Computer ****ing me up the wall.

[Rostum]

My computer keeps coming across so many damn problems, it's starting to get annoying. >.<;

This time, my monitor started turning on and off repeatably, until it somehow fixed itself so that it's working properly now. Then my computer keeps booting up and asking me to select the safe modes, last configuration or normal startup.

Whenever I select any of these it goes to the Windows Logo booting screen, and just stalls.

Now I can be pretty handy with computers and I keep mine up to date and clean/organised as possible. So I can't really put my finger on why it keeps doing this.

I could format, but I really don't want to be doing that. I have a lot of stuff I haven't backed up yet. =\

[o_O]

Can you boot into safe mode?

Hit F8 (usually) while your computer is booting, and select safe mode.
Alternatively, try finding a setting in your BIOS to enable the boot menu.

[Rostum]

Yeah, it comes up with a choice of Safe Mode, Safe Mode Networking, Safe Mode with Command Prompt, Last working configuration and Normal Windows.

I've tried to select all, and they all either stall at the Windows Logo screen or stall at a black screen. =(

Edit: Now when I choose just Safe Mode, it goes through a list and stalls at ...DRIVERS/APG440.sys.

[Dr Unne]

I think you meant AGP440.sys. Google for that, you'll get plenty of results. None helpful. I've had XP die on me before and stall in the same place, a good many years ago when I still used Windows. I ended up formatting / reinstalling. It tends to be your only sound option. Boot from a Linux CD (http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html ), back up your important stuff from there, and reinstall Windows. It's not worth the time to do anything else. Windows isn't meant to be understood.

[Rostum]

Thanks Unne, I was really hoping it wouldn't come to that. ,_,

I have around 15GB's of songs ripped and downloaded, not to mention all the soundbanks I have (around 30GB's). Oh and I don't have a DVD burner. ; ;

Yes Windows sucks like that, but I hate trying new things. ;)

[o_O]

Do you have a second hard drive? One of those makes formatting a lot less painful. :p
You can also get a DVD burner for about $NZ35 now, so they're quite cheap.
Also, have a look at <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324764">this</a>, it might help.

Having said that, though, I would go with Dr Unne's method anyway, because Windows is crap. :p

[Rostum]

Just wondering, will repairing it work on an upgrade Windows XP cd? Because I sort of have an old version of Win2k that I upgraded to XP (seemed like a nice cheap option).

Alright I'm trying to get into the Bios so I can boot the CD, but when I press F1 key at startup (which is what documentation says to press), the monitor doesn't even switch on. =\

[ValiantKnight]

Repairing may work.
If its a 2k that was upgraded to WinXP... well nothing may work....

Upgrades tend to be a problem for everyone that I've encountered....
Trying to reinstall or repair things, or simply upgrade service packs usually give some sort of problems.

Repair
Reinstall Windows over current windows
Reinstall in a different partition/folder
Format/Reinstall

In that order if you'd like to try.... but back up things first.
I've found some versions of XP/2k didnt have repair options though.

At the moment, must have sleep though... if need more help I can round up some clearer instructions on how to do each. As Unne suggested, reinstalling(and/or) reformating windows is usually the QUICKEST and cheapest by far unfortunately.... Truely... Windows not meant to be understood... unlimited software compatibility = ultimate software failure....

Getting into CMOS settings via F1 is the standard, I've seen it vary on some proprietary systems though.... monitor doesn't come on at all?

[Rostum]

Well after a lot of fiddeling around I got it to boot the CD. It loads a bunch of stuff (or checks, whatever), and then it says "Starting up Windows" and won't let me press R to repair or anything. =\

Edit: ARGH THIS IS FUSTRATING. I get into this System Recovery and it tells me I need a floppy disc. WTH use is the damn cd then?

[Samuraid]

Run chkdsk on your HDD as it may be caused by a few corrupted sectors on the HDD. After that, if it still doesn't work, you should use the repair option off the Windows XP disc to restore all your operating system files.

There should be a "press any key to enter setup..." prompt right when boot sequence starts on the CD.

[Rostum]

How do I run chkdsk, and when I try booting up the CD it doesn't give me any options and just goes ahead and loads things.

I even tried formating, but it does the same thing, just freezes when it says "Loading Windows XP".

[Samuraid]

Hmm...I don't think I've worked with an upgrade CD before. I assumed it would be the same as an OEM CD or a full install CD.

[Rostum]

But even with a full install CD for Win2k (which looks like it loads exactly like the WinXP one), it stalls at the same point when it tries to "Load Windows".

[ValiantKnight]

Chkdisk may be the thing to run.
You can do this from a floppy. Was the drive NTFS formatted or FAT formatted? FAT is much easier to access. If it was NTFS, look for a program called NTFS4DOS or ntfsinst.exe
Datapol makes it, but their main site has a broken link to the download.
Long time ago, I used this to run chkdisk on a friend's Windows XP Dell computer that was freezing during bootup even during safe mode.

