Windows will not boot after SP3

jpd101

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May 23, 2010
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I have this problem i was reinstalling windows xp pro with all updates when i finished installing SP3 the computer will not boot into windows it wont even load the logo screen it just hangs blank screen THAT was with a new hard drive i figured it was the hard drive so i swapped for old one same thing same problem just hangs. i tried Last Known Good configuration didnt work i tried Safe Mode didnt work, then i tried loading windows setup cd to go into recovery mode computer wont even finish loading the setup screen. Need Help??
 
Solution
Probably a virus attack or a malfunction caused by OS automatic update. Try step C first.

A. Obtain high quality anti virus disk, Norton and Panda are two that will work, there may be others, make sure internet is connected, insert disk in drive, start computer, disk will update, scan and neutralize virus in many cases. If virus is detected, the security you are using now did not work very well?

B. Install hard drive in another XP computer, which has high quality anti virus installed, use functional computer to scan and repair damaged drive. Use functional computer to backup your personal files from the damaged disk, it usually works. Put your back ups on CD or DVD, or an online backup service such as Mozy, the first 2 GB are free...
Probably a virus attack or a malfunction caused by OS automatic update. Try step C first.

A. Obtain high quality anti virus disk, Norton and Panda are two that will work, there may be others, make sure internet is connected, insert disk in drive, start computer, disk will update, scan and neutralize virus in many cases. If virus is detected, the security you are using now did not work very well?

B. Install hard drive in another XP computer, which has high quality anti virus installed, use functional computer to scan and repair damaged drive. Use functional computer to backup your personal files from the damaged disk, it usually works. Put your back ups on CD or DVD, or an online backup service such as Mozy, the first 2 GB are free.

C. If high quality updated virus scan shows negative, use original operating system disk to do repair install of XP operating system, without reformatting the drive, does not erase your personal files. Use your original system and hardware disks to load drivers after you repair install, if needed. The directions are posted in Tom's XP forum, fourth post from the top. If you do not have all your drivers, you may need to download them from the manufacturer's website. Use only drivers provided by the manufacturer, do not use drivers offered by other sources.

D. In case the repair install does not work, if a virus is un- removable, follow directions in (B) above to back up your personal files, use an XP disk to reformat the drive, and do a fresh install. Load drivers as described in (C), load your backed up files, resume driving.

And now your moment of Zen, a quote from Google:
"Google says its automated scans of the Internet recently turned up malware on roughly 300,000 Web sites, double the number it recorded two years ago. Each site can contain many infected pages. Meanwhile, Malware doubled last year, to 240 million unique attacks, according to Symantec, a maker of security software. And that does not count the scourge of fake antivirus software and other scams".
 
Solution

jpd101

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May 23, 2010
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no i dont think you're hearing me these have been fresh installs i just finished installing windows xp pro followed by chipset drivers audio and video then i do windows update then after SP3 it happened. so i tried the old one same thing. it seems the hard drive is inoperable. Even if i wanted to reinstall windows i cant get past the setup screen to install. i doubt its a virus how could a virus prevent me from using windows xp pro cd to reinstall. i mean what does software have to do with hardware. how could the same thing happen back to back on two hard drives I will! try step B.

System specs:
Intel Pentium 4 2.4ghz
1gb Ram
Radeon 9800pro video card
Antec 650W power supply
MSI motherboard
Seagate Barracuda 80GB
 
Downloading update SP3 from MS can corrupt the system files. It's happened to me before. But you can fix that by reformatting and reinstalling the OS. It worked until you loaded the SP3 update? If the same thing happened on two hard drives it might just be a bad motherboard. Is this system from all new parts? It is helpful to use another computer if available to test your parts one at a time. I was having a similar problem and it turned out to be a bad motherboard. The system would install and work for a while, then it would refuse to boot.
It's true that it can be frustrating when the OS won't reinstall. Are you trying to reinstall in repair mode? Or did you reformat the drive and try to do another fresh install? I would try it once more by reformatting the entire drive, do a fresh install, don't use the microsoft updates at all, load your drivers, leave update turned off permanently. Install MS powertoys tweek IU for XP, this allows shutting off the message balloons. The messages tell you over and over that automatic updates are turned off
As long as there is a high quality anti virus security installed, you don't really need the MS SP3 updates. I shut mine off years ago. Since shutting the updates off, the computer has worked better, and keeps working without any surprises.
There are all kinds of people having trouble with the SP3 updates causing problems. You are not alone.
 

jpd101

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May 23, 2010
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yeah you know you could be right it could be a bad motherboard because i have SP3 installed on this machine and i've installed it on other machines with no problems. reformatting it would mean running setup with Os cd but i can t even get past loading setup, so i cant get to partition or format part. unless theres a way to run setup with floppy oh wait if i cant get hard drive to work how will i get past setup.
 
Well they actually changed the SP3 update not so long ago and after that the problems with the update started. I can load SP 3 from the factory SP3 disk, but when I try to update it from the website it causes problems. So what Ive been doing is just shutting the updates off, and no more problems. It actually runs better without SP3 installed from the website.
Some people have said that the updates need to run to make the system stable but I have found that it's more stable without the updates. Our computer lab teacher over at the college won't run the updates either, he says SP3 is all screwed up.
And for the security, a lot of people think that you need the security updates, but I have found that this is really not true. I use Panda Internet security, and have no problems what so ever. I don't think that the SP3 security updates work, or work very poorly.
If you reformat and do another clean install, and it still won't run (don't load the SP3 updates) then try a new motherboard, think Gigabyte. It could be a bad chipset.
 

jpd101

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May 23, 2010
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well you see thats the problem i cant find many micro motherboards with my specs. only one i found is a eMachine / HP VL35G P4 Socket-478 Micro-ATX Motherboard new
 
AGP is obsolete, nobody makes it nowdays. Everything switched over to PCIe X16 video
But I am quite sure you could find a new board with AGP if you really wanted,
wait, there are 3 different kinds of AGP slots, make sure you buy the right one for your card. http://www.hardwaresecrets.com /article/155
Take the spaces out of that link before copy and paste to browser
actually you may be able to get an identical MSI board really cheap
Did you try reformatting, reinstalling XP w/ no SP3 updates? It might work that way. Try once more without the SP3 updates.
http://www.compuvest.com
compuvest has a whole bunch of P4 AGP boards, you could probably get a really good deal on an obsolete board.
Call them Monday, their technical advisers will help you find the best P4 AGP board for a good deal. They are very nice people, and knowledgeable.
I hope you get it straightened out.
 

jpd101

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May 23, 2010
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guess what computer im on now i finally decided to swap hard drives to my other computer partitioned formatted and reistalled there then back.
now im back to square 1 just have the utility and video drivers can i at least install the sp2 updates this is what i plan to install

Windows Media Player 11
Internet Explorer 7
Microsoft Office 2007
Adobe Reader 9
Divx
Xvid
Java
spybot search destroy
ESET Nod32 Antivirus 4
 
I think you should forget about running spybot search and destroy, ESET Nod 32 Antivirus 4, and run Norton 360 or Panda internet security instead. The protection will be a much higher level, which you need.
Don't run more than 1 security application, they conflict with each other.
Buy Norton or Panda on Amazon it will cost you about $30, and it's going to be worth it. Keep it updated.
Be sure to turn off the MS automatic updates or it will automatically load SP3.
Download Microsoft Power Toys Tweek IU to stop the messages from popping up. The messages say that your automatic updates are turned off.
Once you have nortin or Panda security, you will not need the MS security updates, and you can leave the updates shut off permanently. The updates will probably cause problems with your system and you should leave them shut off.