Hello. I am new here, as you might have guessed. Up until now I haven't
really had any real problems with Windows XP. I was just trying to set up a
home network between my own PC and a new PC I have just built yesterday, and
every time I ran the network setup wizard, either one or both of the PCs
could not detect the other. I persisted, and then one time when I ran the
network setup wizard again, the entire system spontaneously restarted.

After rebooting, I found that Windows was no longer working properly, as
every time I logged on, it appeared to not be logged on properly. I kept
getting asked if I wanted to start PC Cillin real time scanning (normally it
would just start), MSN Messenger did not show up like it usually does, my
internet connection would not work, and no users appeared to be logged on in
the task manager.

After trying to log off, the system hung up on me, and got stuck with my
desktop background, but with no icons and no task bar. I tried restarting the
PC several times, with no luck. I then attempted to restart with the last
known good settings. Big mistake. While Windows was loading, the whole system
restarted, and from then on it has failed to load except in safe mode.

I have absolutely no idea why it has done this, and why I cannot get back
onto Windows. I would rather not have to reformat my Windows partition, as it
would mean I would have to reinstall the boot loader (I am running a dual
boot machine, and I am currently on Linux), and possibly have to do a clean
reinstall of Linux.

Could someone please tell me how to restore Windows to a working state
without me having to reinstall everything? This would also include me having
to preload Half Life 2 again, and my serial key may no longer work on Steam,
so it's possible I may not be able to get it back.

Thanks for all the help.

On Sun, 10 Oct 2004 11:09:03 -0700, "FireFly"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Hello. I am new here, as you might have guessed. Up until now I haven't
>really had any real problems with Windows XP. I was just trying to set up a
>home network between my own PC and a new PC I have just built yesterday, and
>every time I ran the network setup wizard, either one or both of the PCs
>could not detect the other. I persisted, and then one time when I ran the
>network setup wizard again, the entire system spontaneously restarted.
>
>After rebooting, I found that Windows was no longer working properly, as
>every time I logged on, it appeared to not be logged on properly. I kept
>getting asked if I wanted to start PC Cillin real time scanning (normally it
>would just start), MSN Messenger did not show up like it usually does, my
>internet connection would not work, and no users appeared to be logged on in
>the task manager.
>
>After trying to log off, the system hung up on me, and got stuck with my
>desktop background, but with no icons and no task bar. I tried restarting the
>PC several times, with no luck. I then attempted to restart with the last
>known good settings. Big mistake. While Windows was loading, the whole system
>restarted, and from then on it has failed to load except in safe mode.

FireFly,

sounds like a hardware error, disk controller, disk data cable,
the hard disk itself, RAM, or some such. Windows doesn't
normally self-desctruct.

Run hardware test programs after booting from a DOS diskette or
from a CD.

Hans-Georg

--
No mail, please.

On Sun, 10 Oct 2004 12:31:01 -0700, "FireFly"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>It is not the hardware, or I would not be on Linux on the very same PC that I
>am having a problem with. Also, I have voice POST, which tells me if there
>are hardware errors on boot up. Until today, Windows was completely stable on
>my machine. Until today, I had never tried to set up a network with this PC
>either. It is something to do with the network setup wizard, as it crashed
>when the network setup wizard was running.
>
>Would it help to run system restore in safe mode?

FireFly,

if it is really only a software problem, then I would recommend
a repair installation of Windows XP. But if the first
installation is recent, I would flatten XP and install from
scratch, that's much better.

Hans-Georg

--
No mail, please.

It is deffinately a software problem, I managed to stop it restarting when it
encountered the problem (ran it in safe mode and changed a couple of
settings) and then when I started it, I got a blue screen telling me that
win32k.sys is causing the problem. I am not familiar with repair
installations, but I do not want to flatten it, as I do not wish to reinstall
everything (including steam, which has 2GB of half life 2 preloaded that
would take about 16 hours to preload again).

Could you please get me started on the repair installation, as when I opened
the repair console using the Windows XP disk, all I got was a command prompt
and I was completely lost. Despite being a Linux user, command lines aren't
my strong point.

Thanks again for any help

It is deffinately a software problem. I changed a few settings in safe mode
and managed to stop the whole thing restarting every time Windows failed to
load. I now get a blue screen telling me that win32k.sys is causing the
problem, along with some other information.

I would much prefer to repair Windows rather than flatten it, as I have a
lot of things that I am unsure about reinstalling (steam with Half Life 2
preload and all the games that came with it - I am unsure if my cd key will
still work after using it once, even if I use it on the same internet
connection on the same PC.), and I have flatten Windows oh so many times
simply to fix problems concerning games and DVD overlays and such.

I do not know how to start up the Windows repair service, as when I opened
the console using the CD, all I got was a command prompt, and I was lost. I
have tried system restore, which failed first because of a lack of space on
C: (3GB windows partition) and after cleaning up space it gave me no reasons
for system restores failure.

Thanks again for any help.

On Mon, 11 Oct 2004 00:59:01 -0700, "FireFly"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>It is deffinately a software problem. I changed a few settings in safe mode
>and managed to stop the whole thing restarting every time Windows failed to
>load. I now get a blue screen telling me that win32k.sys is causing the
>problem, along with some other information.
>
>I would much prefer to repair Windows rather than flatten it, as I have a
>lot of things that I am unsure about reinstalling (steam with Half Life 2
>preload and all the games that came with it - I am unsure if my cd key will
>still work after using it once, even if I use it on the same internet
>connection on the same PC.), and I have flatten Windows oh so many times
>simply to fix problems concerning games and DVD overlays and such.
>
>I do not know how to start up the Windows repair service, as when I opened
>the console using the CD, all I got was a command prompt, and I was lost. I
>have tried system restore, which failed first because of a lack of space on
>C: (3GB windows partition) and after cleaning up space it gave me no reasons
>for system restores failure.

FireFly,

boot from the CD, then first choose to install Windows XP, not
to repair it.

After than, the installer should find your current installation
and will ask you what to do. Select to repair the existing
installation.

Hans-Georg

--
No mail, please.

And that should repair only erroneous files? I am very
concerned about losing things, and wish to get my system
back to how it was before the whole thing went. Until
then, it was very stable and worked fine.

Thanks again

On Mon, 11 Oct 2004 03:18:54 -0700, "FireFly"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>And that should repair only erroneous files? I am very
>concerned about losing things, and wish to get my system
>back to how it was before the whole thing went. Until
>then, it was very stable and worked fine.

FireFly,

the repair installation keeps all installed software and all
user settings.

Of course there is always a residual risk of something going
wrong during the installation, I can never rule that out. So
don't kill me if you're the unlucky one, and have a backup if
it's really important.

But I've done quite a few repair installations on my own
computers with good success. Sometimes you just need them, when
something breaks in the operating system and you cannot find and
repair it.

Hans-Georg

--
No mail, please.