WINXP will not boot

Hi
I have been posting in the malware forum and they referred me here. (see http://forums.majorgeeks.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=1006246)

My friend has been battling a lot of things and the most recent.. his computer will not even recognize windows.
He has WIN XP Pro. We tried removing the BIOS battery and still it gives him errors that he cannot load windows.
We had problems trying to do a repair install of Windows... and upgrading to SP2 was not completed. He had trouble booting into safe mode as well, but now we cant even get in there.
Any suggestions?
Thanks

 

Need a little more information, what are the errors?

Are they BSOD errors?

Is everything inside connected properly?

Has anything been added/changed/modified lately?

When did this begin?

Also, please note that removing the CMOS battery only defaults the BIOS settings and has no effect on the Operating System.

 

they are not BSOD errors. He tries to boot and gets...: Error loading operating system.
He has not removed or added anything since it was working.. except I tried to walk him thru another repair install so we could access safe mode again... and he said it was not responding when he hit F8 to accept the licensing terms. He waited about 15 minutes then turned the computer off. He said the CD was not spinning when he did.. so we both assumed it was stuck. Could it be he has a partiall loaded windows ? if so.. how do we correct or check for that?
We have been doing the Trojan battle for about 3 weeks I believe... and that lil' buggar is so stubborn we still cannot get rid of him. (Trojan Downloader ConHook) So we thought we would try a clean install but cannot even get the computer to boot from CD.

 

Is it a new harddrive? I've seen this error before, it was because the BIOS didnt support the capacity of the harddrive being used.

How big is the harddrive you guys are using?

Have you tried a BIOS update?

 

No new hardware....

How can we update the BIOS when we cant get the computer up? I am not very saavy with this sort of thing.

This is the same MOBO same HD same BIOS etc... as he has always had...

I believe he has a 40 GB HD. The computer is probably 3-4 years old.

 

I believe this is caused from 1 of 3 problems.

1. The BIOS does not support the computer HDD's size or settings.
   
2. Computer HDD is not properly setup in CMOS
   
3. There is an issue with drive's partitions

First, try these solutions...

http://whocares.de/2004/12/28/error-loading-operating-system/

Second, I have used the command "fdisk /mbr " from the recovery console and had success, doing this rewrites the Master Boot Record.

 

Ok now he is trying to do the repair install and he gets an error Boot from ATAPI CD rom: No emulation Press any key to boot from CD..... Error loading operating system.

We tried to enter the BIOS and do as that website said but could not see where to change the IDE settings to Large as suggested. We just reset to default settings. We even tried the recovery module. Sometimes the computer acts like it freezes, other times ... like when it asks for F8 to accept the terms... it appears to not respond at all.

Now what would you suggest? Is there a way to get to a DOS prompt so we could try fdisk /mbr ???

 

Can you boot from the Windows XP disc and get into the recovery console? If so, once into the console type the command fdisk /mbr and press ENTER.

 

It will not accept fdisk /mbr
It says its not recognized. It has a list of acceptable commands such as: fix boot, fix mbr, ... is that it?

Ok it is asking if he wants to continue.. we were able to get in using fixmbr and then it let him continue.. but.. I need to know if it fixes the "boot disk" will that automatically go to C or since we changed the boot order in BIOS will that effect his WINDOWS CD???

 

First, try just fixmbr, if that doesn't work try fixmbr \Device\HardDisk0.

 

Nothing can effect the Windows CD, it's a recordable disc. It can't be overwritten, erased, etc..

 

I believe this means that there is an invalid or nonstandard partition table signature.

 

Ok yes.. that's what it said.
Now he is trying to use the CD to reinstall windows.. I assume that is the next step.... We shall see how far he gets this time. and so far... so good....:clap

Thanks for all your help and suggestions. I sure wish i was more knowledgable about this stuff but I do pretty dang good for a "woman".. most of the time ....rolleyes

 

What kind of computer is it? Make/Model? It may need a BIOS update, which can be applied via Floppy thru DOS.

 

It is a home made one lol... His Microsoft son built it for him.... The BIOS is Award... I believe his MOBO is Microstar or maybe not. I will have to help him find out... and is it hard to do a BIOS upgrade. That again, is something I have never done.

