New computer less than a month old. I have Norton Systemworks 2005 and Webroot Spysweeper 2005 installed. I then installed GhostSurf 2005 Platinum and ran the anti-spam, my computer restarted and immediately went to the blue screen. I restarted and tried again but this time it went straight to safe mode but in DOS. So I restarted again an went to boot options and picked Safe Mode. The windows welcome splash screen opens up and I pick my icon, enter my password and windows opens up in safe mode but in DOS. I tried going to last known configuration that worked and when it loads it goes right back to safe mode in DOS. I used Norton Ghost right before I installed GhostSurf and saved the files to my external hard drive. i'm completely lost, I don't know much about computers any help would be great, Thanks Brandon
Try this and see if it helps any at all. reboot and let it start in safe mode. Log in and get to your desktop.
Click "start" then select "Run" and when the box comes up type "msconfig" without using the "".
When that box comes up look to see if "Start Normally" is checked. If not the check to start in normal mode and "ok" out. Will prompt you to reboot...do so and see what happens.IN THE MATTERS OF STYLE,
swim with the current;
in matters of principle,
STAND LIKE A ROCK
Thanks for reply See the problem is I can't get to my desktop....I'm only getting a black screen with safe mode written in the four corners with a window in DOS Thats it
I may be barking up the wrong tree here and humble apologies in advance if I am but would I be right in thinking that Webroot Spysweeper 2005 and GhostSurf 2005 Platinum were not bought "over the counter" but d/loaded from somewhere ? If so it may well be you've been hit by something nasty embedded in one of those.
Whilst there's nothing wrong with a bit of healthy paranoia on the web installing multiple protection programmes simultaneously can often cause more problems than they solve.
Personally I have found that between a good firewall (hardware or software) NSW, AdAware and SpyBot S&D most bases are covered.
Unfortunately none of this actually helps you with your problem.
Does anything happen if you press CTrl+Alt+Del when in your safe mode black screen ?
If you get the Windows Task Manager up then go to File/New Task (run...) - Type in Explorer and enter.
With luck you will get the Desktop from where you can try a System Restore or follow lurkswithin's advice.
It seems as though the ghost surf program fouled you up. It could have caused a major conflict between your programs and your only recourse maybe to repair xp or reinstall it.
If you have the xp install disc and not a manufacturer's Restore disc, Insert it in your cd-rom and reboot (make sure the bios is set to boot from cd-rom first) go past the first repair option and then select to repair an existing xp installation and you should be able to recover from it that way. You won't lose anything but the updates so you will have to reinstall them.
If that doesn't work then you will probably have to reformat/reinstall or restore.IN THE MATTERS OF STYLE,
swim with the current;
in matters of principle,
STAND LIKE A ROCK
kinel,
good point, took it for granted that task manager wasn't working either so didn't go there. I need to stop that reading too much into things...atleast my wife thinks so!:~P
IN THE MATTERS OF STYLE,
swim with the current;
in matters of principle,
STAND LIKE A ROCK
Don't know if it worked or not for Brandon.
But i have used that a time or two before and it worked fine then when you couldn't get into windows, although I think it actually shows up as "exploring" desktop but getting there will allow you to navigate elsewhere.IN THE MATTERS OF STYLE,
swim with the current;
in matters of principle,
STAND LIKE A ROCK
Hey guys thanks for replies Hey Kinel, I did what you said and it worked. I did a system restore and now when it restarts it says missing or corrupted \Windows\System32\hal.dll
so now I'm stuck there! I can't do anything now not even safe mode. I did purchase the software so that can't be the problem. Any more suggestions would be great, thanks guys
Great, getting somewhere at least. Sorry if I caused any offence impuning the origin of your software, so often the case though.
The error message you're getting now suggests that possibly your boot.ini file has become corrupted.
Have you by any chance been trying to install a dual boot system ?
Before going further I need to know a couple of things:
Is your system FAT32 or NTFS and do you have a Windows XP CD ?
Alright...On Xp Setup this is what it shows -:Partition1 [FAT] 55MB
C:Partition2 [NTFS] 73414
E:Partition3 [FAT32] 2816I have a disk that reads: Reinstallation CD Microsoft XP Home Edition W/SP2
Thanks
Odd partitioning and not sure what that CD is. Can you boot from it and if so does it come up with an option to Repair using the Repair Console ?
Yes, its loading up like a complete install
OK, chose the option to Repair using the Recovery Console Once in the console at the prompt type the following (hit return after each line);
Attrib -H -R -S C:\Boot.ini
DEL C:\Boot.ini
BootCfg /Rebuild
Fixboot
Meant to add Type EXIT to get out of Recovery Console and reboot (without XP CD !)
I think when getting into the Safe-Mode you should have logged on the Administrator account,
not your account.(the hal.dll issue)
Error Message: Windows Could Not Start Because the Following File Is Missing or Corrupt...
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320252
Don't think your link is relevant in this case because it seems to apply to errors following an upgrade which is not the case here. Quote:-
"Your computer restarts after you upgrade to Microsoft Windows XP from Microsoft Windows 98 or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition."
"You install Windows XP on a hard disk that does not have an operating system installed on it."Remember this is (or at least was) an almost new functioning XP system.
Alright, thanks again for the help...I went to XP recovery Console. I typed the first line (C:\Windows>Attrib -H -R -S C:\Boot.ini) hit return and this is what it said "The parameter is not valid. Try /? for help. So I typed it this way (C:\Windows>Attrib -H|-R|-S C:\Boot.ini) then it came back saying "The system cannot find the file or directory specified" So I'm stuck here. Thanks
Hmm, is there a bug in the Recovery Console, can't believe it, surely someone would have noticed before this ? However, been experimenting and the format indicated by attrib /? is definately wrong !
Try this
attrib -hs c:\boot.ini
then type dir c:\
You should see boot.ini in the list possibly with the a attribute (archive) set but you can ignore this.
Alright did the dir c:\ and this is what I got... -a-hs--- 211 boot.ini.bak
Thanks
No boot.ini only boot.ini.BAK ? Definate evidence that something has messed with it. Check the date.
Do this
BootCfg /Rebuild enter
Fixboot enter
Yes only the BAK Alright...Did the BootCfg /Rebuild....
Scanning all disks for windows installations.
Please wait, since this may take awhile...The windows installation scan was sucessfull.
Note:These results are stored statically for this session. If the disk configuartion changes during this session, in order to get and updated scan, you must first reboot the machine and then rescan the disks.
Total identified windows installs:1
[1]: C:\Windows
Add installation to boot list? (yes/no/all):I dont know what to put.
I never entered fixboot
Thanks
Sorry to be dragging this out, I'm working mostly from memory and then from some time ago ! Answer yes to both and any other questions which pop up.
What this procedure is doing is rewriting the basic boot.ini file so all defaults apply.
SWEEEEEEEEEET Its all good now Started right up!! Your the man thanks sooo much man I lost nothing! Thanks again for spending all that time helping me!
I'm having the same problem except my computer is working fine... the only problem being the screen is gigantic like it was in safe mode, its been like this for about 5 months or so and I havent really had the time to look into it until now. Please someone email me with help if they can, any suggestions would be apreciated.
 |
|
| « ip address question | MOH:PA Quits on me... » |
TOM'S GUIDE AROUND THE WORLD | |
| United States | France |
| Germany | Italy |
| United Kingdom | Ireland |
