XP, SP1 startup loop

[intron1]

Hi,

I am working on my mother-in-laws computer for her. She just got
broadband so I was downloading updates (and uninstalling some spyware
at the same time). At first reboot after installing 4 updates (updated
intelligent transfer/bits, MS genuine advantage and 2 others i cant
remember) it got to the Windows XP Home Edition screen with the
progress bar and then suddenly it rebooted. I cannot get past this.

I cannot get into safemode of any kind find a way to do a step by step
selection of things to load/not load. Her PC came with a "recovery
disk" whose only option is to delete the hard drive and reinstall the
factory stuff. Therefore, I can't get into the recovery console and
use System Restore.

I have used "NTFS for DOS" to boot up on a CD and I have looked at
win.ini, boot.ini, autoexec.bat and config.sys - all appear to be clean
of odd things loading at startup.

Now I am stuck. I don't know what to do - I live 600 miles away and
don't have my XP disk to use to get into the console and I leave
Sunday. If I leave her with a fancy new paperweight, I will never hear
the end of it.

So........ if anyone has any ideas about what I could do, I would
appreciate it.

By the way, I am on the net via my laptop, which does not have a floppy
drive - so solutions that require floppies are out.

Thanks,

mark

 

[intron1]

One more thing.... I have also tried the "last good configuration" and
the "directory services mode" and "debugging mode". no luck with any
of them. I also enabled the bootlog but when i actually look at it,
the date is from 2003. go figure.

thanks in advance

 

[Guest]

So F8 does not get you into safe mode, or you get that far but it reboots?

 

[intron1]

F8 gets me some version of the boot up options menu. I can select
SafeMode, but it just does the same thing as normal bootup - it gets to
the logo and then reboots.

 

[intron1]

To be as specific as possible. When I hit F8, i get the following:

Windows Advanced Options Menu
Please select an option:

Safe Mode
Safe Mode with Networking
Safe Mode with Command Prompt

Enable Boot Logging
Enable VGA [what the heck is this one??]
Last Known Good Config
Directory Services Restore Mode
Debugging Mode

Start Windows Normally
Reboot
Return to OS Choices Menu

 

[intron1]

Also, I have thought about using the WinXP startup floppys that you can
download from MS. However, they come in a strange .img format that
Nero doesn't recognize so I can't seem to burn them to a CD. If I
could figure out how to get them to a CD, I might be ok.

You can see the floppys here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FamilyID=FBE5E4FC-695F-43E5-AF05-719F45C382A4

Fun fun fun.

 

[Guest]

I have a similar problem, any solution?