[Perdita]

I have been reading on this forum for several days, but this is my first post (I am on my working laptop).

I discovered UBCD4Win while trying to fix my desktop computer for the last week. I was able to burn the iso image onto a DVD-R and use it to boot my previously unbootable XPpro machine.

PC specs:
custom built computer running XPpro SP2
Asus P4P800 mobo
Pentium4 3GHz cpu
2x1024 Corsair Ram
ATI Radeon X1600pro video card
40GB WD HDD internal
250GB WD My Book external HDD
Floppy drive
CD/DVD optical drive
Silverstone Element 500W PSU

Some background:
A week ago my husband was playing Company Of Heroes just like he has been for months and months. The game locked up while he was playing and since he couldn't get any of the mouse/keyboard/AltCtlDel/WinButton to respond, he pressed the power button on the front of the case to turn the PC off. He said he counted to ten and turned it back on. It booted past the XP splash screen to a black screen with the white mouse pointer only. There were no error messages. I have been trying to fix it ever since.

Prior to finding UBCD4Win, I found many ideas for fixes around the 'net (AumHa, TechSpot, Microsoft, TomsHardware, Google, etc.) that I have tried, but none worked.

Not necessarily in order I have tried:

> Rebooting in Safe mode (w/ & w/o command prompt and networking), Last Known Good, VGA
> Looked around Bios to see if anything looked out of order; tweaked here and there
> Using Recovery Console to try fixboot, bootcfg and fixmbr
> Ran chkdsk /r a couple of times sucessfully
> Replacing System-Sam-Software-Default-Security with copies from Repair folder
> Thoroughly cleaning the inside of the case (it wasn't that dirty; have done it before) and reseating video card and Ram
> Changing monitor cable from DVI to VGA and back
> Stripping out machine to bare minimum (only HDD, mobo, Ram, video card)
> Removing Ram and replacing with my former 512MB stick
> Disable agp440.sys & mup.sys (later re-enabled) because it looked like that was where Safe Mode showed hang-up (but I don't know if I am reading ntbtlog right)
> Tried going to all of the 3 available restore point snapshots
> I'm sure there's been other stuff I've already forgotten

So then I ended up at UBCD4Win. I was able to make the iso DVD on the first try (yay me!) and was almost crying tears of joy when it booted up on my broken machine!

In UBCD4Win, I ran AntiVir and SpyBot which each found a couple of little things that I quarantined. I can post exactly what they were if needed. My normal antivirus program is Norton 360 v2.0.

I am currently using UnstoppableCopier to copy all of C: to my Ext HDD and will image with Drive Image XML when that is done.

I should also note that trying to boot to Safe Mode also shows "safe mode" in white in all 4 corners and the "Build" info on the top of the screen along with the mouse pointer, but nothing else.

So, the point I am at is that I am not sure what to do next. My gut tells me the video card driver got corrupted somehow. There is a sea of yellow question marks & exclamation points next to Unknown Devices in Device Manager. Properties show a bunch of ACPI\...... stuff but I don't know how to read that info. I was able to change the resolution on the screen, but Display Properties/Settings/Advanced/Adapter/Properties/Resources shows 2 I/O and 1 Memory Range conflicting with PCI to PCI Bridge. Does this fit-in to the video driver theory? Do I just need to replace my video driver? If so how do I do that through UBCD4Win?

I am a quick learner and I am determined to exhaust all possibilities before reinstalling WinXPpro. I am hoping someone here can help me to use the tools in UBCD4Win to fix my PC.

Please help me. I am a sponge and putty in your hands. Did I say please?

~ Nancy ~

This post has been edited by Perdita: 07 October 2009 - 10:07 PM

[SteelTrepid]

You may want to try to "repair" the installation. I can't explain all the details right now but as long as you find the correct repair method, that may fix your problem. I wish I had more time right now to help but I do not.

Here is a quick link I found:
http://www.geekstogo...ws-XP-t138.html

From what I could tell from a quick skim that looks like the right advice.

[Perdita]

I ran into a hitch, but I think I figured it out. I am just posting here before I proceed to make sure I am right before I mess things up.

Okay, I went to do the repair install as suggested, but I got a 'can't find EULA' error. I think that is because I was trying to do the repair install via the recovery console selected from the UBCD4Win screen. I searched "EULA" here on the forum and it seems you can do recovery commands through the 'Recovery Console' on UBCD4Win, but not the 'Install' option that comes up, yes? This is why I got the EULA error?

Because I then put my XPpro CD in, booted to it, chose install and EULA did come up. I exited out until I could be sure about what I am doing.

