Debugging Windows XP startup: Is there a way?

[anojjona]

I understand that the standard wisdom if Windows XP doesn't start up
is to wipe the drive and start fresh with a reinstall (or at the very
least uninstall and reinstall Windows). But suppose I don't want to
do that. Are there any ways to figure what actually goes wrong in the
startup and troubleshoot that? I know it sounds crazy and "goes
against the grain," but I'm just wondering: Is it actually possible?
And are there any tools that can help?

Here's the situation:
* Sony Vaio
* Starts up in safe mode only
* "Last known configuration" startup doesn't work
* Does not start up even with "diagnostic" configuration in msconfig
(except in safe mode)
* I had never set up restore points, so system restore is no use
* When I look at the event viewer, the only obvious errors I see are
that certain things didn't load because I'm in safe mode
* ntbtlog.txt doesn't seem that useful, but maybe I'm not reading it
right. It only shows drivers that it loaded and didn't load, and from
what I can tell, this is probably just what happened when booting in
safe mode; I can't see anything that would show where it fails.
* There's a blue screen with some text that flashes with some text
during start-up. I'm wondering if it's worthwhile to take a movie of
the screen as it's starting up to find out what that says. However, I
don't have a camcorder...just a digital camera and I don't if the
movie would be high-enough resolution for this method to work.

Anyhow, you'd think that there must be some way for Windows to
actually log what's going on somewhere...to record some information
about where its failing and when. Haven't they ever thought about
this? Anybody have any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I understand that the standard wisdom if Windows XP doesn't start up
is to wipe the drive and start fresh with a reinstall (or at the very
least uninstall and reinstall Windows). But suppose I don't want to
do that. Are there any ways to figure what actually goes wrong in the
startup and troubleshoot that? I know it sounds crazy and "goes
against the grain," but I'm just wondering: Is it actually possible?
And are there any tools that can help?

Here's the situation:
* Sony Vaio
* Starts up in safe mode only
* "Last known configuration" startup doesn't work
* Does not start up even with "diagnostic" configuration in msconfig
(except in safe mode)
* I had never set up restore points, so system restore is no use
* When I look at the event viewer, the only obvious errors I see are
that certain things didn't load because I'm in safe mode
* ntbtlog.txt doesn't seem that useful, but maybe I'm not reading it
right. It only shows drivers that it loaded and didn't load, and from
what I can tell, this is probably just what happened when booting in
safe mode; I can't see anything that would show where it fails.
* There's a blue screen with some text that flashes with some text
during start-up. I'm wondering if it's worthwhile to take a movie of
the screen as it's starting up to find out what that says. However, I
don't have a camcorder...just a digital camera and I don't if the
movie would be high-enough resolution for this method to work.

Anyhow, you'd think that there must be some way for Windows to
actually log what's going on somewhere...to record some information
about where its failing and when. Haven't they ever thought about
this? Anybody have any suggestions?

Thanks!

Since Safe Mode still works, you're loading something in Normal
Mode that causes the problem. Run msconfig.exe and disable
each and every startup task and every non-Microsoft service.
If this solves the problem, restore them one or two at a time
until you find the culprit.

It's probably a good idea to physically disconnect the machine
from the Internet during these tests, to prevent it from picking
up a virus or getting hacked.

What is the benefit of disabling System Restore?

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Use this KB to follow Pegasus' advice:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353

 

[Nepatsfan]

I understand that the standard wisdom if Windows XP doesn't start up
is to wipe the drive and start fresh with a reinstall (or at the very
least uninstall and reinstall Windows). But suppose I don't want to
do that. Are there any ways to figure what actually goes wrong in the
startup and troubleshoot that? I know it sounds crazy and "goes
against the grain," but I'm just wondering: Is it actually possible?
And are there any tools that can help?

Here's the situation:
* Sony Vaio
* Starts up in safe mode only
* "Last known configuration" startup doesn't work
* Does not start up even with "diagnostic" configuration in msconfig
(except in safe mode)
* I had never set up restore points, so system restore is no use
* When I look at the event viewer, the only obvious errors I see are
that certain things didn't load because I'm in safe mode
* ntbtlog.txt doesn't seem that useful, but maybe I'm not reading it
right. It only shows drivers that it loaded and didn't load, and from
what I can tell, this is probably just what happened when booting in
safe mode; I can't see anything that would show where it fails.
* There's a blue screen with some text that flashes with some text
during start-up. I'm wondering if it's worthwhile to take a movie of
the screen as it's starting up to find out what that says. However, I
don't have a camcorder...just a digital camera and I don't if the
movie would be high-enough resolution for this method to work.

Anyhow, you'd think that there must be some way for Windows to
actually log what's going on somewhere...to record some information
about where its failing and when. Haven't they ever thought about
this? Anybody have any suggestions?

Thanks!

To get a look at the blue screen error message you might want to try the
following.

Restart your computer and hit the F8 key as if you wanted to boot into Safe
Mode.
Instead select Disable Automatic Restart on System Failure.
Hit the Enter key and see if the blue screen is displayed.

If that doesn't work you might want to boot into Safe Mode, go to Control Panel,
double click the System icon and on the Advanced page of System Properties hit
the Settings button in the Startup and Recovery section. In Startup and
Recovery, uncheck "Automatically restart". Click OK twice and restart your
computer. Hopefully, the blue screen will show up.

Good luck

Nepatsfan

 

[anojjona]

Thanks...the disabling automatic restart at least let me see what the
error is...
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
0x0000000A (0xFFFFFFE8, 0x00000002, 0x00000001, 0x805258C6)

I'll have to look into what that means....it doesn't look good though.

As to System Restore...I never disabled it...just was never enabled
out-of-the-box, I guess.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314063

Thanks...the disabling automatic restart at least let me see what the
error is...
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
0x0000000A (0xFFFFFFE8, 0x00000002, 0x00000001, 0x805258C6)

I'll have to look into what that means....it doesn't look good though.

As to System Restore...I never disabled it...just was never enabled
out-of-the-box, I guess.