safe mode boot stops at amdagp.sys

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?Eep=B2?=]

Due to a seemingly random reboot problem on a relative's machine (and not being able to figure it out), I decided to move the hard drive with WinXP Home from an HP Pavilion P3 Celeron/1.1GHz to an HP Pavilion P3 Celeron 633MHz. However, WinXP won't boot and hangs during safe mode at amdagp.sys. Neither Pavilion's motherboards even have an AGP slot (built-in Intel video chips) so I don't know why the drive wouldn't work in the second Pavilion.

Any ideas?

 

[purplehaz]

Because of hardware / motherboard differences you can't just pop in a drive
from one machine into another and expect it to work. At the very least
you'll need to do a repair install of xp.
Repair install:

Boot from the XP cd, and when prompted hit enter to begin setup. Press F8 to
accept the license agreement. It will then search and find your existing XP
install. Select it, and choose R for repair. Back up any important data
files in case something goes wrong.

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?Eep=B2?=]

Unfortunately, due to this machine being propietary (HP Pavilion), there is no such option because the recovery CDs are for a SPECIFIC machine and are not transferrable to other machines (even other HP Pavilions).

I've transferred Windows 2000 hard drives to other computers and have only had to change the hard disk controller search (in order to get rid of the "inaccessible_boot_device" blue-screen error. Why Windows XP is THAT much different I don't understand--especially since most, if not all, of the hardware in the 2 HP Pavilions is identical except for processor speed: same built-in Intel i810 (whatever) video chip; no AGP slot. No real reason FOR the hang at amdagp.sys, really...

Recovery is a last-ditch option anyway.

 

[purplehaz]

Oh you have a limited oem computer install and only have recovery cd's. Yes
you are right, no repair option for recovery cd's. Maybe a reason to look
into a custom computer and retail install of windows next time.
Anyway, from what I can find, this could be a hardware issue. Did you wear
any anti-static devices when poking around in the computer? If not something
may have shorted. I found others saying this error appeared when the cpu
burned out, video card burned out, or bad memory. Many report a full clean
install does not fix it and it was indeed a hardware failure. I saw a few,
but not many, that said a recovery or clean install fixes it up and in that
case its not hardware. I even saw one that said because of the bios lock on
windows that many oems use they couldn't just move the drive from one to
another. But no where did I find an east quick fix. And it seems to be
related to HP's and Compaq. Maybe this info will help you out.

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?Eep=B2?=]

Oh you have a limited oem computer install and only have recovery cd's. Yes
you are right, no repair option for recovery cd's. Maybe a reason to look
into a custom computer and retail install of windows next time.

Really...again, it's not my computer. I ALWAYS recommend custom-built systems (and have always built my own). Unfortunately, I wasn't present when this computer was purchased or I would have DEFINTELY not recommended it.

Anyway, from what I can find, this could be a hardware issue. Did you wear
any anti-static devices when poking around in the computer? If not something
may have shorted.

Perhaps...a (novice) relative has messed around inside it in the past, so a short could very well be the problem.

I found others saying this error appeared when the cpu
burned out, video card burned out, or bad memory. Many report a full clean
install does not fix it and it was indeed a hardware failure. I saw a few,
but not many, that said a recovery or clean install fixes it up and in that
case its not hardware. I even saw one that said because of the bios lock on
windows that many oems use they couldn't just move the drive from one to
another. But no where did I find an east quick fix. And it seems to be
related to HP's and Compaq. Maybe this info will help you out.

Well, the CPU and video chips haven't burned out since they still work.

There's really not much I can do then except what I have: installed Win2K on the other HP Pavilion.

Oh well; thanks for your help.

 

[purplehaz]

Sorry couldn't help more. This sounds like a computer that I would need
right in front of me to try to work on it. Some are just too tough to do
thru newsgroups or phone.