Windows booting a loop into config screen

[affiliateian]

Recently, I have seen an XP Home machine boot into the black config
screen. Windows cannot boot intow winodws properly etc... Choose to
boot into safe mode, normal windows or use last known good
configuration. Takes about 20-30 tries of before it stops looping from
boot process to this screen. Any ideas? Is it hardware or software? Do
a repair with the XP home CD perhaps? Registry errors?

No new hardware has been added lately.

Any tips would be great.

 

[Rock]

Recently, I have seen an XP Home machine boot into the black config
screen. Windows cannot boot intow winodws properly etc... Choose to
boot into safe mode, normal windows or use last known good
configuration. Takes about 20-30 tries of before it stops looping from
boot process to this screen. Any ideas? Is it hardware or software? Do
a repair with the XP home CD perhaps? Registry errors?

No new hardware has been added lately.

Any tips would be great.

You're post is a little unclear. When does this looping occur and what
actually happens during it? Once at the Advanced Options menu with the
choices for Safe Mode, Last Known Good Configuration and Start Normally
do any of them work? If not what happens when you try each one?

Is there a full and complete backup of the system? If not do that first
before attempting any repairs. If the system won't boot to backup,
install it as a slave drive in another XP system and copy the data.

What is the system configuration? I am assuming this is a sudden change
or no? What software changes have been made? What is the malware
status of the system?

There are a variety of options to try depending on whether it can boot
into safe mode or not. Post back with some clarification of details.

 

[affiliateian]

You're post is a little unclear. When does this looping occur and what
actually happens during it? Once at the Advanced Options menu with the
choices for Safe Mode, Last Known Good Configuration and Start Normally
do any of them work? If not what happens when you try each one?

Hey Rock, thanks for the reply. Here goes.

The looping occurs when I boot the machine. The XP log whos up and the
bar (below the logo) begins to move to the right. about 1/4 way
through, I get a a quick error (but too fast to read) then it goes to
teh config screen. All options yiled the same results... XP logo, 1.4
wawy through then config screen again. Tried last known good
configuration about 30 times before I am back in windows. Backing up
everything and not shutting down machine now.

Did a chkdsk 3 times and it found errors so maybe the HDD is about to
die? Just slipstreamed SP2 into an XP Home CD. Wanted to get this down
with all backups before tyring to repair using Windows tools. (C-Drive
Right click>>Tools>>Fix errors; chkdsk /fix; scandisk etc...)

What is the system configuration? I am assuming this is a sudden change
or no? What software changes have been made? What is the malware
status of the system?

This is the 4th time this has happened in the last 2 months. Only
software has been Cell phone software. Have Norton and X-Cleaner on
board so shoudl eb free of malware?

Any more suggestions?

 

[Rock]

Hey Rock, thanks for the reply. Here goes.

The looping occurs when I boot the machine. The XP log whos up and the
bar (below the logo) begins to move to the right. about 1/4 way
through, I get a a quick error (but too fast to read) then it goes to
teh config screen. All options yiled the same results... XP logo, 1.4
wawy through then config screen again. Tried last known good
configuration about 30 times before I am back in windows. Backing up
everything and not shutting down machine now.

Did a chkdsk 3 times and it found errors so maybe the HDD is about to
die? Just slipstreamed SP2 into an XP Home CD. Wanted to get this down
with all backups before tyring to repair using Windows tools. (C-Drive
Right click>>Tools>>Fix errors; chkdsk /fix; scandisk etc...)





This is the 4th time this has happened in the last 2 months. Only
software has been Cell phone software. Have Norton and X-Cleaner on
board so shoudl eb free of malware?

Any more suggestions?

Ok that helps. Make sure you have a full backup before doing chkdsk.
Sometimes it can hose the drive, and since it doesn't keep a log of what
it does there is no way to recover from it for an NTFS drive.

Download a drive diagnostic utility from the hard drive manufacturer's
website. That will create a bootable floppy or CD. Run the diagnostics
from that and see.

 

[affiliateian]

Download a drive diagnostic utility from the hard drive manufacturer's

website. That will create a bootable floppy or CD. Run the diagnostics
from that and see.

Good idea. I know Seagate has great utilities. Hoping Samsung has
something similar.

By the way, on another machine, I keep getting notices from ZoneAlarm
that this IP address is trying to access my ports: 24.202.188.126

Is this spyware on my machine? What can I do about it? I ran Spybot S&D

and X-Cleaner from XBlock and Norton 2005, nothing found. This only
began a few days ago.

Thoughts?

 

[Rock]

Good idea. I know Seagate has great utilities. Hoping Samsung has
something similar.

By the way, on another machine, I keep getting notices from ZoneAlarm
that this IP address is trying to access my ports: 24.202.188.126

Is this spyware on my machine? What can I do about it? I ran Spybot S&D

and X-Cleaner from XBlock and Norton 2005, nothing found. This only
began a few days ago.

Thoughts?

