Replaced ntoskrnl, endless reboot (RESOLVED)

[Linux711]

So today, I decided that I was going to hack ntoskrnl manually to change the boot screen. You probably already know were I am going, but it is a little more complicated than you would think. I replaced the ntoskrnl with my version and rebooted the machine. It booted up ok and there were no problems.

I have two computers. One is a dell dimension 4400 with a pentium 4 1.6Ghz processor and the other is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 something+. Both of these computers have XP Pro with SP3. The only difference is that one has MicroXP (doesn't matter if you don't know what it is). I decided to copy the hacked ntoskrnl from the dell to the amd. The only other thing I did while copying was change the clock to 24 hour time, if that has any significance. I figured it would work because it has the same OS. Well it didn't work. I rebooted and was put into an endless reboot loop. It would reboot before it got to the boot screen. I thought that this may happen, so I had a BartPE CD ready. I rebooted into BartPE and replaced the hacked ntoskrnl with the original. I then rebooted again and still didn't work. That's when I started to get really pissed because I knew that this might happen and I had prepared for this.

So could anyone help me figure out why I am in this endless loop?

Things I already tried (so that I don't have to tell you "but i already did that"):
*Safe mode
*Boot log (doesn't even make the file so i figure it is before the file system driver)
*Removed /usepmtimer from boot.ini (cause i thought it may have to do with the 24 hour thing)
*BartPE (almost equivalent to recovery console)

I hope you took the time to read this much. Thank you for your help.

[dahlarbear]

1.  Stop the automatic restart to get information from the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).

Tap the F8 function key once or twice a second as you reboot the machine.  The Windows Advanced Options menu should appear.  Use the up/down arrow keys to select the "Disable automatic restart on system failure" and hit Enter.  Hopefully the machine will stop on BSOD.

Record and post back with the "exact" error message text and/or numbers plus any offending software module it might name.  A google search on these text strings or substrings sometimes provides problem resolution.


2.  Don't know if this applies to your configuration, but Microsoft provides two different kernels.  From Microsoft Technet's Troubleshooting the Startup Process:

The core (also called the kernel) of the Windows XP Professional operating system. Code that runs as part of the kernel does so in privileged processor mode and has direct access to system data and hardware.

During installation on single processor systems, Windows XP Professional Setup copies Ntoskrnl.exe from the operating system CD. During installation on multiprocessor systems, Windows XP Professional Setup copies Ntoskrnlmp.exe and renames it Ntoskrnl.exe.

[Linux711]

The core (also called the kernel) of the Windows XP Professional operating system. Code that runs as part of the kernel does so in privileged processor mode and has direct access to system data and hardware.

During installation on single processor systems, Windows XP Professional Setup copies Ntoskrnl.exe from the operating system CD. During installation on multiprocessor systems, Windows XP Professional Setup copies Ntoskrnlmp.exe and renames it Ntoskrnl.exe.

  The second comp was a duel core and I copied ntoskrnl. That's it.
Actually the name of the file is ntkrnlmp not ntoskrnlmp. I checked the CD and copied the file.
THANKS, THIS SAVED ME A LOT OF TIME!