to me that there is an incompatilbilty issue, since the computer has been running unchanged for years, unless a recent automatic update introduced a problem.

        I personally believe I have some damaged files, possibly from previous hard drive problems, so I am looking for ways to confirm my necessary files are okay. Can you help with any of my initial questions? Do you know any utilities to help debug a startup sequence? Or does anyone else know some utilities for this?