win2k startup problem - What can I try next?

[jake]

Apologies for the length of this post but I thought I better get down
as much info as I could remember, any ideas as to what I should try
next would be appreciated.

I have a Toshiba Satellite 4030 Laptop which was running win98. I've
had this linked to my pc with a wireless connection. The USB mouse and
the wireless adapter, which were plugged into a usb hub on the laptop,
caused problems - many crashes and unable to restart properly.

I finally decided to try win2k as a usb remedy. In haste I just loaded
the 2k disc and tried to upgrade. It turned out the BIOS needed
updating and after some problems I managed to update the BIOS.

Installation went fine, and during the process I received a message
'Setup found PnP hardware that needs updated files to work with
win2000' To the best of my knowledge, here is the list:
BDA IPS lnk
BDA MPE Filter
BDA Slip De-Framer
Logitech Quick Cam Pro 3000
Microsoft TV/Video Connection
NABTS/FEC VBI Codec
Netgear MA11 80 2.11b Wireless USB Adapter
USB Mass Storage Device
USB to IDE Adapter
World Standard Teletext Codec
Xircon Realport 2 Cardbus Ethernet 10/100

I didnt take the option to provie any files for the above and continued
with the install.The laptop had been converted to a FAT32 file system
under win98 and I took the option to convert to NTFS during the
install.

Windows 2k started fine. I was asked to provide a driver for standard
PCI graphics Adapter (VGA) which I did.

I reached the desktop and changed the screen resolution from 640/480 to
1024/768 high color (16 bit) I began to include some programs to load
at startup, firstly ZoneAlarm and then AntiVir® PersonalEdition
Classic. I could start antivir but couldnt seem to find an option to
load it at startup. Thinking that maybe I'd got a wrong or corrupt
version of antivir I uninstalled it, hoping to download another once I
got online ( there was one file in antivir quarantineLMCleanup.exe
-which the previous day had been detected as a trojan (falsely I think-
since its a part of an Adobe download Manager and the exact same file
had been running fine on my desktop pc and isnt detected with Macafee)

I restarted the laptop and I now have a problem starting windows. It
boots and then just before I expect the desktop to appear I get a blue
screen and error message. It restarts and goes through the same
procedure- restarting everytime. The error message is on the screen for
such a short time that it's impossible for me to read and I don't know
how to find out what it's saying.

I can start in safe mode ok but I'm stuck what to do from there. I've
tried vga mode-that doesnt help. I treid bootlogging but the
information in the resulting log file isn't of help-to me. In safe mode
I've tried reinstalling drivers for most of the devices that look sort
of important ( though I can't say I really know what I'm doing here)

Well...that's it...I'm stuck now with a constantly restarting laptop
that will only cease restarting in safe mode. Any ideas?

Regards

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Apologies for the length of this post but I thought I better get down
as much info as I could remember, any ideas as to what I should try
next would be appreciated.

I have a Toshiba Satellite 4030 Laptop which was running win98. I've
had this linked to my pc with a wireless connection. The USB mouse and
the wireless adapter, which were plugged into a usb hub on the laptop,
caused problems - many crashes and unable to restart properly.

I finally decided to try win2k as a usb remedy. In haste I just loaded
the 2k disc and tried to upgrade. It turned out the BIOS needed
updating and after some problems I managed to update the BIOS.

Installation went fine, and during the process I received a message
'Setup found PnP hardware that needs updated files to work with
win2000' To the best of my knowledge, here is the list:
BDA IPS lnk
BDA MPE Filter
BDA Slip De-Framer
Logitech Quick Cam Pro 3000
Microsoft TV/Video Connection
NABTS/FEC VBI Codec
Netgear MA11 80 2.11b Wireless USB Adapter
USB Mass Storage Device
USB to IDE Adapter
World Standard Teletext Codec
Xircon Realport 2 Cardbus Ethernet 10/100

I didnt take the option to provie any files for the above and continued
with the install.The laptop had been converted to a FAT32 file system
under win98 and I took the option to convert to NTFS during the
install.

Windows 2k started fine. I was asked to provide a driver for standard
PCI graphics Adapter (VGA) which I did.

