XP Freezing on Loading Screen

[Guest]

Hi,

We have an XP machine with SP2 which is hanging on the loading screen, and
goes no further. We initially thought it was a software fault, and one of my
colleagues re-loaded the build, and it was fine for a couple of days, and is
now exhibiting the same problems.

We tried booting it in safe mode, and it stops after agpCPQ.sys has been
loaded, and goes no further.

The machine won't boot either normally or in safe mode, so we are struggling
to get a grasp on what could be causing the freeze, or how to solve it.

Can anyone help please.

Thanks in advance.

Christine

 

[Guest]

XP uses many resources and running on a slow PC/Laptop the system will be slow.

Formatting HD for XP
Clean install:
In order to do a very clean install you may want to download and create a
(FKA) Low Level Format diskette. You should be able to get a LLF (HD format
utility that writes 0's to the drive) utility from your HD manufacture:

IBM(Hitachi)
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Seagate
http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/utils.html

Maxtor
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/index.htm

Fujitsu
http://www.fel.fujitsu.com/home/drivers.asp?L=en&CID=1

Samsung
http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/index.htm
FAQ: Low level format

Western Digital
http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp

The reason is that some viruses and even Windows OS can leave traces of
itself on your HD, I have formatted numerous systems, set specificate
settings, re-formatted the unit using Windows XP OS and there it was most
settings where already set, this LLF utility will insure that the hard drive
be wiped clean for XP or any OS install. Be advised that this utility will
wipe all partitions from your drive so you will have to re-create them, no
biggy this is part of the OS installation process.

Insert XP CD into your CD-Rom drive (the BIOS must be set to boot from the
CD-Rom 1st), power down the PC. Before powering the PC on, unplug the
Internet connection, scanners, printers, any peripheral attached including
modems, wireless cards.

Power on PC, when windows starts create your partition(s) as desired
(example below), format your primary partition and install XP. Once the OS
has installed do not connect to the Internet, install your anti-virus and
firewall, connect to the Internet and do your live updates for your
anti-virus, firewall, then windows, after this has completed install the rest
of your SW and perform your updates to these.

Download the latest drivers for your peripherals, then install your
hardware, (note: some peripherals require that you first install the SW prior
to installing the hardware, consult your manufactures manual for
instructions).

Note: Partition creation suggestions, this example is for a drive of 40GB’s.

C: (3 GB), D: (28 GB), then I would leave the extra untouched in case I
would want to do testing, installing different OS like Linux or Win 2K/2003
server or any other OS. Install the OS on the larger drive (AKA Partition).
Install the OS to the D: drive.

Why 3 GB initial partition? It is because you may want to place your
pagefile on this partition most Windows OS’s work better when the pagefile is
on a different drive and since Windows accesses this file every time it is
used this would speed up file access, or file swapping. Another would be that
if for some unforeseen reason you have to format your PC you can place your
Data on this drive then format your boot partition drive safely.

 

[beb]

If it won't start in any other advance start mode, use the installation disk
and do a repair install.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315341/en-us?FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH Then check
your event view log, system and application, for error messages.


"christine@csc_chelmsford"