Boot process Failure

Hi,

This is the second time I turn to you for help, the first time was VERY helpful.
Thanks again.

My OS is XP Pro
The problem - My computer restarts automatically in the midst of the booting process.
It happens right after the screen where the windows logo on a dark background is shown, and in some times the next "welcome screen" is shown for a few seconds.
At this point my computer either restarts itself automatically or gives me the following message in a small window:
"the system is shutting down in 60 seconds…… the system process Icass.exe terminated unexpectedly with status code…"

This whole problem started after I tried to run a movie from an old DVD , the
Dvd reader was reading very slowly and finally stuck and the "blue screen" appeared .
Right after that I tried to restart and I'm getting this problem ever since.

Reading former threads of this subject I got into safe mode and disabled the "automatically restart" option.
At the next boot, instead of automatic restart I got the blue screen with the following message:
STOP: ##############,###############,##########,#########
Win32.sys- address ########## base at ############ timestamp ########3
Beginning dump of physical memory etc.

Thanks for your help.

 

Greetings, uzi451...

Are the "####"'s in your post made by you, or are they what are actually showing up on the blue screen?

Also, do you have your XP disk available? If so, are you able to boot to the disk?

One more question: have you made sure your machine is malware-free?

 

Thanks for the quick response !

1. the ####### are hexadecimal numbers like "bf80ffe1" is it neccesary to write them?

2. I have the xp disk, putting it in offers me to setup windows or repair
3. My computer is probably not malware free, I didnt think of this direction because the failure was caused from DVD and I rarely download stuff to this coputer.

 

It would be useful to have the error codes just so we can see what is going on.

 

Yes, the hexadecimal entries are important: they're Windows' way of trying to tell you what's wrong with the machine...

Adrynalyne has written an extensive tutorial about how to decipher these mini-dumps: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35246 ...read through it, and follow the steps, but be advised: it may take a while...

In the meantime, post a quick snapshot of the blue screen here, and maybe we can pick up on something obvious...

If at all posiible, you might try backing up any important data, as the Setup or Repair functions on your XP disk may require you to format your disk...

Sorry, collinsl - didn't see you in time...

 

Is there a log where I can see them or
do I have to get to the blue screen again (hate it) ?

 

The easiest way of doing it would be to go to the blue screen again.

 

is there a way for me to somehow snapshot the blue screen
or must I write it down to a paper?

 

Unfortunately, writing it down is about the only way I know of...

One quickie you might try first, though: boot to the XP disk, use the 'Repair' function, and from the Recovery Console, run 'fixboot' and 'fixmbr'...

 

You cannot use the computer to snapshot the screen.

A digital photograph uploaded to a photo sharing website, such as flickr, would be fine.

Either that, or write it down.

 

Sorry, but I don't recommend doing the fixmbr as a first option. It confuses things in my opinion.

 

Ok,
This is what the blue screen says:

Technical information:

*** Stop: 0x0000008E (0xC0000005,0xBF832DE6,0xF8944064,0x00000000)

*** win32k.sys - Address BF832DE6 at BF800000, Datestamp 4a85564f

Begining dump of physical memory
physical memory dump complete

 

There should be some more text before that. Something like: "Windows has detecteds a critical error and has been shout down to protect your computer. The error was:" and then something like "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL.

This is the most crucial part of the BSOD so please post it back.

 

Here is the first part (which I thought to be irrelevant)

"A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen restart your computer.
if this screen appears again follow these steps:

check to be sure you have adequate disk space if a driver is identified in the stop message, disable the driver or check with the manufacturer for driver updates. Try changing video adapters

Check with your bios vendor for any bios updates, disable bios memory options such as chaching and shadowing. if you need to use safe mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press f8 to select advances startup options and then select safe mode"

Thats all !

After that comes the technical information I wrote earlier but now without the win32k.sys line !

Another thing ===> in this last boot the system automatically ran CHKDSK and then came the BSOD

 

Which service pack do you have?
And DEFINATELY do the fixboot and fixmbr in recovery console. helps alot.

Also, chkdsk helps too.

 

Guys, I don't see how fixboot or fixmbr is going to help. Windows is finding the boot files because it is running enough to give an error. This is not a problem with the partition table which is what fixmbr addresses.

The 8E error can be a lot of things. Most likely bad RAM or a Video Card problem. Since it started when trying to play a DVD, I'm guessing video card.

To troubleshoot, if it were me, I would try removing the video card and try onboard graphics if you have them available. I'm no expert on tracking down error codes but I don't like the idea of using fixmbr when it doesn't seem to apply and can possible mess up the partition table.

 

quote: I would try removing the video card and try onboard graphics if you have them available

Unfortunately I don't have an onboard graphics card.
But I wonder, If the video card is bad, how come it works in safe mode?

Anyway, I tried re-installing windows xp and even then I have the bluescren
but now - with the error maesage:

"page_fault_in nonpaged_area"

any ideas what should I do now?

