Endless rebooting at d346bus.sys...can't boot WinXP

Hey,

Hopefully this is the correct place to ask about this.

My computer has recently refused to boot fully into windows XP. It will load through the BIOS, give me options of how to boot since it's failed booting multiple times (like safe mode, safe mode with networking, safe mode with command prompt, last known good config, and normal boot).

If I choose normal boot, it moves on to the next screen with the WinXP logo and progress bar, and then restarts a few seconds into it. If I choose last known good config, the same thing happens. If I choose a safe mode option, it loads drivers up to d346bus.sys (agp440.sys is loaded just before) and asks if I want to hit ESC to cancel loading that file. It will then reboot whether or not I hit ESC. So basically, it is stuck in an endless loop of rebooting.

I battled a couple viruses about a year ago, and I believe that starting around that time the computer would restart itself half way through the bootup in a similar fashion on occasion, but would then fully load windows. I never took care of the occasional rebooting because it didn't really do any harm other than setting me back another 30 seconds. Now is the first time that it has refused to go into Windows at all.

I do fairly regular system checks with Spybot S&D and Adaware and haven't found anything beyond cookies in a long time. I also have performed no hardware or software updates in at least the last two weeks (nothing major in much longer), and the computer is shut down every night.

My only guess is that there's some hangup in the registry loading. I searched the internet quite a bit for solutions, but it seems that everyone with similar problems can trace it to a recent hardware and/or software change.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Hardware/software specs are listed below. Feel free to ask for any additional specs.

Also, I used Ghost 2003 to image the system HD after these problems started, so I feel somewhat more comfortable with trying stuff cause I can reverse it by restoring the image and then try something else, only losing time.

--Tyler


Motherboard: Intel D865GLC (BIOS upgraded to current after above problem started
Processor: Pentium 4 2.60 GHz
1 gig ram
WinXP SP2 (I believe...I keep it updated, but I can't turn it on to double check)
HD #1: 160 GB SATA - 130 GB partition with sys/boot, rest for data
HD #2: 80 GB IDE - data drive
HD #3: 160 GB IDE (bought once problems started, currently for testing/backing up)

 

From what I have gathered, its part of daemon tools. Here is something you can try, if you have a Windows XP CD, or the XP boot floppies.

Assuming CD:

Boot off the of the CD and load setup. At the first screen it stops at, press 'R' for recovery console and log into at.

At the C:\windows prompt, type this:
disable d346bus

Hit Enter, type Exit to reboot and test it out. If you get an error disabling it, it cannot be disabled in this manner. Please post back with results.

 

I tried disabling Daemon (d346bus.sys and d346prt.sys) in that manner, as well as agp440.sys and mup.sys (other people online were having trouble with mup.sys in a similar manner, so I thought I'd give it a shot).

I've also tried combinations of fixmbr, fixboot, and chkdsk from the recovery console. I also tried a repair install with the WinXP cd. None of these changed anything.

--Tyler

 

Unfortunately, you are probably looking at a new installation of Windows then, or a re-image anyway...

Now if that fails...I'd start checking your ram.