Problem is this is a vanilla XPpro CD, i.e. no SP1, SP1a, SP2 or SP3. I confirmed this by looking at the EULA.txt on both the XPpro CD and on the broken desktop's C: drive and both said EULAID:WX.4_PRO_RTL_EN and since that doesn't mention any 'SP' I assume it's vanilla.

I thought I had read to repair with at least SP1, so can I take the slipstreamed XPproSP2 I created on my laptop to make the UBCD4Win disc and burn that onto a DVD (I assume too big to fit a CD?) to use to do the repair install on my broken desktop computer? If yes, I burn that as an iso image like the UBCD4Win, right?

ETA: The XPpro on the broken desktop PC was upped to SP2; not sure if that figures in to all of this.

Thanx much for the help!

~Nancy~

This post has been edited by Perdita: 08 October 2009 - 02:30 PM

[rdsok]

If you are doing a Windows repair... you don't even need UBCD4Win for that... just a CD with the proper SP slipstreamed into it and possibly the floppy version of the hard drive controller drivers

[Perdita]

Great! Then I will burn a slipstreamed SP2 and proceed.

Could you please tell me how to put the hard drive controllers on a floppy using the UBCD4Win disc in case I do need them?

~ Nancy ~

[rdsok]

Perdita, on 08 October 2009 - 02:55 PM, said:

Could you please tell me how to put the hard drive controllers on a floppy using the UBCD4Win disc in case I do need them?

It differs from system to system... the basics are that if you don't already have the drivers, you download them from their website and follow their instructions on how to create the disk. In many cases it just means that you uncompress them ( aka unzip ) and copy them to a floppy like you would with any file... others require other steps but I can't guess what they would be for your system... or if you even need them at all.

[Perdita]

Okay thanx. I thought I had to find and copy them from my current (broken) XPpro PC by using UBCD4Win. It has a WD HDD and I know the model, so I can just go to the WD website if needed and get them later via my laptop. Onward!!!

[rdsok]

No... hard drives do not require drivers... the controller that the hard drive is connected to does. You must go to the manufacturer of the motherboard or system website and get the drivers for the controller.

[Perdita]

I have the CD that came with the mobo - that will work won't it?

I have run into other issues:

When I built UBCD4Win, I just use the "Slipstream" option from the "Source" menu in the Builder to add SP2 to my vanilla XPpro. I see now that the output file (win-slipstreamed) is no longer in the UBCD4Win directory - does it auto delete after the build? My copy of the XP CD on my laptop HDD shows in Autostreamer as already being SP2 and Autostreamer also doesn't recognize the SP2 file I downloaded from MS when I was building UBCD4Win.

Do I punt and start over (re)copying XP from the CD to my laptop hard drive, (re)downloading the SP2 file from MS and then running Autostreamer to get the XPproSP2 iso image to burn to a CD to put in my broken desktop in order to do the repair install?

<takes deep breath>

~ Nancy ~

This post has been edited by Perdita: 08 October 2009 - 07:14 PM

[rdsok]

Read the instructions for the motherboard... I'm not going to guess at something I can't see...

The slipstream page on the main website should help.. read it again if you've forgotten

[Perdita]

What am I doing wrong!?! I haven't even gotten to the repair attempt on my desktop, because I can't get Autostreamer on my laptop to recognize the Service Pack File. It keeps saying "Build Unknown". Grrrr.....

I have installed & uninstalled & reinstalled Autostreamer 3 times now. I have downloaded & deleted & redownloaded the WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe file from MS multiple times. I have rebooted the laptop. I have shortened the files name of the SP2 download, moved it to a root directory, prayed, shouted explicatives, etc.

I have searched this forum and Googled "Autostreamer build unknown", but haven't figured out why I can't get the blasted thing to work right. Does anyone have an answer?

[pcuser]

Try running Autostreamer from the commandline and specify the "/godmode" parameter.

http://neowin.z4.cn/...188337-450.html

Quote

- God-mode (no service pack build detection, for those you know what they are doing and want to do things fast...) [use /godmode]

[Perdita]

God-moding as we speak - cross your fingers that this works!!!

[Perdita]

Godmode worked - I was able to slipstream SP2 into XPpro (learned tonight that the original XPpro is called "gold"; I was calling it vanilla. Same thing, LOL). ISO image has been burned to disc (this Vista laptop came with NTI Media Maker 8). Repair install is running - cross your toes!!

Okay - past reboot now; looking good!

[Perdita]

It worked!!!

I will post more tomorrow - I desparately need sleep now!!!