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?