Need help and embarrassing admission

[Guest]

Hi Guys

First an admission.

I have XP pro and have been running Service Pack 1 and haven't updated the
computer since then. (I do have firewalls, AV etc) I had recently updated my
laptops and went to do the same to my Desktop.

I am embarrassed to admit there were 50 odd updates inc SP 2.

However when i went to restart, it does exactly that. It just continually
restarts, again and again. I want to go back to a restore point but due to
the restarts I don't get a chance to as it never stays on long enough.

Can you please let me know how to remedy this before Mrs holo murders me for
crashing the desktop that she uses a fair bit

Thanks for any help

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

Have you tried a System Restore via Safe Mode?

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Will Denny
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User
Please reply to the News Groups

 

[Guest]

thnaks for the reply. I continually press F8 and it came up with a screen
that initally showed my 2 hard drives and dvd drive. I selected the main hard
drive but that just loaded my normal configuration but no change, it kept
restarting.

I have tried several times to do the f8 into safe mode and now it comes up
and says overclocking failed - run set up.

Now, I had to ask someone who to boot into safe mode, i certainly haven't
tried overclocking. I can access set up but am unsure where to go, or what
else to do ?

Thanks for your time.

 

[Kerry Brown]

thnaks for the reply. I continually press F8 and it came up with a
screen that initally showed my 2 hard drives and dvd drive. I
selected the main hard drive but that just loaded my normal
configuration but no change, it kept restarting.

I have tried several times to do the f8 into safe mode and now it
comes up and says overclocking failed - run set up.

Now, I had to ask someone who to boot into safe mode, i certainly
haven't tried overclocking. I can access set up but am unsure where
to go, or what else to do ?

Thanks for your time.

The screen you see about the hard drives and CDROM is from your BIOS before
Windows has started to load. With some BIOS' pressing F8 gets you to a boot
menu where you can pick which device to boot from. If you see that screen
(boot menu) pick the main hard drive then keep pressing F8 until you get the
Windows text screen with choices for Safe mode, Last Known Good, etc..

 

[Guest]

Thanks for that. I am able to get into safe mode. I have tried also system
restore however for some reason it only gives me today to restore to. I press
the back button to go to an earlier period and it doesn't move the calender
month/day.

I also tried the option to reestore to the last working configuration but it
doesn't work.
I have now just booted into safe mode. Interestingly it comes upo with a
window saying "Welcome to the Found New hardware Wizard, it offers so search
for software for a Raid controller. I haven't done anything regarding Raid so
don't know where that comes from.

I have had 2 hard drives on my system for a year or so, but never any
problems.

Any suggestions ?

Thanks

Nick

 

[Guest]

as an aside, whilst in safe mode I can see that my computer is now running
with Service pack 2. Might this be why i can't get any earlier system restore
points ?

 

[Guest]

going in to Admin profile i have deleted SP2 which has taken me back to SP1.
I still get reference to new hardware being a raid controller and it asks me
for software. I know nothing about this as i wasn't installing anything.

I also took a screenshot of the error message and what is running at start
up and placed it here in case it helps.

http://darb.net/photos/anonymous/xp_problems.thumb.jpg

thanks

 

[Kerry Brown]

It sounds like you may need to do a repair install. My recommendation would
be to create an XP CD with SP2 slipstreamed into it and do a repair install.
Do you have a current backup? Normally a repair install leaves your data and
programs in place but there is always a possibility of something going
wrong. If you don't have a backup there are Linux CD's you can download that
will boot to Linux and allow you to backup your hard drive.

Here are some links that will help you.

http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;315341

http://www.simplyguides.net/guides/using_autostreamer/using_autostreamer.shtml

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the link Kerry. I would love to get SP2 so will have a read of the
links. However, I am obviously worries as i don't want this to re-occur !

Thanks for your, and others, help.

Cheers
Nick