 

No, it's not hard at all to update however it is hard to find the correct BIOS.

 

Ok...
We are still stuck... There seems to be no response when he hits enter to install windows. Does that make any sense????

It is late here so I will continue with this tomorrow.. thanks again

 

Go back into the recovery console and enter both commands below:

FIXMBR C: Press Enter

FIXBOOT C: Press Enter

Then, attempt to reinstall Windows. During install you may want to try deleting the partition and creating a new one.

 

Ok that did the trick. After doing the recovery console commands... his windows came up without a reinstall. But, it took forever to do load the full desktop.
I am not sure what our next step should be. He has an hour glass that processes forever when he tries to open a browser etc.

 

We are unable to get a browser to open... once windows comes up it takes like a half hour to get the start button active but everything is snail pace. He brought up the task manager but it took 10 minutes and had nothing in it. The desktop icons are there but not active.
Sometimes when he reboots it brings up the BIOS on its own. I wonder if we changed some setting that slowed this down?
I thought we should try another repair install but he still cannot get past the F8 to accept the terms page. It just freezes... and he has to reboot to get out of it.
Now.... when booting he gets the option to enter POST.. and the key will not work... or EZ setup... I am not sure what either of these will do for him?
Anyone more suggestions?

 

Is there any data on this HDD that he needs? If not, I recommend doing a low-level format one the drive and reinstalling the OS.

Let me know!

 

Well I believe he has resigned himself to the fact that he is going to lose some of his "stuff". We did save his My Documents and a list of his programs while we still had access. I was hoping to save the drivers as well ...and that is what we intended to do.. when this happened. Last night, we rebooted several times and some of the time his screen would go black, or have unreadable "stuff" on it. I hope this format will correct all these things.

Can you tell me where I can find detailed instructions for doing this low level format? I have read a lot on the web about reformatting etc, but have never actually done one.
Thanks

 

This should fix your problem, do a low level format, afterwards try and reinstall Windows clean.

1. Download Maxtor Powermax
2. Run it and perform a low level format.
3. Reinstall Windows clean

Once you have completed the above, let me know how everything went and how things are going now.

 

The problem is.. he cannot get to anything where he can access a file or the internet to download the Powermax program. His computer still does not even allow a repair install.. it hangs up when he is supposed to accept the agreement.
We could D/L to a USB drive on the other computer if we knew how to access it from the damaged compter.

 

Your going to have to download this from a computer with internet access. The application will create a bootable floppy. Once completed, run the Floppy and then perform the low-level format. This should fix all the problems you guy are having.

Quick question, is the hard drive making any unusual sounds like clicking, knocking or grinding?

Let me know if you have any problems!

 

ok thanks.. we are working on it. He had to run the recovery console to get it up..and he is in safe mode now. We are going to back up his drivers then run that Powermax program.
There are no unusual sounds or anything.. He DID go thru and check his connections.. and found a couple of them that were loose and causing his stalling or pausing. So we are better than we were a week ago
I will let you know how it goes....

 

wow.. i think we are making progress. His computer seems to be running much better.
I believe before we do the reformat we will return to the malware and post a new HJT log. His log shows "file missing" on both of those culprits... I think maybe whatever you helped us do has also helped with the trojans??? I may be back lol
Thanks Tons for your help!!!!!

 

Good Deal!

Just to confirm you guys know, running PowerMax and performaing a low-level format will remove everything on the entire drive. What it does is, it creates the physical format that defines where the data is stored on the disk. In real life terms, we call it a "true" format.

 

Yup we know that... and that is why we are hoping it will be the last resort.
We were able to get in and back up his drivers and favorites.. and we already had his "my docs" backed up, so it might not be too bad..
Safe mode seems fine but.. he tried rebooting in normal mode and the dang thing is taking forever. Could there be some setting in BIOS that we changed that would account for this slow down?

 

You could try to default the BIOS settings and then try logging into normal mode. There are numerous things that could cause Windows to be slow, I would continue to backup all files and do the low level format. Doing this assures things will be right once Windows has been reinstalled. If things are still problematic after the low level format then there is most likely a problem with the HDD but it doesn't sound like at this point there is.

It's up to you what you do however I would continue with the low-level format after backing up my data.

Let me know!

