XP Reboot loop AGP440.SYS hang point

[internaughtfull]

Hi,

I have XP SP3 that has been running more than a few years
on a desktop. The only thing I have installed recently was Chrome.
Recently it ceased to bootup, going to the XP splash screen, then
turning off, then rebooting, getting locked into a reboot cycle.

I have so far:

-disabled reboot after failure and attempting safe mode-doesnt work.
-tried going into safe mode and list the drivers- the last line lists
agp440.sys, then it clicks off and reboots.

I have looked at the web and noted the following:

-boot from XP CDROM and use 'repair' or chkdsk/r
or 'recovery console'
-disable agp440.sys in the registry and reboot
-complete reinstall of XP

I noticed that some techs recommended you reinstall
all updates manually,[the big ones, SP1, SP2, SP3]
and others said you just added them via the net. Does this matter
which method?


I have a drive switcher and have booted up to another drive
[one that has win98s on it] and so I know the computer
has not melted down and that it is probably software related.


What I am asking is, since this error has been documented
for some time now, is there a best method to use for this?
I would like to fix it rather than slash and burn and reinstall
everything.
I have ATT virus/spyware software and it has done successful
scans and never found a virus, only cookies, some spyware.

Thanks for any insight on this,

itchy

 

[jim]

Hi,

I have XP SP3 that has been running more than a few years
on a desktop. The only thing I have installed recently was Chrome.
Recently it ceased to bootup, going to the XP splash screen, then
turning off, then rebooting, getting locked into a reboot cycle.

I have so far:

-disabled reboot after failure and attempting safe mode-doesnt work.
-tried going into safe mode and list the drivers- the last line lists
agp440.sys, then it clicks off and reboots.

I have looked at the web and noted the following:

-boot from XP CDROM and use 'repair' or chkdsk/r
or 'recovery console'
-disable agp440.sys in the registry and reboot
-complete reinstall of XP

I noticed that some techs recommended you reinstall
all updates manually,[the big ones, SP1, SP2, SP3]
and others said you just added them via the net. Does this matter
which method?


I have a drive switcher and have booted up to another drive
[one that has win98s on it] and so I know the computer
has not melted down and that it is probably software related.


What I am asking is, since this error has been documented
for some time now, is there a best method to use for this?
I would like to fix it rather than slash and burn and reinstall
everything.
I have ATT virus/spyware software and it has done successful
scans and never found a virus, only cookies, some spyware.

Thanks for any insight on this,

itchy

Where was chrome installed from ; d/l or disc ?

 

[Paul]

Hi,

I have XP SP3 that has been running more than a few years
on a desktop. The only thing I have installed recently was Chrome.
Recently it ceased to bootup, going to the XP splash screen, then
turning off, then rebooting, getting locked into a reboot cycle.

I have so far:

-disabled reboot after failure and attempting safe mode-doesnt work.
-tried going into safe mode and list the drivers- the last line lists
agp440.sys, then it clicks off and reboots.

I have looked at the web and noted the following:

-boot from XP CDROM and use 'repair' or chkdsk/r
or 'recovery console'
-disable agp440.sys in the registry and reboot
-complete reinstall of XP

I noticed that some techs recommended you reinstall
all updates manually,[the big ones, SP1, SP2, SP3]
and others said you just added them via the net. Does this matter
which method?


I have a drive switcher and have booted up to another drive
[one that has win98s on it] and so I know the computer
has not melted down and that it is probably software related.


What I am asking is, since this error has been documented
for some time now, is there a best method to use for this?
I would like to fix it rather than slash and burn and reinstall
everything.
I have ATT virus/spyware software and it has done successful
scans and never found a virus, only cookies, some spyware.

Thanks for any insight on this,

itchy

It could be the thing that comes just after agp440.sys that causes
the problem. I wouldn't get fixated on agp440 just yet.

http://www.theeldergeek.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=26718

*******

This is for hardware testing.

Just for fun, if you have another working computer, download
Ubuntu 10.10 and burn a CD with it (use Imgburn if you don't
have a burner program that handles ISO9660 file conversion).

As long as CD is in your BIOS boot order, you can boot the
broken machine from that newly burned boot CD.

Ubuntu is a Linux LiveCD, and you can click the "Try" button,
to have an OS that won't install any software. The purpose of
testing, is to verify you don't have a hardware problem. It
could be, your power supply is weak, or there is a problem with
graphics or the like. To rule things like that out, give that
a try. There is a shutdown option from the menu, so you can
exit cleanly when you're done.

If you're able to boot Win98 on the same machine, it can't have
a lot of RAM in it. Win98 is only perfectly stable at 512MB.
You can also use your Win98 testing, as proof it isn't hardware.
For a load test, in Win98, you can try 3DMark2001SE to test
the graphics subsystem, and Prime95 "torture test", as something
to load the CPU to 100%.

http://majorgeeks.com/3Dmark_d99.html (test graphics subsystem,
prove power supply OK
when under load)
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft/ (Prime95 for CPU test,
prove power supply OK
when under load)
*******

Along the same lines, you can do an offline malware scan with this.
It's a boot CD you download, and it's a couple hundred megabytes.
See the link that mentions "196 MB" here. As long as your networking
is already up and running, and the network provides IP addresses
via DHCP, this CD can talk to their server and get the latest
malware definition files, while it's running. The OS here is Gentoo
as far as I know, and the AV software runs on top of Gentoo, so that
no Windows malware can be running at the same time.

http://support.kaspersky.com/faq/?qid=208282163

Problems I've noticed booting that one:

1) It won't boot from a USB CD/DVD drive. Use an internal optical drive.
This is an issue with their latest version, and older versions used
to work with an external drive.
2) Has problems with TG3 driver for networking. Requires modprobe -r
on TG3 then another modprobe, to unload and reload the driver and
then the network configuration program can find the LAN. Once the
LAN is found, the software can download AV definition updates. This
affects some broadcom brand LAN chips (like the one in my laptop).

This is to check for malware, and see if malware is present. Other than
that, the root cause might be a HAL problem or like the first link above
mentioned, an lsass problem. It could even be, that some critical file
had a false positive, and the existing AV software on the machine
quarantined it, and on reboot, the machine no longer has all the
files it needs to boot. In a case like that, you'd look to the
quarantine folder, and see what's in there.

If, in your searches, you find that the "agp440.sys" symptom, has
multiple root causes, then you shouldn't jump to any conclusions
and just whip all the solutions into place. The symptom is not
specific enough for that.

HTH,
Paul