Trouble starting windows

[pj64er]

Alright, number one, this aint that blaster worm thats going around, the symptoms are different, and i scanned my computer without finding any traces of it.

Basically, the problem here is that everytime I boot my computer, it does all the normal booting-up things, up until the windows xp splash screen, right after the splash screen (the one that says windows xp with a loading bar below it), the computer restarts itself! So basically, it keeps rebooting just after the splash screen. After turning off this splash
screen, I was able to see that it kicks in right after the computer is done checking my harddrives.


So right now...
-I have access to safe mode (and its cmd / network flavours)
-the 'restore to last good' does the same thing as normal booting (as in, it restarts after checking me drives)
-system restore refuses to work because it claims that I do not have sufficient room on my drives (it needs 200Mb, yet I have more than 2Gb free on all of my drives)


And in case it helps, I remember running 'sfc /scannow' and changing a few things in the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" reg folder...basically I deleted the quicktimetask and made asusprobe and gravis driver proggie run in belownormal mode. All of which I tried reversing which didnt fix the problem (as it shouldnt...dont see how its related..).


Help!

 

[Hexidecimal]

I had this same problem after recently reformatting, (trying to fix said blaster worm) i think i have the solution to why it happened to my particular system, so here goes:

I'm using StyleXP for my desktop, I installed it before installing my SP1, so that changed the shell, not allowing the desktop to display, and restarting the system, sadly, the only fix I know, is to reformat the drive, do a clean install of windows, and thats basically it, if someone else is a bit more helpful let them speak.

 

[lac29]

I heard on the news that some ppl who updated their virus dection software and eliminated the blaster worm may have to download even newer stuff from their virus software website bc there is an even newer version of the same worm that the first update cannot detect.

 

[pj64er]

Nope, problem started before I scanned for it. I used Symantec's blaster removal tool in safe mode after it started happening.

Hex: I have already begun backing up my stuff

 

[Hexidecimal]

Unfortunatly, it's the only thing I know to do, and it worked for me, this is why I keep all my ROMS, Music, etc. on my 120 gig slave drive, incase something like this would happen, so all I had to do was reinstall some programs, thank you slave drive.

 

[jollyrancher]

You should be able to fix this. As long as you can run in safe mode it's not too serious. The way you describe it the problem has to be in config.sys/autoexec.bat/system.ini/win.ini/registry. Since you were changing things in the registry that's obviously the most likely place. You might want to start with the "selective startup" option and try disabling certain things until you find what's causing it. There's an msconfig utility for 2000/XP that lets you disable each specific startup program that also might be helpful.

 

[Remote]

Easy solution, Format c:\ /q

 

[Stezo2k]

whats that switch do mate?

 

[Trotterwatch]

The /Q means quick.

If you want to see a list of commands, and this works for any command that has command switches go to a cmd window and do:

format /?

You could also do:

dir /?
chkdsk /?
for example, it will then tell you the switches and what each switch does.

 

[Stezo2k]

ah fair enuff, cheers mate

 

[blizz]

if you have a custom boot logo that can really fuck with updates to windows...

 

[pj64er]

jollyrancher: I tried msconfig, and even when loading diagnostic startup/selective startup using only Boot.ini, the problem still persisted. What comes before or at BOOT.INI?
Also, i got no config.sys/autoexec.bat because im using winxp.

trotterwatch: Im slowly drifting to that..

blizz: Since modifying winxp's gui has already fucked me once (one of em windows skinner things), I have the default boot logo. So thats fortunately not it.

[edit] oh, and system restore worked again...but ALL my restore points are gone! system restore w/ 0 restore points = no system restore.

 

[My95ZR2]

I'd recommend turning off system restore. I still haven't found a good use for it. When I do crash XP, it's usually past what a restore point can fix...And somehow, I've managed to keep all the crap I have on the same harddrive, and still wipe it to install WinXP over again (PQMagic++)

Adam

 

[jollyrancher]

If nothing else works, before you format you might want to try deleting everything in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Wi ndows\CurrentVersion\Run and if that works, just reinstall the programs that loaded something at startup.

 

[pj64er]

Alright, its fixed. I had to use the repair winxp thing from the installation cd. Basically, vanilla windows xp was installed over yet keeping all my old settings and files. Then I updated it back to SP1 to fix the funky errors you get when you have a normal winxp installed over sp1 (cant connect to internet, system restore so fuxored that it doesnt even show up, and other fun things).

 

[Kahenraz]

You're hitting some kind of stop error. What did you do/install last?