 

That is an error commonly associated with bad RAM. I suggest you download memtest86+ and run it overnight.

 

Good point, sach2 - kinda jumped the gun, there...

Sounds like the best approach to solving this problem is the same as usual: check everything, especially if you've got a spare machine handy to use as a troubleshooting aid...

 

I'm running the memtest86+ for 31 (!) hours now
how long does it usually take?

 

Memtest will run indefinitely, if you let it...you should see a screen entry entailing how many passes the program has run, and any errors it may have detected...

 

It says 20 passes and something like 123,000,000 errors
but how do I know what the errors are?

 

Does it matter? You obviously have a memory problem, and until you replace your RAM, you're going to get nowhere with solving any other problems your system (hardware or software) may have...

 

Forgive me for my ignorance,

Is replacing RAM means replacing the two pieces of 256MB DDR2 on my board or does it mean a more complex procedure on the motherboard?

 

No ignorance intended...

Bad memory is a fairly common problem, so there may be nothing wrong with your motherboard...

Try this, first - remove one module, and see if your symptoms change...then try the other one...you may be able to narrow the problem down to one stick...

 

Hi again

I have pulled out one of the memory sticks and remained with only 256MB.
At this point I tries installing my xp pro again,
And it installed well without the blue screen , so this might have been the problem !

BUT

at the last setup stage, windows asks me to select an account and type my
password. I don't remember ever setting password in my computer !
Is there a default one?

leaving it blank doesn't work...

Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

This is the error message I'm getting:

"the system cannot log you on due to following error:
the specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted
please try again or consult your system administrator"

Help!

 

Sounds like it's trying to access the internet or network during the installation - you might remove or disable any onboard NIC cards, and during the Windows install, bypass any searches for patches or drivers...

 

The password here is for your account. You can set it to anything you want. Apparrently you must have one, so setting it to something simple, even a blank space, should work.

However, I do not recommend this as it is not secure.

 

My network card is part of the motherboard and can't be removed, Is there a way to disable it?

 

You may be able to disable it in BIOS...

We may be barking up the wrong tree, here - did you try to type in a password, as collinsl suggested?

 

I have never set any password in this computer
So I have no idea what the password might be
In other forum they said it s/b blank but this didn't work
I also tried to log as administrator in safe mode - no success, same error message.

As for what collinsl suggested, I can't set any password as windows setup just "skips" this part in setup process !

 

Are you installing or going into recovery console?

 

I'm confused if you are doing a fresh install then there should be no user accounts available. You would have to create an account and either make a password or not.

When you started the fresh install did you choose to format the partition or did you choose an option that would try to save existing files?

 

Neither of them. What I've been trying to do is to install over the existing
windows and try to repair it.

 

OK. so for username type in Administrator and for password just leave it blank and hit enter

 

Already tried that...
Same error message -

"the system cannot log you on due to following error:
the specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted
please try again or consult your system administrator"

 

You need to format the hard drive before installing the fresh copy of XP.

At the first stage of the installation process, just after you put the disk in, the computer should have a blue screen with a light Grey bar across the bottom listing "copying file [filename]". Once it has completed this it should ask you what you want to do; either install windows (enter), repair (R) or exit (ESC). You need to hit enter at this stage.

Then it should ask you to accept a license agreement by pressing F8. Read through the agreement if you want to and press F8 if you are willing to accept it. (Have to ask this as it is legally binding) Then it should scan your hard drives and ask where you want windows to be installed, and there should be a list of locations in the lower portion of the screen, like this:

but it will list the partition as being NTFS rather than RAW.

Pres D to delete the partition and then confirm it. Then press ENTER to install Xp to the free space, This will automatically create a partition for XP that is the size of the free space on the disc. If you are asked what formatting method you want to use, choose "Format with NTFS (quick)", otherwise you may be waiting a few hours for format to complete.

Let us know if your installation does follow these steps. If not, cancel it and post back.

 

What you are offering me here is to format my hard drive.
This is exactly what I'm trying to avoid as I don't want to lose all the information in it.
All of this came to me in surprise and I did not even had the chance to salvage
anything or even see what I'm going to loose.

What I'm trying to do is to figure out a way to install windows without having to format the disk, or maybe just a way to save files before I do that...

 

To recover data, download and burn a Linux LiveCD, such as http://www.ubuntu.org

This will allow you to access your computer without having to wipe any data or install over your current operating system.

Then transfer your data to a removable drive and reinstall XP from scratch.

 

Hi,

The LiveCD was a great idea, I used it to salvage all my important files,
formatted C:\ partition and re-installed windows successfully.
Finally I upgraded my RAM to 1G.

and here I am writing this post from my refurbished computer.

Many thanks to all of you for your help in this thread.

 

Great!

Glad you were able to save your important data and things are running smoothly.