An ARIN Who is search on that IP, http://www.arin.net/whois/ gives this.
Do you reconginze it? http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl

Name: modemcable126.188-202-24.mc.videotron.ca
IP Address: 24.202.188.126
Location: Unknown
Network: Unknown

Registrant-no: 769869
Domaine-no: 809558
Subdomain: videotron.ca
Renewal-Date: 2007/06/28
Date-Approved: 2000/10/30
Date-Modified: 2004/09/08
Organization: Vid otron Lt e
Description:
Admin-Name: Luc Bellerive
Admin-Title:
Admin-Postal: Canoe Inc
300 Viger Avenue East
Montreal QC H3C 4M8 Canada
Admin-Phone: 514-380-1999
Admin-Fax:
Admin-Mailbox: (e-mail address removed)
Tech-Name: M. Canoe Inc
Tech-Title:
Tech-Postal: Vid otron Lt e
150, rue Beaubien Ouest
Montr al QC H2S 1R2 Canada
Tech-Phone: (514) 380-7200
Tech-Fax:
Tech-Mailbox: (e-mail address removed)
NS1-Hostname: vl-mo-dn011-fae1.mo.videotron.ca
NS1-Netaddress: 24.200.241.10
NS2-Hostname: vl-mo-dn009-fae1.mo.videotron.ca
NS2-Netaddress: 24.200.241.2
NS3-Hostname: vl-mo-dn010-fae1.mo.videotron.ca
NS3-Netaddress: 24.200.241.6
NS4-Hostname:
NS4-Netaddress:
NS5-Hostname:
NS5-Netaddress:
NS6-Hostname:
NS6-Netaddress:

 

[affiliateian]

An ARIN Who is search on that IP, http://www.arin.net/whois/ gives this.
Do you reconginze it? http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl

Name: modemcable126.188-202-24.mc.videotron.ca
IP Address: 24.202.188.126
Location: Unknown
Network: Unknown

Registrant-no: 769869
Domaine-no: 809558
Subdomain: videotron.ca
Renewal-Date: 2007/06/28
Date-Approved: 2000/10/30
Date-Modified: 2004/09/08
Organization: Vid otron Lt e
Description:
Admin-Name: Luc Bellerive
Admin-Title:
Admin-Postal: Canoe Inc
300 Viger Avenue East
Montreal QC H3C 4M8 Canada
Admin-Phone: 514-380-1999
Admin-Fax:
Admin-Mailbox: (e-mail address removed)
Tech-Name: M. Canoe Inc
Tech-Title:
Tech-Postal: Vid otron Lt e
150, rue Beaubien Ouest
Montr al QC H2S 1R2 Canada
Tech-Phone: (514) 380-7200
Tech-Fax:
Tech-Mailbox: (e-mail address removed)
NS1-Hostname: vl-mo-dn011-fae1.mo.videotron.ca
NS1-Netaddress: 24.200.241.10
NS2-Hostname: vl-mo-dn009-fae1.mo.videotron.ca
NS2-Netaddress: 24.200.241.2
NS3-Hostname: vl-mo-dn010-fae1.mo.videotron.ca
NS3-Netaddress: 24.200.241.6
NS4-Hostname:
NS4-Netaddress:
NS5-Hostname:
NS5-Netaddress:
NS6-Hostname:
NS6-Netaddress:

Not sure who Luc Bellerive is but I think that is the person who owns
videotran.ca right? Videotron.ca looks like an ISP. So one of their
customers is doing this knowing or unknowingly. What should be the next
step?

 

[Rock]

Not sure who Luc Bellerive is but I think that is the person who owns
videotran.ca right? Videotron.ca looks like an ISP. So one of their
customers is doing this knowing or unknowingly. What should be the next
step?

Are they your ISP? Not much you can do. There are all kinds of port
scanners and hackers scanning the internet for open systems. That's why
you need a software firewall. Good, secure computing practices are
important. A router with NAT is also a good investment in additional to
a software firewall. You could send a message to the person in charge
of that site. Whether it gets results is uncertain. Frankly just
ignore it. Your protection is working.

 

[affiliateian]

Are they your ISP? Not much you can do. There are all kinds of port
scanners and hackers scanning the internet for open systems. That's why
you need a software firewall. Good, secure computing practices are
important. A router with NAT is also a good investment in additional to
a software firewall. You could send a message to the person in charge
of that site. Whether it gets results is uncertain. Frankly just
ignore it. Your protection is working.

No they are not my ISP. I see my ISP probing me too but that is ok. I
do have a router so that should have NAT + firewall but my zonealarm is
still detecting this. I was afraid that my computer has been infected
and was calling home, hence the videotron IP that was probing me. But
if it was an outgoing call, zonealarm should warn me too right?
Interesting.

 

[Rock]

No they are not my ISP. I see my ISP probing me too but that is ok. I
do have a router so that should have NAT + firewall but my zonealarm is
still detecting this. I was afraid that my computer has been infected
and was calling home, hence the videotron IP that was probing me. But
if it was an outgoing call, zonealarm should warn me too right?
Interesting.

Yes you should be able to tell from zone alarm if it's outgoing or
incoming. I don't use it so I can't tell you how. You're router should
come with NAT but then again I can't say for sure.