Basically to my knowledge, freezes during bootup even safe mode.. only mean that files are missing or inaccessible... which are remedied by reinstalls and chkdisks.

And yea, I think its chkdsk, but it means check disk

If its FAT formatted, then we can just use a windows 98 boot floppy and owrk from there.

[Rostum]

Well, I see one thing wrong with it. Unless I can run Chkdisk from a CD on my PC instead of Floppy, I am screwed.

I'm currently accessing the internet through my dad's iMac, which has no floppy drive. ; ;

[JKTrix]

I've had a problem similar to this a few times on the same machine, and i found a different (and slightly convoluted) way to work around it.

Equipment:
-2 PCs (the messed up one and a working one) with the same basic OS, having the same updates on both PCs is a plus.
-1 external USB hard drive case to match the type of HD it is

I happen to have these lying around my house, but I'm a special case.

Method:
-Take the HD out of the messed up PC, stick it in the HD case, plug it into working computer.

-On the working computer, navigate to the path where that particular '.sys' file is.

-On the messed up HD, navigate to that same folder.

-From here, you copy the .sys files from the working one to the not-working one, replacing them. You might want to backup the .sys files in there first, just in case. You can either copy the one .sys file it stops on, or copy the entire set of files just in case it hangs on another one. I personally copied all of them.

-Stick the HD back into the gutless PC, turn it on, it should run fine.

If you have to do any more updates, do so. I did this when my Alienware conked out on me after I was tinkering with it. I had XP Pro SP2 + extra stuff. I was able to restore it using my mom's IBM with XP Home with no Service Packs at all. I had to Reinstall SP2, but that was all.

I hope it's not too late and that you haven't erased everything yet. I don't think harddrive cases should be too expensive, or hard to find.

[Endless]

But even with a full install CD for Win2k (which looks like it loads exactly like the WinXP one), it stalls at the same point when it tries to "Load Windows".

Are you sure it actually boots from the CD? It's been a long time, but I don't remember my XP install disc saying "Loading Windows". It should say "press any key to boot from the CD-ROM", then go to a blue screen.

[Tifa's Real Lover(really]

You can also get a DVD burner for about $NZ35 now, so they're quite cheap.


woa, hook me up

[Rostum]

Trix, I wish I could do that, but I only have one PC and one Mac. =( I don't have anyone to help me up here since I only just moved up to this state. But if Chkdisk doesn't work then I might try finding a computer repairs place somehow.



But even with a full install CD for Win2k (which looks like it loads exactly like the WinXP one), it stalls at the same point when it tries to "Load Windows".

Are you sure it actually boots from the CD? It's been a long time, but I don't remember my XP install disc saying "Loading Windows". It should say "press any key to boot from the CD-ROM", then go to a blue screen.

Oh, it does boot from the CD and it loads all the setup files in the blue screen. Then it says it's loading windows (I'm assuming to install it, not load into the actual OS).

So how do I run this Chkdisk? I can't even find a download for it. =\

[o_O]

I think your best option is to download and burn a Knoppix CD (or any other live CD you want) and backup/format/reinstall from there.

Here's exactly what I'd do:

Download/burn Knoppix ISO
Put Mac hard drive in PC
Boot into Knoppix
Mount bad drive in Knoppix
Copy needed stuff over to Mac
Fire up QTParted, or cfdisk/fdisk if you're comfortable
Format bad drive
Reinstall Windows


This is assuming you have enough space on your Mac drive to back up your important stuff.
If not, simply resize your Windows partition as small as possible, create a new one and put your backed up stuff there and format the first partition. Note that it needs to remain the first partition because Windows doesn't like to be on anything else.

[Rostum]

Thanks face, that sounds like a feasible option. I probably can't use the Mac HDD, but partioning the PC's HDD sounds alright.

The only problem I can see is that because of the corrupt .sys file, I can't even format. It even hangs just before it gives me the options to format. ; ; It seems like it hangs just before the repair and format options. ><;

[ValiantKnight]

Unless the CD is scratched/messed up... booting "from" a CD should not care about any files on the hard drive, only whether it has errors/bad sectors/etc on it.

You should be able to format a corrupted windows partition on a drive, as long as there is no "physical/logical" erm... its hard to describe, but basically unless theres errors that chkdsk can fix, it should let you format it.

Nero and some other CD-rom burning utilities allow you to make "boot" CDs, which will work for this I believe, I have only made one before, and it was a while ago. You would need access to a computer with a floppy, CD burner, and some CD burning software, as well as NTFS4DOS.

I'm still not sure if the partition is FAT or NTFS, but being 2000, I am assuming NTFS.

You would download/run NTFS4DOS and let it make a NTFS4DOS floppy, then ... well it differs for each CD burning software, but there is typically an option in the Boot CD section to point to what you want to use as the "boot image". And you'd point to youre a: drive.. and you could put some other stuff on the CD if you like or just burn the floppy to it.

Then boot from the CD on the malfunctioning computer and let it run its thing and follow the prompts.

