Rebel1 said:
On the General tab, I checked the Selective Startup button and unchecked
the Load Startup Items button. Computer shut down perfectly.
Expected since you were still in Windows with all those startup programs
loaded. Changes you make in msconfig are not effected until the NEXT
time you startup and log into Windows. So it would be the subsequent
shutdowns that are important in troubleshooting your problem; i.e., use
msconfig to disable all, reboot, and test the shutdown, re-enable one
startup item, reboot, and test the shutdown, and so on.
After it restarted, I checked the first 12 of the 27 Startup items,
clicked on Apply and restarted okay.
Should only re-enable one at a time. If you re-enable more than one,
upon the problem reappearing you won't know which one is causing the
problem.
When I restarted all 27 items were checked. Now my memory is getting
fuzzy because I tried so many things. After screwing around, I now have
a MAJOR problem. When I let the disc check proceed, I got messages that:
1. "Boot.ini and win.ini first allocation unit is not valid. The entry
will be truncated."
Have you ever ran "chkdsk /r C:" to verify all sectors are readable on
that hard disk (for the partition for drive C: which is presumably where
Windows is installed)?
2. "Invalid boot.ini file."
Sounds like the disk check was running because there were problems with
the hard disk. Eventually chkdsk couldn't handle all the errors or
there were no more reserved sectors to move data from the bad ones. The
/r switch for chkdsk has it test ALL sectors, not just the currently
allocated ones. Alas, even chkdsk isn't that great a disk test tool.
Spinrite is much better but costs as much as replacing the hard disk;
however, it can often resurrect a hard disk. Yet since chkdsk altered
the file table for the boot.ini, hal.dll, and other files, resurrection
won't undo that file change in the file system table.
All magnetic media wanes over time regarding retentivity due to dipole
stress (they want to relax which means lowering the intensity of signal
to detect state). chkdsk doesn't re-exercise every byte of every sector
on the hard disk to realign the dipoles for max strength. A defragment
will only result in a data refresh on the portion of files that it
happens to move. Rarely do users ever rewrite every sector in every
partition on their hard disk. Lots of sectors are merely read which
means no realignment. Spinrite (payware with 100% money-back
satisfaction guarantee) can "refresh" the sectors. I haven't bothered
to hunt around for freeware that does that, too. HDD Regenerator (also
claiming a money-back guarantee but they don't describe it) might also
do a dipole refresh (i.e., rewrite every sector) but is now more costly
than Spinrite. The refresh tool would have to test a buffer area on the
disk to be good, copy the data from new sectors to test to the good
area, test the file's old sectors and, if good, optionally copy the data
back to its old sectors. I've heard of MHDD and HDAT2 freewares but
have no experience with them so I don't know if they actually refresh
the data in the sectors. They mention recovering bad sectors but
nothing about refreshing all sectors (a quick check indicates they don't
have this function). The disk diagnostics you get from disk makers
(Data Lifeguard from Western Digital, Seatools from Seagate) won't do a
dipole refresh but are just similar or have slightly better surface
testing than does chkdsk.
How old is your hard disk? I'd recommend paying for SpinRite or maybe
HDD Regenerator (never used that one) only if you need to retrieve data
from the old failing-in-progress hard disk or if you want it in your
toolkit of recovery software to use again later; else, use that money to
buy a new hard disk, remove/disable your old hard disk, install Windows
on the new hard disk, and attach your old hard disk as a slave (i.e., do
NOT boot from it) to read your data files from there to put onto your
new hard disk.
3. Windows could not start because the following files is missing or
corrupt: <Windows root>\system32\hal.dll. Please re-install a copy of
the above file.
I try going into the Safe Mode to do this, but I can't. The only
operating system offered is Windows (default), not Windows XP.
Sometimes using "last known configuration" in the F8 boot menu will get
you back to where you were -- but not if files were on bad sectors and
now they've been marked as such (and the file move to the reserve
sectors failed or you've used up all of them with prior remappings due
to bad sectors). If "last known config" works to boot into Windows then
you have something wrong in the registry regarding hardware or OS setup.
Have you ever used a registry tweaker or cleaner? If it doesn't list
what changes it proposes then it's a bomb waiting to explode by having
you make changes which might not be appropriate. If it lists its
proposed changes then it is YOUR responsibility to understand them. The
register cleaner should provide a means for backup so you can undo the
changes you allow it to perform; however, unless Windows is bootable
then those backups are worthless since the registry cleaner program
requires Windows to load so you can run that cleaner program.
Now I'm in deep trouble. I set the BIOS to boot off the CDm and am now
attempting to reinstall XP in the same partition (without
reformatting it) using a legitimate XP Home CD.
Why not restore from your last image backup?
Within 30 days, I have to verify it, which may be a problem because I
already used that CD to install XP on my desktop computer.
Doesn't the install CD have a "repair" option? As I recall, you
actually have to select Repair twice (with the 2nd one being the actual
in-place upgrade or "repair"). See:
http://www.windowsxphome.windowsreinstall.com/installxpcdrepair/indexfullpage.htm
As always with XP installs or repairs, remember to hit the F6 key when
prompted at the bottom of the screen if you are using SATA hard disks.
XP doesn't come with SATA drivers and you'll need a floppy on which the
install can find them.
In retrospect, I should have lived with simply holding down the Power
button for five seconds to shutdown.
That wouldn't fix a fail(ed|ing) hard disk or a corrupted registry.
Did you ever scan for malware? If so, what with? Not allowing a normal
shutdown is how some malware tries to protect itself from getting
cleaned out during the initial part of Windows startup.
As far as your reply about Event Viewer, I can't say anything about
unidentified entries. The Info and Warning entries were unimportant.
It would be the Error entries that would be important but you didn't
specify any. The one error from Service Control Manager probably meant
some service could not start but you didn't say which one.
