Win2K wouldn't boot...

[PJ]

Hello

I have Win2K Professional on a Toshiba laptop. The system
was working fine until today. Off and on, it used to get
stuck while booting, would display the splash screen with
windows logo, with "Starting up..." progress bar at the
bottom at 100%. But, after couple of tries it used to
boot OK.

But, today it wouldn't want to boot anymore. It has the
same problem as above no matter how many times I tried to
boot.

Will not boot in Safe mode, debug mode, or any of those
options in "Troubleshooting press F8" advanced options
modes. Tried enabling logging, but it does not create
the 'ntbtlog.txt'. Can go into Recovery console, but
don't know which files to replace. Ran chkdsk already.

Any ideas on how to get it to work?

Many thanks for any clues.

PJ

 

[PJ]

Even though it seems to hang during boot, if I left it on
in that state overnight, for example, it booted up fine
sometime during the night. So, looks like something is
waiting for for looongtime for some timeout sort of thing.

Any clues are very much appreciated.

PJ

 

[DL]

Did you search for ntbtlog.txt? should be located in yr win* folder

 

[PJ]

That is thing, it doesn't create it. I guess it didn't
get even that far to be able to create the ntbtlog.txt.

I have not left the machine on overnight (in the stuck
state) with the "Enable logging" bootup option. When I
left it on overnight, it was with the normal booting.

Thanks
PJ

-----Original Message-----
Did you search for ntbtlog.txt? should be located in yr

win* folder

 

[DL]

Tried leaving it overnight to boot from boot log mode?
I assume when trying from safe mode it doesnt even start to boot, ie no
screen output at all?
If you have a win2k cd can you boot with that?

 

[PJ]

After it booted, after leaving it overnight, I was poking
around the system. Noticed that there was
a "parasite/spyware/adware" called WinTools. This
WinTools, I believe, had created an entry in the
WININIT.INI file, in C:\WINNT directory, like so:

[Rename]
NUL=C:\Documents and Settings\MY_NAME\Local
Settings\TEMP\~somechars.tmp

where "~somechar.tmp" is some random file name. There
were quite a few similar files in that directory. I also
noticed that that "~somechars.tmp" file is actually in
Windows PE executable format and is flagged as read-only.

Apparently, the NUL= entry in the WININIT.INI is supposed
to delete the indicated file during the reboot. But,
since the file is flagged as read-only, the delete will
fail.

Perhaps this is what was causing the problem, for since I
removed that entry and uninstalled the
WinTools "parasite", I was able to reboot the system at
least 3 times. Perhaps, I should monitor it more
closely, "touchwood".

I hope (and wish) that took care of the problem.

Thanks
PJ

 

[DL]

Hope you've now done an online AV scan, and ensured yr AV app is upto date.
Installed a Firewall - ZoneAlarm has a free version.
Downloaded and updated before running, both Adaware and SpyBot - both free

After it booted, after leaving it overnight, I was poking
around the system. Noticed that there was
a "parasite/spyware/adware" called WinTools. This
WinTools, I believe, had created an entry in the
WININIT.INI file, in C:\WINNT directory, like so:

[Rename]
NUL=C:\Documents and Settings\MY_NAME\Local
Settings\TEMP\~somechars.tmp

where "~somechar.tmp" is some random file name. There
were quite a few similar files in that directory. I also
noticed that that "~somechars.tmp" file is actually in
Windows PE executable format and is flagged as read-only.

Apparently, the NUL= entry in the WININIT.INI is supposed
to delete the indicated file during the reboot. But,
since the file is flagged as read-only, the delete will
fail.

Perhaps this is what was causing the problem, for since I
removed that entry and uninstalled the
WinTools "parasite", I was able to reboot the system at
least 3 times. Perhaps, I should monitor it more
closely, "touchwood".

I hope (and wish) that took care of the problem.

Thanks
PJ

-----Original Message-----
Even though it seems to hang during boot, if I left it on
in that state overnight, for example, it booted up fine
sometime during the night. So, looks like something is
waiting for for looongtime for some timeout sort of thing.

Any clues are very much appreciated.

PJ

.