That's just my only idea if it's freezing during formatting or reinstall attempting and safe mode as well.. that the actual drive has disk errors like bad sectors in the operating system area of the partition.

[Rostum]

Hmm, I'm not quite sure if I understand that. Doesn't the upgrade to Windows XP turn the drive format to FAT? Also, I don't have access to a floppy disk drive. =(

And I'm pretty sure my CD's aren't scratched, they look clean to me. Both Win2k and WinXP stall at the same place. I've formated my computer a lot in the past with the Win2k floppy boot discs and CD, and have never had these troubles.

[o_O]

I've had a bit of a search for the same problem, and as Unne said, there aren't any helpful hits. The reason for that is that there seem to be 150 different fixes that may but probably won't work.
One person seems to think flashing his BIOS fixed it, while reinstalling video drivers worked for someone else, etc.

A simple thing you could try would be to browse the XP CD on your Mac, try to find the AGP440.sys file, boot into Knoppix from the live CD and copy the file over using a flash drive or something similar, though that actually probably requires some form of decompression utility to extract the file.

You could even try stealing the file from a library (or other publicly accessible) computer! :p


Hmm, I'm not quite sure if I understand that. Doesn't the upgrade to Windows XP turn the drive format to FAT?

The upgrade likely would have formatted the drive as NTFS, rather than FAT32. FAT32 was used by Windows 98, mainly.

From a Knoppix CD, mount the drive and then run "fsck" from the command line; that will check the filesystem for errors.

[Endless]

Thanks face, that sounds like a feasible option. I probably can't use the Mac HDD, but partioning the PC's HDD sounds alright.

The only problem I can see is that because of the corrupt .sys file, I can't even format. It even hangs just before it gives me the options to format. ; ; It seems like it hangs just before the repair and format options. ><;

Wait, when you load the XP/2k install CD, it hangs at the same .sys file?

[Samuraid]

I don't think it hangs on that specific file per se. AGP440.sys is the last sys file in a long batch of them to load. It may be loading correctly, and Windows is hanging on something else after the sys files load.

[ValiantKnight]

I was just merely saying that the "CD" should be able to format/reinstall on any drive, regardless of corruption unless to my knowledge.... there's
A. different unknown data format on the drive.
B. errors on the drive that chkdsk can fix.

If its not NTFS, but FAT instead, then you would merely need a windows 98 bootup disk I would think, anything that can boot the system that has chkdsk on it. Substitute the Win98 bootup disk instead of the NTFS4DOS bootup disk, and you may need to manually put chkdsk on the win98 disk(it's chkdsk.exe and its in the c:\windows\system32 folder by default). Windows XP full version CDs have chkdsk on them and a recovery console, but its a little work to get to, and you have to know the administrator password. Typically these days if you bought your system from Dell, or another mass producer, you never know the administrator password, as they create a second account called owner...

I'm a little sketchy but I think to get to recovery console, you'd boot up from Windows CD, try to repair, and it should give option of recovery console or automatic repair?..

Console brings you to a DOS-type prompt, and you can run chkdsk from there I think, but am not sure.

I merely suggesting chkdsk because you say it freezes during formatting, which sounds like bad sectors/etc.... otherwise go with some of the other suggestions.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058

[Endless]

I don't think it hangs on that specific file per se. AGP440.sys is the last sys file in a long batch of them to load. It may be loading correctly, and Windows is hanging on something else after the sys files load.

If the 2k/XP install CD is hanging too, it's not a problem with his Windows install, it's the hardware.

[Rye]

Gosh, I just had the same problem with my laptop! Not letting me reformat (just giving the options), giving me options to do Safe Mode, Normal, and that last configuration, but not letting me go past that, etc. I brought it into the place I bought it, Best Buy, because I have a 3 year warranty there, and they thought it was the hard drive, but it turned out to be the RAM. I have a Gateway and they told me recently made Gateways (I bought my laptop 5 months ago) for some reason have faulty RAM. Now I have to wait another week or two for my laptop to get back from Gateway. ;__;

I don't know how to fix computers, not computer saavy, but that might be a reason, if you happen to have a new Gateway.

[Rostum]

Awww *comfort* Rye. ; ;

Yeah, I spoke to someone over the phone explaining it, they seem to think it's a hardware issue and are going to come in to check through it. I'll tell you guys how it goes from there.

I am really thankful you guys have been helping me though, even though it's all a bit sketchy in detail. I'm going to guess this was more trouble than it's worth because I have an upgrade CD and not a full version.

So yeah, I'll let you know how it goes.

[Rostum]

Just so you guys know I got the problem fixed.

I ended up getting someone to back up my HDD onto a new 250GB HDD, and he said he changed a few things in BIOS. Apparently my wacom tablet was draining voltage from the USB at bootup, so he also disabled the USB at startup thing to overcome it.

And then cleaned up about 2-4GB worth of temp files and crap so it works a lot quicker and smoother.