I reached the desktop and changed the screen resolution from 640/480 to
1024/768 high color (16 bit) I began to include some programs to load
at startup, firstly ZoneAlarm and then AntiVir® PersonalEdition
Classic. I could start antivir but couldnt seem to find an option to
load it at startup. Thinking that maybe I'd got a wrong or corrupt
version of antivir I uninstalled it, hoping to download another once I
got online ( there was one file in antivir quarantineLMCleanup.exe
-which the previous day had been detected as a trojan (falsely I think-
since its a part of an Adobe download Manager and the exact same file
had been running fine on my desktop pc and isnt detected with Macafee)

I restarted the laptop and I now have a problem starting windows. It
boots and then just before I expect the desktop to appear I get a blue
screen and error message. It restarts and goes through the same
procedure- restarting everytime. The error message is on the screen for
such a short time that it's impossible for me to read and I don't know
how to find out what it's saying.

I can start in safe mode ok but I'm stuck what to do from there. I've
tried vga mode-that doesnt help. I treid bootlogging but the
information in the resulting log file isn't of help-to me. In safe mode
I've tried reinstalling drivers for most of the devices that look sort
of important ( though I can't say I really know what I'm doing here)

Well...that's it...I'm stuck now with a constantly restarting laptop
that will only cease restarting in safe mode. Any ideas?

Regards

========================

You omitted an essential detail from your lengthy post: Whether
you did a clean installation of Win2000 or if you did an upgrade
from Win98. If you did an upgrade then I recommend you start
afresh, this time with a clean installation. An upgrade from Win98
to Win2000 is a compromise at best, and an inoperative installation
at worst.

You can run msconfig.exe (http://www.svrops.com/svrops/dwnldoth.htm)
and remove every tick under the startup tab. By restoring them one
at a time you can perhaps isolate the culprit.

 

[jake]

You omitted an essential detail from your lengthy post: Whether
you did a clean installation of Win2000 or if you did an upgrade
from Win98. If you did an upgrade then I recommend you start
afresh, this time with a clean installation. An upgrade from Win98
to Win2000 is a compromise at best, and an inoperative installation
at worst.

You can run msconfig.exe (http://www.svrops.com/svrops/dwnldoth.htm)
and remove every tick under the startup tab. By restoring them one
at a time you can perhaps isolate the culprit.

Thanks for the reply. I included as many details as possible in my
original post and did infact include the detail you seemed to think was
missing:

'....In haste I just loaded the 2k disc and tried to upgrade....'

I use system internals- autoruns ulitilty and unticked the startup
items as you suggested I should do with msconfig. I did actually get
the system running but didnt really find a culprit. I'm wondering now
if there is infact a culprit or whether the problem is memory related-
since the problem still seems to arise when I add any items to the
startup.

I'm saving data and planning a clean installation of win2k. I'm still
not sure whether my laptop is capable of running the OS and still
rather unsure if I can obtain the correct Toshiba Utilities/drivers if
I do a complete reinstall. It may be that I have to return to win98 and
usb problems and be done with it.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Thanks for the reply. I included as many details as possible in my
original post and did infact include the detail you seemed to think was
missing:

'....In haste I just loaded the 2k disc and tried to upgrade....'

I use system internals- autoruns ulitilty and unticked the startup
items as you suggested I should do with msconfig. I did actually get
the system running but didnt really find a culprit. I'm wondering now
if there is infact a culprit or whether the problem is memory related-
since the problem still seems to arise when I add any items to the
startup.

I'm saving data and planning a clean installation of win2k. I'm still
not sure whether my laptop is capable of running the OS and still
rather unsure if I can obtain the correct Toshiba Utilities/drivers if
I do a complete reinstall. It may be that I have to return to win98 and
usb problems and be done with it.

If the machine runs OK after unticking each and every item
under the "msconfig.exe" Startup tab, try to load the various
Toshiba drivers. You can get them from the Toshiba site or
from www.driverguide.com. If successful then you can do
a clean Win2000 installation, using these drivers.

 

[jake]

If the machine runs OK after unticking each and every item
under the "msconfig.exe" Startup tab, try to load the various
Toshiba drivers. You can get them from the Toshiba site or
from www.driverguide.com. If successful then you can do
a clean Win2000 installation, using these drivers.

Ok thanks again for your reply. I've so far found the video drivers
from driverguide not sure if I need any other Toshiba specific drivers.
I've alo found win2k Service Pack1,2,3,4 on a CD. I've deleted
everything on the HD and I'm trying a new installation of win2k on a
2GB partition. Fingers crossed here.