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XP install stops at light blue screen with cursor working, but won;t boot

Markfw

Markfw

Moderator Emeritus, Elite Member
I have been at theis for three days. I did find a problem using scandisk, after putting the disk in another computer, and fixed the error. Then I did a repair install (doesn;t loose the programs), still didn't fix it, so I put it in another computer again and scanned for viruses and spyware , and it won;t even boot in safe mode (before or after repair install) !!!! WTF !!! And microsoft.com hasn;t helped me either.....

Help please ! (friends computer)
 
Were any viruses or malwares detected in the scan, or did that come out clean? What brand/model of drive and mobo, if you happen to recall?
 
No virueses, and nothing else but tracking cookies. Its a P4 I850 gateway with a 1.6. I re-partitioned it, and re-installed a second copy of XP, (no problems) so its not hardware. I just have never seen anything that wouldn;t even boot in safe mode after a repair install !!!!! The guys wife (who uses it for work) says he has 2 more days to fix his mistake (I don;t think he did anything), so I am trying to help him out.
 
Huh, well if it were me, and the drive is as old as the rest of the system and has had a problem (which it has), then I would probably just tell my pal to pick up a new 40GB or 80GB Seagate 7200.7 ATA/100 drive locally, depending on his needs and budget, and do a complete fresh Windows install on that. Then I would pull his old data off the old drive, and install whatever apps it needs, and of course get it set up as securely as practical for its next lap.

Would that work?
 
Well, its a 60 gig. I did have a burp while installing from his cd drive (re-boot) , and then re-installed office XP using his burner which then worked. So next I might try the repair install using the burner instead of the cd drive. The hard drive appears fine.

Any other ideas ? And why would my new install work fine, but the reapir install (on the same hard drive, different partition) not even boot in safe mode ? That doesn;t sound like hardware.....
 
you have something corrupt in the registry....but it may have been caused by a hardware problem. Try a Win98 start-up disk and execute the registry restore if you can. Or use the Xp cd and go to the repair console.
 
repair re-install should fix the registry, right ? How would I do anything different using the recovery console ? No registry restore backups taken that I know of.
 
well, the boot.ini boots from the new xp install partition or the old(dual boot) , but on the old, the boot doesn;t finsih.
 
Thanks again, but neither really applies, as it finds the boot, starts, and gets to just about the last gui screen (cursor moves even), but the system hangs (as in doesn;t finish booting) there right before it is ready to finish booting. And since I did a repair install (complete re-install that doesn;t wipe ot the installed programs) It should be fine, but isn;t. And the other partition is perfect..... Just missing a zillion programs, that his wife will kill him since they are no longer installed (hence my work to help him)
 
My friend is having the exact same problem today on his laptop. Did your friend figure out the source of the problem?
 
Originally posted by: Markfw900
Bump for any more ideas !! Help my buddie !
Click to expand...

EDIT - did you try holding down the shift key while booting to prevent startup sfw from loading?

Does your buddy just want to get an OS up and running (period)? Often it's better to focus on the goal --getting back to a productive state-- rather than spend days/weeks searching for a precision solution to a specific problem. I think the advice given here so far has been good under the cirucmstances, and you might need to start looking at less-precise workarounds.

Your options are limited here, since base OS code corruption doesn't appear to be the culprit and many of the "advanced" troubleshooting options depend on booting at least to safe mode - which you are unable to do.

One last "non-destructive" option might be ERD Commander. It's a bootable CD that contains a (real) mini version of XP. You can use it to boot up and edit the registry - basically an advanced version of safe mode. But it costs like $150 for an end-user license, and I'm not even sure if you (or any of us for that matter) would know what to do once you were booted. My only advice would be to clear out the HKLM/Software/Microsft/CurrentVersion/Run section of the registry, as well as the startup folder. If that didn't work, you'd only have a very nice piece of software and $150 less disposable income.

Your real alternaive might be the shotgun solutions. Backup the data and do a full reinstall, or maybe (gasp) even an FFR.

Sorry for the pesky problem. I've had many I never solved and had to just start over. Actually, it's not a bad thing since it trims all the fat on a system.

Good luck.

 
Count me in on this mystery issue. A co-worker gave me her rig for the same reason and I am stumped so far. When I try to boot in safe mode, it even has the appropriate text on the screen, just no desktop icons, colors, etc. The only reason (I'm guessing) that the screen is light blue in your case is that the color 'underneath' the desktop is being shown. In my case it's black, but otherwise exactly the same scenario.
 
Don't know if everybody has dropped this thread or what. I wasn't able to fix it, but the good news was that the drive worked fine to copy files to another machine and re-install. This fixed the issues. Copied files back over and my friend was all set. Microsoft's site says problems like this can be linked to certain viruses and they give you links to install removal tools-lots of good those do when you can't get into Windows!
 
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