Windows XP Crashes on Start-up; Computer Freezes

[Guest]

My daughter's Dell 4100 desktop, running WIndows XP Home Edition SP2, crashes
on startup and the computer freezes. It works normally in Windows safe mode.
What happens is that the computer freezes and displays an Windows Explorer
error message to the effect that it encountered an error and needs to shut
down. This happens after the desktop has loaded. From that point on the
only way to shut the computer down is to turn off the power -- also, Windows
task manager won't work.

I then get a Dr Watson Postmortem Debugger. The relevant info from that is:

Event type: BEX
P1: drwtsn32.exe
P2: 5.1 2600 D
P3: 3b7d84a2
P4: dbghelp.dll
p5: 5.1.2600.2180
P6: 41109691
P7: 0001295d
P8: c00000409
P9: 00000000

I am tempted to reinstall/repair XP, but before I go to that length I want
to see if there are any ideas or suggestions. Thanks.

 

[thecreator]

Hi Alan,

Try this instead of a Reinstall.

Procedure to Reinstall / Repair Windows XP while MAINTAINING your DATA FILES!

If you want to save any files, make a backup of those files off the Hard Drive and proceed.

00. - Turn off the printer.
01. - Go into Computer Bios and Set Defaults and Exit, if you know how.
Make sure the Boot Order is set to Boot to CD-Rom Drive First.
02. - Insert Windows XP CD into CD-Rom Drive.
03. - Reboot the computer.
04. - Press any key to begin to boot from the Windows XP CD.
05. - Welcome to Setup.
06. - Reinstall XP - Press Enter
07. - F8 - I Agree
08. - Esc: Don't Repair
09. - Select Windows XP Highlighted Partition to repair Windows XP on.
10. - Press Enter.
11. - Follow on screen prompts to allow the Deletion and reinstallation of the Windows XP System Files.
12. - Then Copies files to partition.
13. - Now it Reboots to Windows XP. Don't press a key to boot to CD.
14. - And now it installs Windows XP.
15. - You need to be here now.
16. - Starts at 39 Minutes to Complete.
17. - At 33 minutes, you need to set Time and Time Zone, if need to.
18. - And Enter The Product Key.
19. - At 29 minutes, you need to pick the Network, if needed to.
20. - Now wait for Reboot and you are done.
21. - Go online and go to Windows Update and download and reinstall all the patches.

Note: - If you have the original Windows XP CD, not Service Pack 2 CD, you will need to have already downloaded to Your Briefcase Folder, WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU from this link:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...be-3b8e-4f30-8245-9e368d3cdb5a&DisplayLang=en

You must install Windows XP Service Pack 2 before you can use Windows Update. Also you must install the tool to validate your copy of Windows after upgrading to Windows XP Service Pack 2, before you can begin to reinstall all the Windows XP Patches.

Make sure that you run a Full Anti-Virus Scan afterwards.

 

[Guest]

Thanks. Sounds like you agree taht a repair or reinstall is the right fix?

 

[Guest]

After some tedious de-bugging, I determined that the problem was with
automatic update software that had been downloaded automoatically and
installed. The culprit seemed to be either SP3 to Office XP, or a recent
update to OUtlook Express. As neither of those are used on this compyter, I
uninstalled them, and the computer works fine again now.