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Hardware Forum / Brand Name Systems / Dell / July 2007XPmediacenter/will not boot
Tried to boot PC into safe mode would not boot, changed the boot.ini to safe mode, would not boot(I really stupid on my part), Have the restore cd, but will not boot from that either, changed boot sequence to boot from cdrom first device, but no help, Tried space bar on boot, but that did not work. At a total loss here. Thanks for any help Bob > Tried to boot PC into safe mode would not boot, changed the boot.ini to > safe [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > Bob At the Dell splash screen.... F8 to reach a boot menu (safe mode/normal mode/last known good....etc.) if that option still exists. F12 and select CD optical drive if you want to boot from the disc for a repair or clean install. CTL+F11 if you want to restore the factory image and lose all data. Good luck - Stew > At the Dell splash screen.... > [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > Stew finally got the recovery console to work, reloaded the windows files, removed the disc rebootet, and went to safemode and "windows XP setup cannot run under safemode, restart now. Did that and back to safemode with same message. went to bios and setup internal HDD as first boot disk. same error. tried F8, tried last know good configuration, safe mode, normal mode, same boot to safemode and error msg. Last resort will be the CTL + 11 that worked but would like to get out of the safemode problem without losing all of the settings and documents on the PC. Thanks Bob i would consider whatever you might have recently added to this pc. it could be as silly as a usb drive connected to the system that is the cause of your problems. if that doesn't help then you can try a repair-reinstall of windows... but proceed with caution because it is very easy to wipe your drive and loose all data if you don't follow the instructions carefully. you can also remove the current hard disk from the system and install it in another to back up your data before you do any sort of reinstallation of the operating system. here is a nice guide to doing a repair-reinstall: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm >> At the Dell splash screen.... >> [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] > Thanks > Bob >i would consider whatever you might have recently added to this pc. it >could be as silly as a usb drive connected to the system that is the cause [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > here is a nice guide to doing a repair-reinstall: > http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm I found that link with a Google, and I plugged in a USB external HDD and a flash drive before this started. They were still connected when I tried to boot into safemode the first time. Not sure if this can be fixed, since I am now have been able to do a repair-reinstall but am in a loop at reboot to safemode and "windows XP setup cannot run under safemode". I have tried every combination of F8 that I can, and still in the loop. I guess pulling the HDD and getting the date is the next step before a CTRL + F11 Bob It sounds to me like you have hardware problems totally unrelated to the hard drive or the operating system. "Have the restore cd, but will not boot from that either" is a pretty good clue. > Tried to boot PC into safe mode would not boot, changed the boot.ini to safe > mode, would not boot(I really stupid on my part), [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > Bob > It sounds to me like you have hardware problems totally unrelated to the > hard drive or the operating system. "Have the restore cd, but will not > boot from that either" is a pretty good clue. Everything was working fine until I tried to boot into safe mode to run some adaware softare. It froze during the boot to safemode, and went downhill from there. Bob >> It sounds to me like you have hardware problems totally unrelated to the >> hard drive or the operating system. "Have the restore cd, but will not [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > >Bob Bob, I wonder if the keyboard is acting up? Maybe unplug it and replug it in. Or maybe a bad registry? I'm not really sure just yet and if it were me, I'd have to do some trial and error work likely to find the culprit. >>> It sounds to me like you have hardware problems totally unrelated to the >>> hard drive or the operating system. "Have the restore cd, but will not [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > and if it were me, I'd have to do some trial and error work likely to > find the culprit. I will give that a try in the morning. Bob >>>> It sounds to me like you have hardware problems totally unrelated to the >>>> hard drive or the operating system. "Have the restore cd, but will not [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > >Bob Bob, you may have to reboot after doing this keyboard thing. Can you tell us what led up to this problem; did you install some new hardware or tweaked some software just before you noticed this problem? Don't misinterpret my questioning you... not trying to blame you but rather trying to learn as much as we can because the more info you tell us, likely one of us can better help you. >>>>> It sounds to me like you have hardware problems totally unrelated to >>>>> the [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > you but rather trying to learn as much as we can because the more info > you tell us, likely one of us can better help you. Barry, I don't misinterpert the question, I understand you need to know as much as possible to help figure this out. The PC has been working great for months, I plugged in a USB external drive to get an ITunes library onto the PC, that worked great. I plugged in a flashdrive to add some software, needed to boot into safemode to finish the install. both drives were still attached. Safemode started and the froze, after a hard reboot the PC would not boot at all, and then the try of the repair-reinstall. I changed the boot order to cd-rom got to the recovery console, selected the OS etc. everything appeared to have installed correctly, got to the reboot to finish installation, removed the CD, the PC rebooted, and then the boot to safemode and the error message "cannot fnish the istallation from safemode" cancel and then the loop to reboot to safemode and same error msg. I tried all of the options from F8 that I could. Last known good configuration, VGA(found that in a search for the error msg.),safe mode, normal etc. still the reboot into safemode and the error msg. cannot finish installation in safemode. I have not been able to get past this reboot loop. Thanks for your assistance, Bob from what I can tell it was a corrupted boot.ini file. Solved it from here http://icrontic.com/articles/repair_windows_xp booted into setup (got out of the safemode loop), repair-reinstall and did not loose any documents etc. Beginners luck? LOL I did get an error msg. during the reinstall "ngen.exe entry point not found", seems this has something to do with the .net framework (way above my paygrade here), so not sure if windows updates will solve this or need to do a reinstall from MS. This is my sister's PC, and I am leaving today, so hopefully her problem is over. Thanks for everyones input Bob > Tried to boot PC into safe mode would not boot, changed the boot.ini to > safe [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > Bob Oh, the joys of being the system and network administrator for ones family! ... Ben Myers >from what I can tell it was a corrupted boot.ini file. >Solved it from here [quoted text clipped - 26 lines] >> >> Bob good to hear that it is working again. if you find there are still problems with this machine you might try a system restore to an point in time before the usb hdd and use flash drive were added to the system. also you may want to run disk diagnostics. and of course you want to back up your stuff! > from what I can tell it was a corrupted boot.ini file. > Solved it from here [quoted text clipped - 26 lines] >> >> Bob > good to hear that it is working again. > if you find there are still problems with this machine you might try a > system restore to an point in time before the usb hdd and use flash drive > were added to the system. also you may want to run disk diagnostics. and > of course you want to back up your stuff! I did a chkdsk etc. and all appeared to be fine. I also put Acronis on her PC and did a full back up to the USB hdd, and tried to exlain to her about incremental backups. I also put logmein free (I use Pro for a family member with 5 PC's in different offices) on the PC, so that I can help her from here. Working on an encrypted hdd for another family member right now and restoring the OS. D-Ban worked great on that one. Maybe this should be my day job. LOL Thanks Bob |
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