Service Packs clobber my install

[Bryan]

I really need some help here, because I don't know where
to go next. I have a lot of information, so I apologize
for the length. Hopefully this information will be useful
though.

I have a PC with an ASUS K7M Slot A Motherboard and an
Athlon 750 MHz processor. I am upgrading it from Windows
98 to Windows 2000. The Windows 2000 install goes by
perfectly. Once I set the computer up on the campus LAN,
things start to get nasty.

So I was running the virus scanner, and it determines that
I have a strand of the "Nicha" worm on my machine, some
sort of relative to the Blaster worm. This worm has been
bouncing all over the campus LAN for a month now. The IT
dept. says to simply get a fix from microsoft. So I go to
microsoft's website to get the fix. It says I need service
pack 2 at least to load the fix. So I download service
pack 4 (since this is the easiest one for me to find). I
install the service pack and the patch, and reboot. Now
comes trouble.

After the sceen that allows me to choose safe mode "by
pressing F8" goes by, I get a BSOD. The
message: "0x0000007E Inaccesible Boot Disk". My other
machine has service pack 2, and things never went bad with
service pack 2. So I reinstall Windows on the Athlon
machine, and try service pack 2. Same results. I try it
again with Service pack 3, yet again the same results.

So I reinstally the OS again and install service pack 2.
This time, I boot into safe mode, and I actually make it
into the OS. I checked all of the event logs, and the only
complained of not being able to startup TCPIP, NETBIOS,
and other network services during the boot phase. So I
check hardware set up. There were no conflicts in the
hardware manager. I checked the IRQ listings to see if
there was a problem there also. I don't know if this is
normal, but there is some IRQ sharing:
IRQ 11 - ATI Rage 128 GL AGP
IRQ 11 - Creative SBLive! Basic
IRG 9 - VIA USB Universal Host Controller
IRQ 9 - VIA USB Universal Host Controller
(It was listed twice)
IRQ 9 - HCF 56k PCI Modem

I have read that the Rage 128 does have problems, so I
have taken out and tried the above using an nVidia
GeForce, and I got the exact same results: BSOD. So I
don't think the video card could be causing this trouble.

I decided to reboot the computer, and try "Safe Mode with
Networking". This time, the BSOD comes up again with the
same message about an "0x0000007E Inaccesible Boot Disk".

So networking and the service pack are not playing nice.
All of the above leads me to the following problem:
-- The service packs are messing up my pc.
-- But I need service packs to install the worm fix.
-- I can't rely on my campus IT group, because they don't
seem to be fixing the worm problem, and did not even seem
to care that the worm is spreading.

I feel like the problem is with the NIC, since I can't
seem to use networking in "Safe Mode with Networking". As
I write this I am downloading the latest 3Com Driver for
the NIC (3Com Etherlink XL 10/100 PCI TX - 3C905B-TX). The
driver currently being used is the one supplied by
microsoft. I will report back shortly about the results of
this task.

So, what can I do to get the PC up and running again? I
don't really need service packs, but because of the worm I
need to have the fix. I feel like I am stuck in a loop.
Anyone have any experiences like this? Any suggestions?
Places in Windows to look for trouble with the hardware?

I apologize for the length, but I just wanted to get the
information out. I figured the more that I give, the
easier it is to single out the problem. Thanks for your
help and time.

 

[Bill James]

A NIC is one of the least expensive components in a PC, so there is not much expense in buying another one to try out. I strongly recommend you do install the newest Service Pack since there is a lot more going on there than the ability to patch for this specific worm.

--

Bill James
Microsoft MVP - Shell/User

Win9x VBScript Utilities » www.billsway.com/vbspage/
Windows Tweaks & Tips » www.billsway.com/notes_public/

 

[Bryan]

I tried moving the NIC card to a different PCI slot. And
I also tried using two other NIC cards that are working
prefectly with Windows 2000 and sp2 through sp4. I also
pulled out all the extra PCI hardware, like the modem and
the soundcard. I still get the same message "Inaccesible
boot disk". Is there anything else I can do?

-----Original Message-----
A NIC is one of the least expensive components in a PC,

so there is not much expense in buying another one to try
out. I strongly recommend you do install the newest
Service Pack since there is a lot more going on there than
the ability to patch for this specific worm.

 

[George Hester]

There are a variety of reasons something can be "inaccessible." One is that the item is failing. In this case it would be your "boot disk," Another thing that can cause this are permissions if you are using NTFS. In that case you want to make sure your boot disk and pagefile.sys have Everyone full control.

--
George Hester
__________________________________
I tried moving the NIC card to a different PCI slot. And
I also tried using two other NIC cards that are working
prefectly with Windows 2000 and sp2 through sp4. I also
pulled out all the extra PCI hardware, like the modem and
the soundcard. I still get the same message "Inaccesible
boot disk". Is there anything else I can do?

-----Original Message-----
A NIC is one of the least expensive components in a PC,

so there is not much expense in buying another one to try
out. I strongly recommend you do install the newest
Service Pack since there is a lot more going on there than
the ability to patch for this specific worm.

 

[Bryan]

I have now tried to remove all PCI devices. The only
devices in the PC now are the AGP video card, the 20 GB
IBM hard drive, and the CD/ROM and Floppy. I still get
the same error message. So it must not be the network
card.

-----Original Message-----
A NIC is one of the least expensive components in a PC,

so there is not much expense in buying another one to try
out. I strongly recommend you do install the newest
Service Pack since there is a lot more going on there than
the ability to patch for this specific worm.

 

[Bob I]

Don't forget Motherboard drivers and the 4 in 1 drivers for the VIA chipset.