Boot loop with winxp and nforce drivers

[Apocalypse23]

So I bought a new processor, opteron 170, installation was simple enough and everyting was going fine. I installed the AMD x2 fixes and the computer was working perfectly. I read somewhere that to be on the safe side I should reinstall the Nforce drivers as well.

Thats when the problems started. I just went through the installation pretty quick and ended up installing the nvidia firewall/networking drivers as well. I remember those causing me a ton of problems when I first built my comp and they all came back. I got blue screens and got caught in a boot loop. The errors were generally 'stop' errors and 000007b errors, nothing too detailed.

I ended up reinstalling WinXP(repair install) and during the install it would ask me for some nforce drivers, particularly 'srcscan', parrarel ata drivers or something like that. I directed it to my system32 directory and finally I was able to boot into windows. Did a ton of windows updates and i thought everything was fine.

Utorrent asked me to remove the nvidia firewall as its a buggy application(which is true based on my past experiences) and after I did that, I realized my lg dvd burner wasn't being detected, and my internet wasn't working either. DId a system restore to before i removed the nvidia networking drivers, and my net worked but my burner still wasn't being detected.

So I booted into safemode and removed the nvidia drivers, rebooted and I got stuck in the same boot loop.

OK, so my question is, is there a way to fix this damn problem? I can reinstall windows again, but i'm afraid i'll have the same driver conflict problems. I am pretty certain its the drivers BTW, my DVD drive is being detected in my bios, and everything was working after I installed the proc, it just all messed up once i updated my nforce drivers. I hear its got to do with some incompatability with my DFI mobo and its just driving me nuts.

Thanks, and sorry for the long post.

 

[John]

Yes, do a clean install

[*]Install XP
[*]Install SP2 if it's not slipstreamed into your XP disc
[*]Install nForce4 6.86 - Windows 2000/XP drivers, I always choose YES to install the NVIDIA SW IDE driver, but always choose NO when it prompts you to install the forceware network access manager - reboot
[*]Install the AMD processor driver and reboot
[*]Install the AMD Dual-Core Optimizer and reboot
[*]Install the rest of the drivers

 

[Apocalypse23]

Is there any way to avoid a clean install? If I can get access to the file system(slave the drive for instance) are there any files/drivers or anything I can delete/replace that might allow me to boot into windows?

At this point, I can't even boot the windows installation off the HDD, it reboots after it copies from the XP CD, and then it gets stuck in a boot loop again (error STOP 0x0000007E).

 

[Apocalypse23]

Okay, after a lengthy procedure I ended up being able to gain access to windows, got a win32 error regarding svchost or something, and ended up doing a repair install. Now im booted up in Safemode. Device Manager is only showing one exclamation mark next to "Nvidia nForce PCI System Management" and my DVD drive still isn't being detected. Is there anything I can do at this point besides a format that would help? Thanks

Edit: I ran driver cleaner and deleted all nvidia/nforce drivers. Now i am booting into windows fine but my DVD drive isnt being detected. I'm afraid of installing the mobo drivers though so im not sure what to do.