XP Pro won't boot..

[Ethereal_Dragon]

Computer in signature is running Windows XO Pro, fully patched & updated as of last month. Long story short is that we had a power outage on Saturday night, and the PC was on at the time. I went to boot it on Sunday, and it wouldn't boot at all.

When I go to start the computer, I get a page after POST telling me that that Windows wasn't properly shutdown, yadda yadda.. choices are:

• Safe Mode
• Safe Mode with networking
• Safe Mode with command support (i think... goin from memory here)
  
• Use last known good config
• Start Normally

Now, each of the Safe mode options yield the same result. It will show file paths to various files, but stop after listing 1 certain file (don't remember it from memory), and it will just hang there....

If I use either of the 2 remaining options, again, they yield the same result... They will go to the XP loading screen, and the little blue boxes will scroll and scroll.... got nowhere in 2 hours with each method.

As a last resort, I booted from XP CD to try and repair or re-install Winders... Well, that won't work either. Repair & Setup will both hang at the same thing were it says it is checking my hardware...

Are there any options at all available to me that I may look into, besides formatting or getting a new hard drive?

Thanks in advance for you help!
-Zach

 

[SHAWN]

Sounds to me like your drive has some bad sectors/clusters from the power shutting off. This could be repairable. Try to boot into the recovery console with your XP CD and run a check disk on the drive. The command is chkdsk /r. Once complete, reboot and see if the issue persists.

 

[__Camouflage__]

Sounds to me like your drive has some bad sectors/clusters from the power shutting off. This could be repairable. Try to boot into the recovery console with your XP CD and run a check disk on the drive. The command is chkdsk /r. Once complete, reboot and see if the issue persists.

Obviously you just scrolled through.

As a last resort, I booted from XP CD to try and repair or re-install Winders... Well, that won't work either. Repair & Setup will both hang at the same thing were it says it is checking my hardware...

The file that it is hanging on, is most likely MUP.SYS, a lot of users have this problem. I hear it has something to do with PCI cards, USB.

You can try a different Power Supply, but that could be a long shot.

 

[Ethereal_Dragon]

I appreciate the reply's.... I might have a spare HDD around somewhere.. I will try to set up a fresh install on that drive (if I still have it)... unfortunatly, my budget doesn' allow for a new PSU right now... I will let you know how it goes, and try to give more detailed info when I get home.

 

[Law]

It's probably just a corrupted OS, the hard drive could take a beating during a black out, it's just the other components when the surge comes around when the power comes back on, if you don't have a surge protector that is, it could ruin your PSU and most likely the MB and other attached component.

IÂ’ve power down my PC the hard way all the time when it crashed or freeze more frequently than a blackout would occur, IÂ’ve never had any problem with the hard drive going bad but sometime your OS files or one of the important ones become corrupted and itÂ’s just a reinstall or repair should help. If youÂ’re on IDE, switch the cable for a known working one also. Should slave it on another computer and backup the data if you could.

 

[SHAWN]

Obviously you just scrolled through.

I dont think so. There is something wrong with the drive.

 

[Ethereal_Dragon]

Well, I am thinking I have a hardware issue OTHER than the hard drive..... I am now using a 200 Gig IDE drive (previous drive was 300 Gig SATA drive).

I formated the drive, went to install Windows XP (Legit copy). The install hangs at the install screen showing that it will take 39 minutes to complete installation, then gives an error message, and a log pops up, which contains:

Error:
SXS.DLL: Syntax error in manifest or policy file 
"D:\I386\ams\6000\MSFT\WINDOWS\COMMON\CONTROLS\CONTROLS.MAN" on line 4.

***

Error:
Installation Failed: "D:\I386\ams. Error Message : The request could not be performed 
because of an I/O device error.

***

Fatal Error:
One of the components that Windows needs to continue setup could not be installed.

The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error.

***

Error:
SXS.DLL: Syntax error in manifest or policy file 
"D:\I386\ams\6000\MSFT\WINDOWS\COMMON\CONTROLS\CONTROLS.MAN" on line 5.

***

Error:
Installation Failed: "D:\I386\ams. Error Message : The request could not be performed 
because of an I/O device error.

For chuckles, I am going to format the drive again, and try to install Vista RC1 that I put on a DVD shortly before the crash.

 

[baronvongogo]

well if its still doing it must be some sort of hardware conflict, what do you have in your PCI slots? also any onboard settings you can turn off like video, sound etc

Any chance you can use a different version of XP to install could be a bad OS cd.

 

[Ethereal_Dragon]

Well, its an SFF PC, so I only have PCI express x16, and a PCI express x1... I have the Radeon x800 PRO in the x16 slot, other slot is empty. I put the XP CD into my other PC and coppied the folder that it can't read onto a USB flash drive. When I booted the problem child again WITHOUT the CD in, it asked where the folder was, and offered alternate places to load it from, but didn't read the flash drive... I MIGHT just burn that folder (8 MB or so) to a Disc, and see if that solves the trouble... if not, I will swap out the SATA DVD burner for an IDE CD drive.... As a last resort, I will try to install Vista, or RMA the chassis to Newegg (I wonder if it is still under warrenty...).

I will keep you all posted. I won't be home till late tonight, so it will be later on.

 

[Ethereal_Dragon]

Well, my attempt to put the 'unreadable' file on a CD resulted in an additional coaster for the living room. The DVD burner in that computer is acting VERY strangly lately. I have a 'super boot' CD that I got from my old man... bunch of cool tools on it like Gdisk, and whatnot... I booted off the CD and it read fine, when to wipe the HDD, and after I put in the password for the tools, it just can't read the CD, but it works fine in other machines.... well, I wiped, TRIED to install XP again to have it fail at the SAME spot. SO, I wiped it again, and went with Vista RC1. The install was successful (albeit, VERY SLOW for some reason), but Vista is successfully running on the main PC. I haven't gotten very far into it, as I had literally a few minutes to tinker before I went to sleep.

Since the original SATA drive was TRYING to boot windows, I am hoping that the data is intact, because I haven't recently backed up my pictures, and haven't backed up ANY of my 20 Gig iTunes library.