 

Thanks tons.. we finally did a full install .. we could not do the powermax thing since he did not have a floppy drive. He is now trying to restore everything back to "normal"
We both appreciate your patience and willingness to share your knowledge with us.
If you have any other suggestions then we would welcome them
Thanks tons!!

 

Are you still having the problem with everything being slow? How are things going with the install, restore, etc';'

 

I was at Lake Powell for 3 days... YAY... and I just got home. When I left, he had it up and running and was in the process of getting things back to "normal" with his AV, ad-aware, Spybot S&D, and his programs he lost. I contacted him and he said his computer still shows the ConHook Trojan and that he cant get the computer to reboot fully. He was trying to download SP2 and it gave him an error message. "An Error occured while copying file SETUPQRY.dll. Cannot copy file to destination dirctory"

The windows reinstall seemed to go ok, however. I am not sure how he got that stinker back. He said he did not move any files back over to the HD yet. (They are stored on a removable HD)

 

If he reinstalled Windows and still has the same "ConHook Trojan" then it sounds like he didn't "format".

Are you certain he formatted the partition? Doing so will remove everything on that partition and will assure there is nothing there. That or either something he is downloading is infected.

 

Ok I have left off a bit of vital information... that I forgot. Several months ago he was having trouble with windows... and so he installed a second instance to a folder called windows2. We just discovered that when we did the clean install... it installed it to a windows folder NOT windows2..so that accounts for those little varmints being there. I guess i need help as to how to get rid of this second instance of windows...and get the windows (1) working. He boots and it stops with a black screen and cursor.. man how weird can this get????

 

If it were me, I would format every partition on that hard drive because it sounds like there is a lot of junk on it. Save what you need and format the whole drive and reinstall to the default C:\WINDOWS folder.

That's just me, however if you do not want to go that route then you need to find out which install is being used, windows2 or windows1 because if you delete the working one or parts of it, windows will not load properly

 

Well we were finally able to do a reformat and reinstall but are unable to get the sound working... any suggestions?
Dxdiag shows everything gray on sound tab.
Thanks

 

Be sure everything is plugged in properly, make sure the correct drivers are installed and be sure everything look good in Device Manager. Just to cover everything, if the speakers have an AC adapter, be sure it's plugged up (you'd be suprised how many people have come to me about this locally). haha!

 

That's the problem.... he has a yellow ? on the sound controller. We dont know how to get it to recognize it's there. It's as if XP is not recognizing he has a sound card. He has a ATI TV tuner and we installed that from disk hoping that would solve it but it didn't.
He uses a headset so there is no AC connection needed.

 

It's being detected by WinXP however that exclamation point means the drivers are not loaded properly or missing.

Do you have the drivers for this device?

 

we reinstalled soundmax drivers for the onboard audio and still nothing. It shows ok in device manager... no yellow ?
but no sound either.

 

Reboot the computer, does everything in Device Manager look ok? No question marks or exclamation points?

Do you have onboard sound and a PCI sound card or just onboard sound?

 

He has onboard audio but added an ATI TV tuner... and neither of them work. There are no yellow ? in device manger. He has rebooted a few times and no change.

 

Go back into Device Manager and click on the device, does it say "This device is working properly"?

If so, are you sure they are the correct drivers?

Are you sure the device is good?

 

well we downloaded them from ASUS website for his MB. All the sound devices say "this device is working properly"
Would both devices be bad? They both worked before reformatting.

 

If they worked before the format and now do not, then I would be willing to bet it's the drivers.

Most of the time you will get BSOD erros if incorrect drivers are loaded. However I'm not sure what else could be causing this.

Do you have the drivers on a disc as in the motherboard disc?

 

Yes he has the MB disk
I wonder if somehow the onboard audio was turned off in BIOS.. I been surfing a bit and someone suggested this might be the problem. But even if the onboard was off.. wouldnt that mean the TV card would work? We installed the drivers from the CD and that is only a few months old.

 

If the device is listed in Device Manager then it's most likely enabled in the BIOS.

If you have the motherboard disc with the onboard audio drivers, I would go into Device Manager, right click and select uninstall. Reboot and when it starts to install the device, be sure you install from the CD.

If the TV card is an actual PCI or AGP card then then onboard audio wouldn't have an effect on it.